Might Mo & Soda Pop Cake Back in Missouri

Country star Sara Evans might enjoy Tennessee, but she sings about missing her mother in Missouri. In her song "Missing Missouri" off her Real Fine Place 2005 album she recalls summers of her youth, driving down backroads with her friends, through tobacco fields and bumblebees. Question of the day: Are bees addicted to tobacco, too?

I don't know Sara, otherwise I'd ask her for a favorite recipe her mom made when she was growing up. Missouri has a distinct flavor in the East with St. Louis style ribs; thin, square-cut pizza; breaded, beef-filled ravioli (not cheese) and gooey butter cake. On the Western side of the state, it's KC Strip Steaks (McConigle's ships), barbecue and povitica bread to name a few. But it's good to remember that Missouri is basically a southern state, and that's reflected in the cooks and their versatility.

Here's what my friend Vana Sweetland recalls about growing up in the middle of Missouri:

"I certainly have some fond memories of my Mother and both my Grandmother’s cooking but frankly, none of them use recipes," Vana says. "I think as 'country girls' it’s just something they grew up with and learned how to do. 

"Basically, I was raised on soul food. My Mother could probably be a chef at 'Papa Lou’s.' Mom and both my Grannies canned, know how to cook wild game and every vegetable imaginable, and they all share Emeril’s love of using lard. My Mother has lard at home in her refrigerator right now. My Granny Meador even made her own butter, butter milk, cottage cheese and milked the cow to get the milk to do it with."

Ah, mentioning Emeril brings back memories. Vana and I stood in line for an hour waiting to have Emeril sign his "Every Day's a Party" cookbook more than a decade ago. Vana stood longer in line and was nice enough to save me a space in line because I got lost driving around trying to find the mall. The cookbook's inscription has "Bam" and Emeril's script in it and that brings up a quick story before I get back to the state at hand -- Missouri!

Joe and I were dining at Emeril's restaurant near Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, and it was at the end of a very delicious and promptly served meal. The waiter is bringing out dessert and I ask him about Emeril in the kitchen when he's there at the restaurant.

"Does he say 'Bam' when he's kicking it up a notch?" I ask. The waiter arches his eyebrows every so slightly (as if I've just asked for store-bought ice cream) and says: "That's just TV shtick." So there, now I know better than to ask about famous chefs in the kitchen.

View of the Mighty Mississippi, from the Arch

Close family friend Mechelle Voepel is a big Cards fan and one of the preeminent women's sportswriters in the country. Mechelle shares her recipe for a fun dessert made with soda/pop/cola. (Did you know that 7-up was created in Missouri?) This cake reminds me of a multi-colored birthday cake a friend's mother once served when I was in grade school.

A Western view from the Arch. Can you spot Cardinals Stadium?

Mechelle says: "When I was growing up just north of St. Louis, this is a dessert that my mom made during the summer. (If you're interested, I also have a recipe for something else my parents made ... lye soap! Not to eat, of course.)

We used Fitz's Strawberry Pop, bottled in St. Louis

Mechelle Voepel's Soda Pop Cake
One yellow cake mix
2 small boxes of strawberry Jello
1 bottle of strawberry soda
(You can vary flavors of Jello/soda. We used one strawberry and one mixed berry)

Mix cake according to box and bake in a 9" x 13" pan. While it's cooking, mix Jello, making it with the strawberry soda, not water.

The mixed berry Jello hits the strawberry Jello and soda in a cool fizzy effect

Put in refrigerator until partially set. Let cake cool for 15 minutes ...

... then put holes in cake with a fork and pour Jello mix on cake

Put in refrigerator until Jello sets, about three hours. (It kind of looks like the Missouri Delta — or the Gulf of Mexico — right now, but trust us, it tastes better than it looks!)

Topping:
One small package of Instant Jello Vanilla pudding mix
1 and 1/2 cups milk
1 small tub of Cool Whip

Mix pudding with milk, then add in Cool Whip. Put topping on cake and refrigerate.

It is indeed a great summer treat, no matter which side of the Mississippi you reside.

Remember, we're still searching for NOODLE recipes! Got one to put in comments for a chance to win the enjoyable "Swimming in Noodles" CD?

Meet Me in MissourAH!

Welcome to Missouri Week, our second state on our virtual road trip. We've got various avenues of exploration for this state such as Tom Sawyer and the Arch in Saint Louis and Kansas City barbecue (the best in the nation, by the way). But let's start our family exploration a bit further back... Back to 1904 when Saint Louis hosted the World's Fair and the Summer Olympic Games at the same time.

Check out the 1904 World's Fair Society's site that gives lots of great info, including the origins of the saying "Coming down the Pike" -- referring to the entertainment avenue at the fair. See HERE FOR PIKE INFO. But for our family menu planning and learning about the state, we need not look further than the foods that -- if not created at the fair -- were touted and introduced to a wider audience at the world's fair.

Seems the ice cream cone was invented at the fair, according to this web site. (There's part of dessert for our Missouri meal!)

Popular drinks at the fair were iced tea and a newer soda called Dr. Pepper. Waco, Texas, is the actual birthplace of the carbonated drink.


So if you were one of the 20 million at the fair, you could get a quick meal like a"dachshund sausage" on a bun that somewhere along the way turned into the "hot dog." The fair seems to be the first time these links were served with French's Cream Salad Mustard. The 1904 World's Fair Society web site also debunks the hamburger discovery at their fair, tracing that food creation to 1885 in Hamburg, New York. Though the society's research shows a Texan by the name of Fletch Davis set up a concession stand at the Pike selling a ground beef patty between two slices of homemade toast and stuffed with a raw onion slice. And the Tyrolean Alps Restaurant there also offered a Hamburger Steak, Plain or a Hamburger Steak, with Onions, according to the Fair Society.

And for a sweet treat, the fairly new glossy and sugary spun sugar treat called Fairy Floss (what we now called cotton candy) was sold for a quarter a box.

And check this link for adult and children's books based at St. Louis' Louisiana Purchase International Exposition and other World's Fairs at librarybooklists.org including an American Girl historical mystery called "The Minstrel's Melody" and the classic film "Meet Me in St. Louis."

I see a Judy Garland theme emerging in the heartland. What I really want to do is stroll down a midway with a hot dog and an ice cream cone... Okay, Missourians, what recipes and stories can you share?