Happy belated 4th of July! I love the 4th of July–nothing says celebrating your country’s independence like too much food, booze, and explosions. It’s the American Way.

All kidding aside, I really do love the 4th. My friend Rabbit holds a potluck, then we all walk down to the Berkeley Marina to watch the fireworks. This is the 2nd year in a row I’ve been, and I always remember on the walk down how horribly painful the walk back will be. I really should contemplate that sooner in the future. But I probably won’t.

For my contribution, I baked a southern coconut cake. The theme was bringing a traditional dish from your family/heritage. I was horribly tempted to really go what would be traditional for my family and do the cheating version, made with boxed cake mix and cool whip. But I just couldn’t bring myself to do it, so I used this recipe from Tender Crumb.

It turned out really well. We also had real NC BBQ (pulled pork, vinegar sauce), fried pickles and potato salad. I was very, very happy. I could eat like that all the time and be perfectly content. Gives me some ideas for planning what to cook next week, that’s for sure.