Menu For Hope

Homemade Spiced Parkin and Loose Tea From Fortnums

Shortbread and Fruitcake from my Home to Your Tums

Beautifully Wrapped-up and Tied Tight With String

I Hope that You will Like my Tea-time Things

I know, I know, the legacy of Rodgers and Hammerstein is still safe. Please excuse my poetic outburst, I'm trying to whet your appetite for my Menu for Hope prize. As I'm sure you are all aware this year's Menu for Hope started on 10th December and I have decided to get involved.

Menu for Hope was created five years ago by Chez Pim; you can get a history of the fund-raising project here. This year Menu for Hope is raising money for the UN Food Programme and more specifically a school lunch programme in Lesotho, Africa. Not only do the children get a nutritious lunch, they are also encouraged to stay in their classes and learn.

We all love to write and read about food; cooking is our hobby. However, I don't expect that many of us truly understand the relationship between food and survival. I know that I have never been truly hungry.

Ok, I'm not going to bang on using words like worthwhile and Christmas Spirit; you know what's right. Not only will you get a warm fuzzy feeling in the depths of your soul, you will also get a big box of treats. Yes, in January, when all that arrives is credit card bills and, if you're lucky, a late-posted Christmas card, you will get a parcel full of fun. Yes, you will get a box of homemade tea-time delights:

1. The Famous Royal Blend Tea from Fortnum and Mason
2. Yorkshire Parkin
3. Moist Fruitcake
4. Wennsleydale Cheese (to eat with the Fruit Cake - in the Yorkshire style)
5. Butter Shortbread

I've chosen these treats because, not only are they delicious representatives of my Yorkshire roots, they will travel and keep well. So, (law of the land permitting) I'll send this anywhere in the world. I promise that I will wrap everything up with lots of bows and tissue paper and I'll probably add some other little bits and bobs: it will be a care package sent with love.

Hopefully you will now be inspired to by a raffle ticket and bid for item UK38. Here are the full details of how to do it:

1. Choose the prize or prizes of your choice from the main Menu for Hope site. (This is the global list of all prizes donated this year. Alternatively, you can see only the UK prizes on Cooksister.) You must make sure to check the terms and conditions for the individual prizes BEFORE you bid, as some will come with restrictions regarding where they ship to or how long the prize is valid for.

2. Go to the donation site and make a donation. The hosts do not handle the cash at all - it goes directly to Justgiving to be passed on to the World Food Programme.

3. Please specify the prize code of the prize you'd like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. If you are buying more than one ticket, please indicate how you would like the tickets to be allocated. For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02. Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02.

4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

5. Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone. Remember to check back on Chez Pim on Wednesday January 9 for the results of the raffle.