Being Greek, most of the recipes I use are from my Mom, Grandmothers, and aunts, but I do have quite a few Greek cookbooks. My favorite one is called "Popular Greek Recipes" and it consists of recipes compiled by The Ladies of the Philoptochos Society at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Charleston, South Carolina. As of 2003, the book was in it's fourteenth printing. Unfortunately, it doesn't have pictures but it does have a great variety of recipes similar to the kind of cooking I had growing up. I just ordered "The Glorius Foods of Greece" because there were recipes in the index that sound like ones I've been looking for - food that my grandparents talked about that I haven't been able to find anywhere! The reviews on Amazon DID indicate that this book is not a Greek primer - it's more for people who already have the basic recipes and want to find special recipes that are indigenous to certain areas.

I read Kitchen Confidential. It was good, but I found the two Ruth Reichl books I read much more interesting. I don't know whether to like or dislike Bourdain as a person, because I don't know him, other than having read one of his books, but he does come across as arrogant. He's funny, though. I tried to like his show, The Taste, when it was first on last year, but it seemed way too much about the judges and not enough about the contestants or their cooking. That being said, I didn't make it past the opening rounds. I guess I've wondered way off topic now. Sorry. Sally

I have a little experience with this kind of project. Acutally, a lot of experience, but that is another story. First some marketing suggestions. Having even a rough sketch or schematic of the playground will help in your efforts. It is a great marketing tool, show it sponsors and post it to keep a visual reminder in parents' faces everyday. From that, make a list of the major and semi-major components. Swing bays, slides, monkey bars, you get the idea. Set a price for each component, round up. Then break up your fundraising efforts into one component at a time. Then take that schematic to local businesses and community service organizations (Kiawanis, Rotary Club, etc.) Ask each group to "adopt" a part of the playground. You'll get a lot of "no" but even a couple "yes" are worth the rejections. You will need to set a way in which each group will be recognized for the donation. Remind them that a school is a 501(c)3 and the donation is tax deductable. That is what they want out of it: tax write off and local publicity. If you already have some funds, that will help convince them of your committment. If/when you get some sponsors be sure to have some kids color and write a real cute thank you not to the sponsor, the love to post that sort of thing in a business where customers see it. If you do that approach, have yourself together before going into with a written request and a list of the components available to sponsor, and any other sponsors already on board. Parents of students in your school who have family businesses might like to get involved with this one if they get even a little recogniztion for it. Then make fundraisers that will raise funds for one or two components at a time. That way you can publicize "proceeds will purchase the monkey bars" or whatever. When the fundraiser is over, it will raise morale more when you can say "YEAH! It was a success we raised enough to purchase the monkey bars" instead of "We are getting closer to the playground total." Also post a graphic of the funds raised somewhere very visual in the school. You could do a thermometer thing, or a complete picture of the playground next to one of only the components funded, adding them as they are funded. Final marketing tip, get the students really excited about it. The more they talk about the new playground, the more the parents hear about it, the more they pay attention (and contribute). It has to be put in front of them constantly. Some of the events we held to actually raise money: Penny/Coin drive -raised about $1500, the gimmick was to fill the bed of a pick-up truck Sold parts with kids names on it -bricks in a sidewalk might be the easiest thing at a school. Parents love to put their kids name on something permanent. We sold bricks for $100, but only paid around $15 for them engraved. So that leaves you a lot of room to reduce the price of your bricks if it suits your school better. Remember to budget for a contractor to install them, though. Something called "flocking" involving individuals paying to have a friend, relative or neighbor's front yard filled with pink, plastic flamingos over night. It was a riot, raised about $1500. If that sounds interesting, email me I'll tell you the details of how it worked. McDonalds will not outright give money to this kind of thing. Most, however, will let you have a fundraiser at a restaurant. I suppose it might vary between franchises, but our allowed to have a "Voucher Night." We distributed vouchers to be turned in during specific hours of a given date. A certain percentage of the sales with vouchers came back to our cause. We even got the local paper to print a voucher in the paper for that week. If you play your cards right, you might be able to get your local McD's to schedule Ronald for that night. If not, maybe you can get a magician or clown to donate his/her time for entertainment. At the same time, you might be able to get a local business to donate at item for raffle. We did all those things at our "Voucher Nights" to increase traffic into the event and to increase sales. I mean, given a choice, a lot of people get their food to go. If there is entertainment for the kids, they stick around, order dessert, sales go up. Every little bit helps. Then of course, the traditional raffles and bake sales. I like these things because there is little or no cost involved. Unlike the candy sales or other gift sales fundraising companies get schools to do. They can be good fundraisers, but also require a lot of volunteer time and the biggest profit is made by the company. The hardest part of a raffle is getting the prizes donated. But, if you go to businesses to sponsor a component and they tell you "we can't" then you can pull the prize card, they might be more able to give an item than cash. You could have a dinner and involve the students by having musical groups perform, or having them help with serving and clean up. Whatever you do, don't forget to invite the local paper or even news channel. A lot of times, they have bigger stories, but call them every single time and they might show up once or twice. A little press coverage goes a long way. They prefer events involving kids, it gets better ratings I guess. Ask your core group of parents for help. It's amazing once you starts asking people for things, what resources are out there. Somebody might have done a silent auction before, get them to do one for this cause. Or a golf tournement. List out a bunch of ideas for fundraisers, knowing that you can't do all of them, and see who steps up to chair what. You might find some hidden talent in someone you thought had none :o) Things to get the kids involved without selling, any -a-thon. Walk, bowl, how about a swing a thon at another playground? Pet wash, car wash. The best washes that I've seen sell "advance tickets." OMG, what a genious who came up with this! The kids sold the advance tickets, to neighbors or whatever, to come a couple weeks later and get your car washed. Though on that date, you could still drive up and pay for a wash. But they had to have sold hundreds of those advance tickets, and I bet half of them were never redeemed. I would always forget to redeem mine! At $5 each, that is just plain profit!! I still want to shake the hand of the person who thought that up! I'll stop there for now. The playground I led was a community playground, we raised over $250,000, it took about two years, then we had to get almost 10,000 volunteer hours to build it. It was hard work, but turned out very successful. Probably a different kind of project from what you're talking about right now. But I hope some what I said can be adapted to help you build your school's playground. Email me if I can be of further help.

My recommendation for her AND for ANY parent sending a child off to their own apartment or dorm is: "The Kitchen Survival Guide", by Lora Brody Wm Morris and Co., Inc. New York, publisher, ISBN 0-668-10587-4, mine is the '92 copyright version. I suggest this book because it is "a hand-holding kitchen primer with 130 recipes to get you started". PLUS, she gives great kitchen basics and backgrounds every consumer should know, via these 3 categories: Setting up and Equipping your kitchen. Setting up and Stocking Up Getting Ready to Cook. Then breaks everything down in easy to understand terms, and also covers such interesting things as: How to read and understand a recipe. How to roast and carve a chicken or turkey, and make Gravy! How to set a table. How to tell if eggs are fresh. How to put out a kitchen fire! Now THAT is good to know!! How to make granola. WHY grocery lists are important. How to substitute ingredients. How to choose a supermarket. How to make chicken soup just like Mom's. Which foods can and can't be frozen. How to cook a live lobster. You can see how valuable these lessons would be to a novice cook. Plus, while many of the recipes are geared towards a youthful palate...pizzas, tacos, lasagna, fruit shakes, and the like...the book then also includes items to spark the education and appreciation of fancier fare, such as chutney dip, butterflied leg of lamb, crustless quiche, and more. So all in all, I think it is a great first book, and it is a fun reading experience too! I'm just so GLAD they want to cook....there is too much consuming already fast prepared, sodium and preservative full pre-made foods nowadays. Have fun with all your choices!!!