Menu for Hope IV

For the fourth year running Pim Techamuanvivit of Chez Pim is organizing the food bloggers to raise money for a worthy cause. Menu for Hope raised US$62,925.12 to help the UN World Food Programme feed the hungry in 2006. This year Menu for Hope is working in conjunction again with the UN World Food Programme to support the school lunch program in Lesotho, Africa.

This program was selected because providing food for the children not only keeps them alive but it also keeps them in school, learning skills to feed themselves in the future. It's also a model program in local procurement - buying food locally to support local farmers and the local economy. Instead of shipping surplus corn across the ocean, the WFP is buying directly from local subsistent farmers who practice conservation farming methods in Lesotho to feed the children there.

Full detail is available on Chez Pim.



Here's How to Participate in A Menu for Hope

1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from the Menu for Hope at Chez Pim.

2. Go to the donation site at Firstgiving and make a donation.

3. Please specify which prize you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form. You must write in how many tickets per prize, and use the prize code. (Each $10 you donate will buy one raffle ticket toward any prize. For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02. Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02.)

4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so they could claim the corporate match.

5. Please check the box to allow them to see your email address so that they can contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone. Check back on Chez Pim on Wednesday Jaunary 9 for the results of the raffle.

She Said Yes!

I proposed to Lorrie this weekend and she said yes!

Her birthday was on Friday and for it I gave her this scrapbook page with the proposal. I put it inside a frame so one, she really had to guess what her birthday gift was and two, she could then display it. The background is a page that contains various love quotes and the flowers are ribbon roses.


I had here open the card first and there was a little 'Yes' sticker glued inside. She asked why it was there and I just told her it was part of her gift.


The idea was she could give her answer by placing the sticker on the page.


I did not provide a 'No' sticker and we didn't need it.


We're engaged!

So I've been busy...

The end of the quarter is always a busy time for me at work. Our bonuses are based on what we did in a quarter so there is a lot of people working late trying to get credit for as much as possible. Including me.

We had Lorrie's mom here for awhile and my parents stopped down too. I haven't had a ton of time to bake but I tried a couple recipes. No pictures, they were test batches. The first was the Ice Box Crunch recipe of my grandmother's. I made two types: fig and cherry. OK, I have to admit, other than fig Newtons, I don't think I've had figs before. Actually, I don't think I've even seen figs before. I was walking through a local Polish market and they had figs so I picked some up to try. Not bad. I understand the grit in Fig Newtons now: seeds. The cherries were some organic sweet cherries from Target. The fillings were basically the fruit with some sugar, heated to create a bit of syrup. I did use an immersion blender on the figs but I left the cherries like they were. I like how it turned out, I need to do this again. The second recipe is from my great-grandmother. It was an excellent rhubarb cake. The recipe was basically a list of ingredients, that's it. I do plan on doing this again and will go into more detail about the recipe in that post.

You may notice some changes here. First, I've added the Foodie Blog Roll. It's been a boon to this site, bringing in all kinds of people. Second, I've been kinda keeping this a 'dessert' blog but I think I'm going to include more under the 'Et Cetera' part of the blog and include the other food related things I do. Possibly, in the near future, there may be a site redesign too. Not sure about that yet.

Lastly, I glad Top Chef is back on. Shear Genius just wasn't doing it for me.

Checking in...

I'm still here, just been busy. My computer crashed last weekend and the good news/bad news is I had some data backed up, some data I was able to squeeze out of the old computer, and now I have a new computer I have to reload software/data and reconfigure to my liking.

Also Lorrie has been feeling a bit under the weather so I've been spending more time with her.

I have baked and have posts in mind and will post them when I have a chance.

Grandma

My grandmother passed away on Saturday, her 84th birthday. She finally succumbed to the complications of Alzheimer's disease. The service is Tuesday at the little country church where she taught Sunday school, sang in the choir, and worshiped for all her life. She will be laid to rest next to her husband of over 60 years, Walter, but she will also be among family and close friends who left this mortal coil before her for this country church cemetery is essentially our family's cemetery.

Driving up to Green Bay to say good-bye, I was flooded with memories. Staying over at her house and watching one of her favorite shows, Johnny Carson. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world to be able to stay up way past my bedtime. I still do. Sledding down the hill in her backyard in winter. Playing the card game Rook. Looking out the window on Christmas waiting for her and grandpa to arrive. OK, waiting for them to arrive so we could open presents but still, waiting for them to arrive. I remember being shy and embarrassed as she proudly showed off her young grandson to her friends. She was there for all of my achievements as I grew into a man. Birthdays, graduations, awards, plays, games; I can't picture one without her. She enjoyed crochet and the afghan she made me when I was young always made it onto my bed in winter and it is still one of my prized possessions, safely hidden from the two feline terrors in our house. Sunday dinners are another wonderful memory. I would give my eyesight for one more Sunday dinner of hers. Or even just one more bag of her rolls!! She was the baker in the family. I can only hope to one day bake the way she could. Sadly, Alzheimer's claimed many of her recipes before she could pass them on. Potato pancakes, bread, fudge, dressing (stuffing); all we have left are approximations and best guesses. In a lot of my writing there are references to Germany and my German cookbooks. My family's ancestry is German and my grandparents could speak it fluently. I purchased these cookbooks to help me understand the basis for her recipes so that one day I might be able to recreate some of the greatness from her kitchen. I know she would have enjoyed this site. I could go on but it's hard to see what I write through the tears.

Still, while we here all mourn her loss, I know one man who is happy. My grandfather is now reunited with the love of his life.

Grandma, I love you and I miss you.

As a tribute, I am including one of her recipes we do have, Ice Box Crunch.

4 cups flour
3 Tbls. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 pkg. dry yeast in 1/4 cup warm water
1 cup shortening
1 cup warm milk
2 eggs

Sift dry ingredients. Add shortening. Mix like pie crust. Beat eggs and mix with milk. Add yeast and pour into dry mix. Mix well. Put in refrigerator.

Roll out like pie crust. Put your favorite filling on, or cinnamon and nuts. Lap the sides together. Fold the ends up. Bake 30 to 40 minutes at 350°. This is similar to Kringle.


I hope you enjoy this recipe. If you do or if this post moved you, please donate to the fight against Alzheimer's, either now or when you have a chance. Thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm taking a little break for the next couple days while I spend Thanksgiving Day wandering around Epcot. Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

This picture was taken in 2002 by Del Merritt while on a golf trip. We were playing Peninsula State Park Golf Course when this picture was taken.

I enjoy doing this site

Coming up with ideas for posts and then actually making them is a lot of fun. They say that when you do something you love it shows. I don't know who 'they' are but the sentiment is correct. Somebody did notice. The good people over at the Well Fed Network noticed and offered me a chance to be a contributor on two of their sites: Just Baking and Sugar Savvy. The Well Fed Network is a collection of fifteen food and wine orientated sites dedicated to bringing you high quality articles and ideas you can use.

I will let the sites describe themselves:

Just Baking - Fresh from the oven, we'll be talking about cookies, cakes and breads, and we won’t stop there.

Sugar Savvy - Fabulous content on chocolate, the latest candy bars, gum flavors and much more in the world of sweets.

So come on by, check them out. I should have my first posts up in a short while. I've added links to those sites in the "Sites that inspire me" section on the right side of your screen.

About Cookies, Et Cetera

Welcome to Cookies, Et Cetera! Cooking was a big part of my life growing up in small town Wisconsin. Sunday dinners at my grandparent's, I can still taste the fresh baked rolls and kuchen. Baking fruitcakes for my church men's club yearly fundraiser with my dad. My summer jobs were all cooking related. Early morning baker, short order cook, catering assistant, anything they let me do I tried. Ultimately I chose the very different and glamorous life of a computer programmer over that of a chef but the love of cooking and baking has never waned. Baking cookies, finding a new candy recipe, or writing about my latest kitchen escapades are some of the simplest pleasures in life to me. Cookies, Et Cetera combines my loves and drives me to try new things and perfect my skills. Here I will record my culinary successes, my baking failures, and my kitchen education.