Friday Night in Front Royal VA With Some Amazing Folks

The hikers.

Sean Gobin, founder of Warrior Hike on the left in the black tee.
Boston Maggie on the far left.


      

A common sight for anyone familiar with what we do.

                         
Thats just a jar of water with peaches floating in it. Really. No, seriously, its just peaches and water.
Thats Kevin, former Marine, a member of the KCBS (Kansas City BBQ Society) and the future manager of Cooking with the Troops' Midwest Chapter.
We're already scheming, and he invited me to come out and join the competition BBQ event he has won several times. I guess I'm gonna haftago.

 

All images courtesy of Harrison Martin.

NASDAQ and CWTT

I gotta give props to RedHotDish, Fishmugger, and Chad for pulling this one off in spite of the conditions in NYC.

GREAT JOB everyone!!!!

 

Cooking with the Troops On the Ground

We're out here on a glorious Southern day raising funds to help with the 9-11Day luncheon at Ft Belvoir on Tuesday. If you aint doing nothing, come on out. Got plenty of sauce and sunshine.

Corner of Azelea Ave and Richmond Henrico Turnpike, (Meadowbridge Rd & Carolina Ave.)

Susan Katz Keating: Happy Birthday to Blake Powers, Whose Mission is His Calling

Susan Katz Keating: Happy Birthday to Blake Powers, Whose Mission is His Calling:

My partner, my Bud, a great person, a good man, a top hand.

Happy Birthday Bro. Hope you have many many many more.

Fundraiser Update For Welcome Home Parade

In a previous post I mistakenly said there would be a fundraiser at Mulligans in the Fan on the 8th of May. I was wrong. There will not be a fundraiser at Mulligans on the 8th of May there was a fundraiser at Mulligans this past Tuesday, the 1st. My bad. Thank you Mulligan's in the Fan for supporting our veterans and local events.

There will be a fundraiser at O'Tooles on the 15th of May. It's still a good excuse to drink beer, eat food, socialize and support a local event which has international implications.

If the management at O'Tooles has no objections, I will have a few jars of my BBQ Sauce on hand and if one of those jars leaves with you because of your kindness, generosity and amazing good looks, well, thats just karma.

"For the Troops? What Do You Need?"

CUBA LIBRE'

Babalu called me Friday coming home from work. Says he was finally able to finish the blogpost about BAMC and wanted to let me know it was up. I had heard a lot of what he relates during the 3 days we were in San Antonio. I have one of those coins, too.

As he says in his prologue, there is a recurring theme; but there is more than one theme. These folks are American by choice, but they are Cubans first, and they get it. We should all be Cuban.

Warning: Its only fair I should tell you; Get a box of Kleenex.

An Island On The Internet Without A Bearded Dictator

Recap From LW on Blackfive

Everything you need to know about this past weekend at the Warrior Family Support Center in San Antonio is contained in this link.

Enjoy.

Pig Roasting Cuban Style

Regarding Cuban Pigs (Bay of and Very Tasty)

We are back from Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and all I can say is: WOW!!!!

Everything that transpired this past weekend was made possible by a grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation and the sacrifices of some very fine Americans. I cannot thank these people enough for the opportunity they created with their generous assistance.

There are so many people to thank, I don't really know who to start with.

I could list them in order of ridiculous distances traveled by a Cuban blogger to cook Cuban style pig for Wounded Warriors. If I wanted to maintain the level of debauchery my friends have come to expect, I'd list them in order of the cutest and funniest members of a Cuban-American family or I could start with the drop dead gorgeous red-headed chef section.

Lets go with distance traveled:
Bablu is no stranger to the blogging community or the Cuban DGI for that matter. He can also cook a pig and beans like nobody's business. We had this instantaneous bonding moment when he realized we had both the same color Bic lighter and a more than passing acquaintance with construction techniques and inspection procedures. Oh, and the dude is a Cuban Uncle Jimbo. (Think about THAT for a minute) All I can say is: this American is honored to be a friend of this man.

Babalu, Thank You Brother. Sorry I made you cry when I handed you that Challenge Coin. You made me cry when you thanked me for letting you come up and cook. (Uh huh I LET him)

Red Hot Dish and Heather from Home-Ec101 bring up the drop-dead gorgeous red-headed chef side. These two Ladies have to be experienced to be appreciated and believed. Ellen is a Chef of the first order and a retired Air Force Major to boot. She did TWO events this weekend, supper Friday night and a cooking class at Fisher House on Saturday. (I have a side story to the Fisher House event, involving a Dodge RAM, 4 Marines, two laptops and karma).

Back to the redheaded red-hot dishes. Heather runs a really cool website. Just go check it out. This was my first time working with Heather and all I can say is I would have paid double to be there. Thank you, young Lady. Your presence and contribution to this event was most appreciated and your attitude and personality are infectious.

I had the honor of having Ellen from Redhot Dish (and her husband) working at our last Walter Reed event and it was no different this time, except it was hot as hell and her husband had to work and couldn't go. Our loss but no damage. Ellen did her usual excellent work. Damn that girl can cook.

There are a few more people to thank, mention and poke a little...("LUUUUUUUCYYYYY Joo got some splainin to do!!!!!") but I need sleep and Monday is a terrible way to start the week.

I'll continue this tomorrow and you'll meet two Cuban-American families who gave up a big slice of their weekend to help us feed some Wounded Warriors. AWESOME!!!!!!!

Time To Lend A Hand

COOKING WITH THE TROOPS AND BUBBA BURGER JOIN FORCES TO HELP 1140WRVA RAISE MONEY FOR FISHER HOUSE

On Saturday 4 June at the Wal-mart Supercenter in Short Pump, Virginia, CWTT and Bubba Burger will team up to help WRVA reach its goal

CWTT will be cooking Bubba Burgers and burger-brawts
(I had the same reaction. I am assured they are delicious)

The food is free but we will be accepting donations and selling cooking with the troops’ homemade BBQ sauce

Half the money raised will be donated to the Fisher House

Our BBQ sauce is made right here in Virginia, has no Heinz products, and has been described as:

“Insanely delicious” Jake Brewer Sunlight Foundation

“The best BBQ sauce evah!!!!” The Sniper thesniper.us

“A healing elixir of goodness and joy” Chris Cook Modern Conservative

Burgers and brawts are limited to quantities donated so get there early to enjoy some fine free food and help a good cause

A Blog You Should Watch

I had a surprise visit from my bud, P Henry Saddleburr, on Saturday. He took time out from his life to drive up to the Milblog Conference to help Cooking with the Troops. He has a few words about his visit over at Disrupt the Narrative. Go check it out.

Please Vote For CwtT

Cooking with the Troops is up for charity of the month at Think Geek.

Please go vote for us, and ask/beg/whine/cajole/whatever everyone you know or meet to please do the same. This would be a huge help for us as we try to do even more this year than we did in our first (three-quarters) year. Please vote, and please help spread the word. Thank you! LW

GoE and Warrior Legacy Back At Walter Reed

Thanks to a very generous and thoughtful donation from the Band of Mothers, Gathering of Eagles was able to present a brand new laptop to a Staff Sergeant with 9 (NINE!!) deployments under his helmet. Dedicated Warriors such as this Staff Sergeant are the reason we sleep soundly and can freely express our opinions, no matter how distasteful some of those opinions may be; we need to give them all the support we can muster.

Thanks especially to the GoE Tidewater volunteer for getting the logistics worked out with Best Buy Business and thanks to Best Buy Business for being so damn nice. It was a Charlie Foxtrot for about an hour, but it got solved and the folks at Best Buy Broad Street helped enormously.

We took care of an 82NDABN Trooper with a nice new Toshiba and Dragonspeak.

Thanks to James Hanson, Communications Director for Warrior Legacy Foundation for donating his time this morning. Thanks to Cooking with the Troops CEO Blake Powers for making the trip under extreme weather conditions. (CwtT will have a huge announcement pertaining to our National Advisory Board soon. Stay tuned.)

A couple of SNCO's at WRAMC were instrumental in getting us in and out and for that, we are eternally grateful. HOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to my BFF SKK and Mini-SKK for being so damn hot. (You really didn't think I could do a post and not mention the hot women, did you?)

Bob Woodruff Foundation Steps Up

Bob Woodruff Foundation Grant to Fund Homefront Support Program Development

A $62,732 grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation will be funding the development of the Homefront Support Program at Cooking with the Troops. In addition to development, the grant covers two special events focused on the wounded and some support for Operation Fight Post Holiday Blues.

The Bob Woodruff Foundation provides resources and support to injured service members, veterans, and their families so they can have successful futures. They do this by investing in national and community-based programs that connect troops to the help then need, so that both physical injuries and the hidden injuries of war are healed.

"We founded Cooking with the Troops so that we could do more than just food events," says Bob Miller, President of Cooking with the Troops. "With the economy in the shape it is in, we estimated that it would take years to get the new programs off the ground. With this grant, we are not only able to get this major part of our operations in place, but be able to use it to begin helping our troops and their families in months instead of years."

"We are thrilled with the concept and mission of Cooking with the Troops. Food is social; cooking is therapeutic and unites individuals. This is a wonderful opportunity to bolster camaraderie; expose wounded warriors to careers in the culinary arts and management, while simultaneously adding nutrition and affordable meal instruction to the lives of injured troops and their families,” said René Bardorf, Executive Director, Bob Woodruff Foundation.

The grant provides money to cover the development costs of the program, as well as a prototype event and a follow-on event that will incorporate the lessons learned from the first event. The events are not only intended to provide instruction in nutrition, cooking, and food safety, but will also expose the participants to the range of careers available in the culinary arts and management. In addition, the grant provides funds towards Cooking with the Troops' Operation Fight Post Holiday Blues in January. Among other things, the grant money fully funds the ingredients budget for a special meal for the wounded, family, and caregivers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. As part of the grant, Cooking with the Troops is covering all administrative and related costs associated with the grant and the development process.

"The importance of this grant cannot be overstated," states C. Blake Powers, CEO of Cooking with the Troops. "Starting any new major program requires large amounts of time, money, and other resources and as a new charity those resources are extremely hard to come by. This grant not only gives us those resources, but it opens the doors to other partners to help us expand this program, develop our culinary career transition and frontline support programs, and expand our educational and assistance efforts."

Cooking with the Troops is a 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to supporting U.S. and Allied Troops, their families, and caregivers through special food events, culinary careers, front line support, and homefront support. For more information, please contact:

Susan Katz Keating

Director of Communications

skeating@cwtt.org


LINKS:

http://remind.org

http://cwtt.org

http://cwtt.org/opfphblues.html

Daggone It They Let Him Back In the Country

LW and company made it back from Landstuhl Regional safely.

Good job everyone. Now its on to San Antonio.

From Our CEO Posted at Blackfive.

Yes, our CEO is Laughing Wolf of Blackfive.

End of Year Giving

Posted: 27 Dec 2010 03:23 AM PST

This week will be one of the busiest of the year for charitable donations. Individuals and companies wanting or needing a break on taxes will be looking to donate to charities both to do some good and to get that tax break. Companies and organizations that do matching donations make it an even better week for charities.

To that end, I would like you to consider donating to some worthy causes. Check with your employer to see if they will match.

First, I hope you will consider a donation to Cooking with the Troops. We have some news coming out later this week, but one thing I can tell you is that due to a very generous donation, the food for Operation FPH Blues is now fully covered. That said, we are still a long way from our goal of $15,000 and can use your help. Remember that anything not used on the trip will be split between Cooking with the Troops and Pin-Ups for Vets. And, to be very honest, we could use some money just for us to cover some of the remaining start-up expenses and begin gearing up for next year's work.

Read the rest after the jump and make sure you see this post about a former Marine who Stands for the Fallen.

Cooking with the Troops at NASDAQ

Cooking with the Troops and NASDAQ

Tuesday NASDAQ Opening Bell

Were it not for the neccessity of working I would be there, hammer (and The Hammer) in hand. But someone has to help fund this operation. Besides, I'd much rather watch The Hammer swing the hammer, than watch me swing the hammer. (Although, I would swing The Hammer anytime she asked.)

NEWS FLASH

Cooking with the Troops will be ringing the opening bell at NASDAQ on Tuesday 23 November! More info soon

Thank You Washington Times and Gina Elise

POWERS: Keep troops in mind year round
The holidays are nice, but the new year could be bleak

The election is over, and even as politicians and pundits prepare for the battle ahead, two small organizations are already gearing up for a January fight. While the political fights ahead have the potential to influence millions in future generations, this fight will impact hundreds, though in a more profound way.

The field is being set between now and January. While politics will continue, many will set aside partisanship for the holidays. One area that will see this more than any other is service to our wounded troops. Between Thanksgiving and New Year's, they will receive a torrent of celebrity visits, holiday parties, special events and more. It can be overwhelming, but it shows the care and compassion that is America.

However, on Jan. 2, that torrent abruptly cuts off. As overwhelming as it may have been, the sudden silence can take ordinary post-holiday blues and make them something much worse. Gina Elise, who founded the charity Pin-Ups for Vets, decided something needed to be done. She has joined with another small charity, Cooking With the Troops, to fight those blues for the U.S. and Allied troops, families and caregivers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

More after the jump