Gourmet Marshmallows from Kitty Lee Thomas Sweets

I've written before about my niece who left the world of corporate banking in New York City to seek a career pursuing her real love: cooking and baking. A love she seems to inherited from my late sister who always seemed most happy when baking cakes or pies or making some other delectable sweet. Happily, my niece continues to get some much deserved media coverage Here website is here), this time in Sweet Finds that has a review of her gourmet marshmallows. Here are some highlights from the write up:

Just two years ago, Kristin Lee Godburn left a fast-paced job in investment baking to put on a kitchen apron. After attending the French Culinary Institute, she honed her baking chops while working with the cupcake folks of Robicelli's in Brooklyn, and then launched her sweets company Kitty Lee Thomas.

She makes cookies and other treats, but we're here to talk about marshmallows. She has quite the eclectic marshmallow menu, including flavors like Toasted Coconut, S'mores, Rocky Road, and Fluffernut. They're fancied-up marshmallows that serve as desserts on their own.

The Cookies 'n' Cream version starts with a homemade vanilla bean marshmallow that's covered in chocolate cookie crumbs and dipped in dark chocolate. The cocoa content is high and the marshmallow has a satisfying, rich flavor. The cookie crumbs are finely ground so one bite sends down a prodigious shower of cookie crumbs—don't try to nibble these secretly, because the cookie-crumb trail will give you away.

Available online, or at several locations in New York.

Atheist Group and Priest Sue Brooklyn Diocese for Political Actions

One of the requirements under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code is that non-profit charities are forbidden from engaging in political action and in particular from supporting political candidates. As we have seen from its involvement in anti-gay initiatives in California and Maine and elsewhere, the Roman Catholic Church apparently believes that it is above the IRS laws and regulations and that it can do whatever it wants politically. Now a group of atheists and a priest have filed suit against the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn due to its improper political involvement in support of political candidates. What makes the story even more sleazy is that the Diocese was working to support a politician who voted against extending the statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims. Something obviously near and dear to the Church ice cold, black heart. Here are some highlights from the Brooklyn Paper:

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A major atheist group and a priest are suing the borough’s Catholic leadership, alleging that the church violated its tax-free status by making thousands of pre-recorded calls during the November election campaign that endorsed candidates favored by Assemblyman Vito Lopez.
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Nobody’s denying that the so-called “robocalls” supporting Lopez — with the voice of Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio himself — were placed to voters a couple days before the Nov. 3 general election. But the lawsuit will determine whether the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn overstepped its legal boundaries when it mentioned Lopez, the county’s Democrat Party boss and a Democratic assemblyman from Bushwick, in automated calls to thousands of Brooklynites.
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The suit also accuses the Diocese of placing the calls as a favor to Lopez, who, earlier this year, supported the church by opposing legislation that would give alleged sex-abuse victims more time to file old claims.
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DiMarzio and a Diocese spokesman did not return calls in time for The Brooklyn Paper’s catholic online deadlines.
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The leadership of the Catholic Church both in the USA and around the world has become a corrupt, toxic, cesspool. A major revolt of the laity is required, yet I am not holding my breath that it will ever happen. It is far easier to simply walk away from the Catholic Church and find a new church home rather than battle the entrenched hierarchy that continues to view itself as unaccountable to rank and file Church members.

Brooklyn Anti-Immigrant/Anti-Gay Hate Crime

The forces of intolerance that were further riled by Sarah Palin's run for VP and her mantra about who was and was not a "real American" took another life in Brooklyn, New York, where native Ecuadorian Jose Sucuzhanay died Friday, five days after he was hit in the head with a bottle and beaten with a baseball bat. Anti-gay and racial slurs were heard as Sucuzhanay was attacked and beaten while walking home from a church party. His family and others are not going quietly and hopefully those who murdered an innocent man will be brought to justice. Travesties like this will continue to occur as long as certain elements in U.S. society found largely among the GOP base believe that they get to be the arbiters of who is and is not an American based on their skin color, sexual orientation or country of birth. Here are some highlights from CNN:

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Mourning relatives say they hope a slain Latino immigrant can become a symbol against hate crimes. New York City police are still hunting for suspects in the killing of Ecuadorian Jose Sucuzhanay, who died Friday, five days after he was hit in the head with a bottle and beaten with a baseball bat.

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Hundreds of people marched Sunday through the Brooklyn neighborhood where Sucuzhanay was attacked, carrying signs saying "no more hate crimes." . . . Family spokesman Francisco Moya said Jose Sucuzhanay, 31, had lived in the United States for more than a decade and was a legal resident.

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Diego Sucuzhanay said Jose set up a successful real estate business in a low-income area, thinking he could make a difference there. He said his brother wanted to help everyone and hired a diverse team, including four African-Americans and two Latinos. He was raising two children: a 9-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter.

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Police said Jose Sucuzhanay and his brother Romel had left a party at a church when several men approached them in a car in Brooklyn's Bushwick section, about a block from the brothers' home, on December 7. The men shouted anti-gay and anti-Latino vulgarities and attacked the brothers, police said.