Can you spare some thoughts and prayers?

Another blogger and crafter and her family that I know from the Etsy community is desperately in need of positive thoughts and prayers at this time.

Cindy Boardman of Charlotte, NC, and her family suffered a massive 2-alarm fire early on February 3. Their 11-year-old son died of injuries after being flown to a trauma center in Columbia. They also lost 10 family pets. (The barking of 4 dogs led firemen to their son who had collapsed in a hallway.) In addition to these devastating losses, they also lost EVERYTHING in their home. Cindy and Bob and their older son, Tim, were able to escape the fire but were unable to get to Kevin. They all also required treatment immediately following the blaze. I can't begin to comprehend how one can cope after such an experience. (This came on top of the death of Cindy's mom in December.) They have located temporary housing.

They have no local family there but her husband's employer has jumped in to help by setting up a fund which is accepting donations for the family. They will also forward cards and other expressions of personal condolences. Her Etsy family has also created an online method to make donations through Paypal and are undertaking other efforts to show support. For more detailed information as to how you can help in any of these efforts, click here.

You may be familiar with Cindy's work. She has created beautiful jewelry for over 25 years and maintains an Etsy shop, Designed by Lucinda. She has also blogged for quite some time although she has not posted since late December when she posted this poem following her mother's death.

* * * * * * *
The elephant sits on my chest
and I tell myself
"Just breathe,
just breathe.
Get through the moment,
get through this minute,
just breathe."
And the pressure diminishes
but it never ceases.

Just breathe, just breathe.

* * * * * * *

I can't begin to fathom how to go about breathing and moving on after all such a crisis.

Please send thoughts, prayers and huge cyber hugs of support to Cindy and Bob to help them get through this. I'm sure they need every ounce of support we can forward their way.

Fun Eats in Ohio

As we are both Certified BBQ Judges with the Kansas City BBQ Society, we hate to miss an opportunity to check out interesting BBQ restaurants. So we were eager to try Jed's BBQ & Brew located directly across the street from our motel in Maumee, Ohio (just outside of Toledo) last week.

The parking lot was practically overflowing so The Big Guy had me jump out to check on how long a wait we'd have. Turns out the joint is much larger inside than it looks so I was seated immediately. While waiting for him to find somewhere to park, I began skimming the menu. Surprisingly, the only "BBQ" on the menu was a pulled pork sandwich hidden among other sandwich selections. (The waitress says they do have ribs on Tuesdays.) Surprised but not disappointed, we were fascinated by some of the interesting offerings. Basically a sports bar, Jed's offers a "pub style" selection but with some quirky twists!

Their signature item is "Fire Balls." The original Fire Ball is a boneless, skinless chicken chunk (larger than a nugget) that's been lightly breaded, flash fried and then dunked in a sauce of your choice. Among the 15 sauces offered are the usual flavors as well as names like "Superfly", "Hot Honey", "Sweet Jalapeno", "Sweet Baby Jane's", "Jed's Secret Sauce" and "Mike's Louisiana Licker". We tried the Mike's. It was sweet with a kick.

The interesting twist to the Balls is the list of "Specialty Balls" with names like "Hangover Balls", "Thunder Balls", "Freak Balls", "Fungus Balls", "Garbage Balls" and "Bette Balls". Basically, these are dishes of Fire Balls with toppings (like a nacho platter). "Hangover Balls" are topped with shredded cheese, tater tots, green pepper, onions, bacon and two fried eggs! "Garbage Balls" offer bacon, sauteed mushrooms, fries, black olives, Bleu cheese crumbles and cheese. So what are "Bette Balls"? A lot of the menu items bear names so I guess this was Bette's personal concoction - chopped hard boiled eggs, bacon and cucumbers, all tossed in Bette dressing and then served on a bed of spinach.

Another specialty is "Spudsters," deep fried mashed potatoes offered with a choice of sauces, sour cream, ranch dressing or butter. These are NOT your Mama's pan-fried potato patties. These are balls of mashed potatoes which have been battered and then deep fat fried. We didn't try these but they did look good as they passed by our table!

They also offered some unique pizza combinations, fries with various toppings, some really creative burgers, salads and fried pickles.

It took us a while just to read the menu and even longer to make up our minds, We only regret we couldn't try more of the unique items. Maybe next trip. (We usually seem to stop at this point, often staying in the same motel.)

Jed's also has locations in Toledo proper, Perryburg, Bowling Green and is soon opening in Sylvania, Ohio, too.

We're actually planning to serve our own version of Fire Balls at a get-together we have coming up. Seems easy enough to execute and is something different from the run-of-the-mill nibbles this time of year.

Why not give it a try yourself? Go ahead, get creative with them.