I hope everyone has a happy & safe 4th of July! 🙂

I was contacted by Domino Sugar and C&H Sugar about hosting a bake sale for their wonderful “Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale” cause. What is that you ask? Domino Sugar and C&H Sugar have partnered with Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale to help make a difference in the lives of children facing hunger. Sister brands, Domino Sugar and C&H Sugar have been a presenting sponsor of Share our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale since 2008, encouraging thousands of bake sale registrations, providing recipes and donating funds for this important cause. This year, Domino Sugar and C&H Sugar strive to help Great American Bake Sale registrations surpass the success of the 2009 campaign, which brought in 7,600 bake sale registrations and raised over $1.3 million. This year, considering the number of children in America who are at risk of hunger has risen to nearly 17 million, the goal of Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale is to have 9,000 bake sale registrations and to raise $1.8 million. It is their hope to help Share Our Strength reach that goal and to ultimately end the problem of childhood hunger in our country by the year 2015. Talk about a great cause!

Be sure to check out their site HERE, they’ve got all the information you need if you’d like to participate including recipes, bake sale tips, they even have signs you can print off and use for your bake sale! I plan on having a yard sale in the next couple weeks, so I thought that would be the perfect time to host my bake sale and involve everyone. I’ll report back with pictures and how the sale went. My schedule has been crazy busy lately and rather than heating up the house with the oven (it has been so hot here, in the upper 90s every single day), our plan is to make some yummy no-bake goodies. I think we’re going to attempt the recipe HERE for Microwave Taffy.

And here’s a classic kid-friendly recipe I found I thought would be fun to make:

No Bake Cookies

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups white sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa. Bring to a boil, and cook for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in peanut butter, oats, and vanilla. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool until hardened.

Note: I was contacted by Domino/C&H Sugar & received a $20 gift card to help with the expenses of hosting a bake sale.

Free Fishing Days in Missouri are 6/12-6/13/2010. You don’t have to buy fishing permits, daily trout tags or trout permits at most locations. Requirements for special permits still may apply at some county, city or private areas. Check out more details HERE. And for more information specific to your region, go HERE.