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Press Release
Linda is the 2009 Athena PowerLink
Recipient
(Word file)
 June
2009
Gosh,
summer is finally here! Mostly, when I think of summer I
think of being a kid. Summers and children are a match
made in heaven. The summer creates an ambience that no
other season can duplicate… the freedom, the innocence,
the magic, the excitement, the restlessness, but mostly
the simplicity.
As a
kid foodie, I loved the simple dinners of the summer, in
that there was no formal dinner “time” or dinner “rules.”
It was whenever Mom got to it and whatever Mom decided to
make. It could be pancakes or scrambled eggs or grilled
hot dogs or just fruit and vegetables. We always ate
plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and ate delicious
in-season Michigan produce and even as I kid I loved this
concept. For example, when it was corn season we ate fresh
corn every night and had fried corn, corn chowder and corn
pudding in between.
My
personal favorite was strawberry season as it was my
Daddy’s favorite too! For you see, my dear mother would
make strawberry shortcake several times a week for dinner.
Yes, my sweet dream came true one season of the year as we
had “dessert for dinner”!!! It was truly a perfect meal
to me, as she made lovely tender biscuits the size of
softballs to tear open and drown with ladles of sweetened
Michigan strawberries. The best part was that we could
have as much as we wanted, second, sometimes even third
helpings!! The combination of the buttermilk biscuit and
the juicy fruit is unbeatable. I make these for my family
when Felzke Farm strawberries are ready. I know I am just
as elated as the rest of the family for our first “dessert
for dinner” of the season.
The
summer newsletter has so many wonderful events to
celebrate, Father’s Day, July 4th and of
course, summer vacations! I wish I had room to write
pages about them all, but a few lines will have to do!
Let’s
wish all of our wonderful fathers whether they are still
with us or not, many blessings of gratitude for being the
loving, insightful, humble heroes that they will always
be! Happy Father’s Day to you all and a special shout-out
to my beloved daddy, Ben McComb! I am the luckiest
daughter ever!
Happy
Birthday America and a true heartfelt thank you to all of
our military folks for being our pillars of strength today
and throughout the ages!!
Another
big thanks to all of you for all the congratulatory cards
and letters and wonderful messages on Facebook for our big
win. If somehow you missed the big news Sweetie-licious
won 5 first place awards as well as the $5000.00 Best of
Show at the Crisco National Pie Championships/Food Network
Pie Challenge last month in
Orlando. We are still over the moon about it and will
be…probably forever!
A big
thank-you to Kim Schneider from Booth News for publishing
a charming article on our shop that ran in various
newspapers across the state. It has
been simply wonderful to meet all the lovely people from
all over Michigan visiting our quaint little bakery café.
A big
congratulations to our wonderful 2009 DeWitt Sweetie-licious
Seniors… Bre Kellogg, Liz Smith, Emily Carter, Chelsea
Speas, Maria Thelen, and Kayli Pioszak. They all know how
much I love them and what a difference they have made at
the shop, loving the customers as they do. I am so proud
of our newest round of pie dough rollers as they go off to
college… I will miss them all immeasurably come September.
Eat pie and love life.... Linda
Press Release
Michigan Bakery Owner Sweeps Professional Division of 15th
Annual
APC/Crisco National Pie Championships with "Tom's
Cheery Cherry
Cherry Berry Pie."
(Word file)
 May
2009
Dreams really do come true…. Wow! Friends, I just won the
ultimate prize in the pie baking world – the coveted
$5,000.00 Best of Show at the Crisco National Pie
Championships / Food Network Pie Challenge for Tom’s Cheery
Cherry Cherry Berry Pie. I feel like someone handed me the
Green Jacket, the Stanley Cup, the Gold Medal… talk about
validation! I’m not sure one word or even multiple
sentences can possibly convey my feelings of appreciation,
pride, and most importantly, love.
The miracle
of winning for this particular pie is that I created it for
my sweet brother-in-law, Tom Hundt, a truly inspirational
man, who passed away very recently. I was able to pay
tribute to him by writing the pie story below, which will be
attached to every one of his pies that leaves our store.
Make no
mistake my friends that dreams really do come true and
angels are among us… Thank you dear staff, customers,
family, Crisco, The Cherry Marketing Institute, Dandee
Printing, The American Pie Council, The Food Network, and
especially Tom Hundt for helping make my dreams come true.
Eat pie and love life.... Linda
March 2009
A sure sign that spring has finally arrived for
our family is picking out new baby chicks each year, for it
is a Hundt family tradition and one we don’t take lightly.
We live on a “farmette” in the country and a family favorite
pastime is to watch our bantam chickens, small and colorful,
roaming about our property. Each spring, my daughters and I
spruce up the henhouse and head to the feed store to choose
our new batch of chicks. We carefully choose each one,
hoping for a bunch of happy hens, but ultimately an
egotistical rooster gets in the mix.
By the end of the summer, the chicks are almost grown and
huddled at my back porch steps waiting to be fed leftover
bread. By the following year, they are laying me the
prettiest, sweet, little eggs you ever saw.
Our chickens
are our true pets with names and distinct personalities, and
like most animals, bring our family great joy. I challenge
us all during this special renewal season to treat each
other the way our pets treat us. Let’s be encouraging,
selfless, positive, grateful, loving and forgiving. How
wonderful to be beloved for simply being.
Crisco National Pie
Championships – We are elbow deep in the test kitchen mode
trying new pie creations as well as reinventing some old
favorites. This is always a favorite part of my job as well
as a favorite part for everyone at Sweetie-licious,
including the customer test tasters!!!! Think positive
thoughts in April so
we could be blessed enough to bring home at least one more
First Place!!
More National Media
- We were featured in Travel Michigan, a magazine
affiliated with Midwest Living magazine as “worth the
drive to DeWitt for Aunt Ella’s Cherry Pie.” We have seen
people daily from around the state because of the mention!
Many thanks!
Eat pie and love life.... Linda
February 2009
As I
write this I am gazing out my living room window onto the
open cornfield west of our farmhouse. Snow has long ago
covered the broken cornstalk remnants and right this minute
a beautiful airy snow is gently falling all over it again.
It looks magical and quiet –a truly peaceful landscape. I
realize many folks look at winter as a nuisance, but I
encourage all of us to remember its beauty and its nesting
goodness. There is no better time of the year to enjoy
family and friends and to renew home-keeping ideals. Both
are wonderful past-times for the long winter, giving us
plenty of time to rekindle relationships and overhaul broom
closets. For recreation, why not invite the gang over for a
delicious pot of chili on a lazy Sunday afternoon; or enjoy
a slow Saturday afternoon stroll down the halls of a
wonderful historical museum? Knitting? Movie Marathon?
You see there is much to do inside during the winter that we
neglect to do in the other seasons when the weather is more
pleasing.
So let us enjoy the
restful winter season as we cozy up to a good book in front
of a warm fireplace while enjoying a delicious plate of warm
cookies!
I have found through
the years that seasons dictate people’s palates more than
they realize. For instance, my customers cannot get enough
apples and pumpkin in the autumn nor enough cinnamon and
molasses in the winter. I am enclosing the recipe for a
winter cookie favorite at the shop – the classic
snickerdoodle. Enjoy doing any of the above mentioned
winter pastimes and try and tell me that you hate winter.
What a memorable
winter this is destined to be. We are set to experience
record snowfall, frigid temperatures, a scary national
economic recession, our first African American President…and
a few new cookie creations at Sweetie-licious…some of these
events will most likely be more memorable than others…J
Speaking of
memorable moments - Happy 200th Birthday
anniversary to Abraham Lincoln! We share the same birthday
and I have always loved him dearly. I have enjoyed reading
about his life throughout the years as he is truly a man of
greatness in spirit, moral courage, loyalty and love for
fellow man. He is indeed a man that
provided a life legacy for us all to emulate.
I am starting to
strategize for the National Pie Championships coming up in
April – Hope to bring more First Places home to you all!!!
Here’s wishing
you a new year of delicious food and memories.... Linda
December 2008
Happy Holidays!! I hope everyone
is having a beautiful and merry holiday season. We are as
busy as little elves at our little café-bakery, making
wonderful goodies for us all to enjoy. We break out the old
favorite Christmas recipes this time of year, so come in and
enjoy our charmingly decorated ‘Christmas Wonderland” and
indulge in our delicious holiday treats!!
As far as
gift giving – shop no more. We have it all at Sweetie’s - a
gift for that special someone – your neighbor, your
co-worker, everyone loves homemade food, especially ours in
our beautifully designed packaging! We hear all the time how
excited people are when they see a pink box coming their
way… nothing says you care more than Sweetie-licious pies
and baked goods!!
It is no secret that I
love Christmas. I host 7-8 parties throughout the season,
but my favorite is our Christmas Eve Open House. We host a
very large Christmas Eve family party (65 -75 people) in our
extremely modest farmhouse. It is elbow to elbow, but loads
of fun. We have a lovely buffet table, a Christmas oriented
“talent show” and a “Twelve Days of Christmas” sing-a-long
in amongst lots of giggles and hugs. The evening is truly
magical every year - a highlight of the season. This year,
soak in all your family & friend goodness and entertain
often to enjoy each other!
We were contacted by
the national magazine, Midwest Living to be apart of
their September 2009 issue in a segment featuring the best
pie shops in the Midwest. They had us submit some recipes
that will be published along with, hopefully, pictures of
our adorable shop! We do our very, very best and it keeps
showing. Yeah!
We participated in
many fall philanthropy events such as the big “Zoo Party”,
The March of Dimes Chefs Auction, and Shared Pregnancy’s
“Eat Pie and Love Life” Fundraiser. We were happy to donate
sweets and help with such worthy causes
Just a quick thank you to all of you who continue to
patronize our sweet shop during these stressful economic
times. I will say, that things are tight, so I encourage all
of you to tell all you know to come to our one-of-a-kind
shop for a lovely dining experience.
Known mostly for our sweets, many people don’t realize how
wonderful our homemade savory food really is… authentic
Midwestern comfort food at its very best! Our breakfast &
lunch sandwiches are truly incredible and our quiche is
to-die-for, but our soup is truly amazing! You will not find
this kind of food anywhere else!! So please stop by for
breakfast, lunch or dinner to enjoy your favorite local
bakery café!!!
We have the best
crew of any business in the whole state – and I mean that!
Somehow they mix fun, great service and love in all that
they do. We simply have a great staff at the shop and I am
completely blessed and humbled by them all. Thank you, thank
you, thank you.
Eat pie and love life.... Linda
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