You know, about the Christmas Spirit. The joy of the season, whatnot. I read another 533,000 people were added to the ranks of the unemployed last month. It's hard to have the Ho ho ho when you've got no job, money, prospects. So, I'd like to use this moment to give big love to MK, whose charity exceeds all known bounds of reason.
MK is a baker. A talented baker. She has a massive convection oven that can bake 5 sheets of 36 cookies at a time. She has a mix master that is so big, S could stand in the bowl. She is, in short, semi-pro.
Every year for Christmas, she purchases enough raw materials to make something like 7,000 cookies, 300 pounds of fudge and hundreds and hundreds of loaves of cakey breads. (You must try butter pecan and poppy seed). She sells these divine baked goods and gives every penny to charity. That is, she doesn't even cover her own costs. She gives the money to Share Our Strength, a non-profit organization committed to ending childhood hunger in America. You can visit that website at www.strength.org
If you would like to order goodies from MK for office parties, family, various others, please contact me and I will put you in touch with her. We are NOT talking fruitcake, people. We are talking, high quality, professionally wrapped loaves and bits of heaven. Yummy.
I have a renewed respect for what she does when I went over to her house to visit today. We couldn't take our weekly walk, because she is busy and my schedule was wonky and we always have such a nice visit. So, I helped some. I DO not in any way want to over play my assistance. I was mostly spectator and chatter, and sort of helper. But she made a batch of cookies. And by batch, I mean 36 dozen cookies. Three POUNDS of butter. Six POUNDS of flour. Two POUNDS of sugar. And except for my "help," her kitchen was immaculate. Zen-like, even. When I bake (hardly ever) or cook for a crowd, my kitchen looks like a grocery store exploded. Open cans, ingredients, recipe, scattered all over...dishes heaped in the sink...poofs of flour whitening my hair...chaos. Today, we chatted while her candy thermometer inched up on the 6 pounds of fudge she had boiling away. I glazed poppy seed cakes, cut butter, washed tins, and mostly just watched in awe as this tiny woman (she's tall, but a whisp) wrestled the biggest mix master I've ever seen into yielding toffee yumminess.
So, props to MK today. I've seen what she does, and I am stunned. I've tasted what she does, and I am happy. And, she gives it all away to hungry kids.
What did you do today?
Wow, my hats off to her. I am not a baker, cannot cook, and barely cook meals for my own kids. And by cook, I mean re-heat or warm. So just the fact that she can and wants to cook that amount of yummies is fantastic. And to give her proceed to charity, wow, that's awesome. The best I do is handing out cash here and there to whomever grabs my attention at a stop light. I figure, maybe it will buy them a lunch. Either way, it's about helping out, any way you can, right?
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