Dear Boo,  Wowie Zowie!  It has been so fun watching the Olympics with you these past two weeks.  To see the poise, grace, and spirit in all the competitors is such a blessing.  However, the best part is to see the maturity growth in so many of the athletics.  When you hear their stories and learn all what they have given up in their young lives just for the honor of representing their county in Vancouver.  Their determination and single minded focus is awe-inspiring.  And their joy………it is almost palatable through the television screen.

It reminds me of all the times you competed in the horse shows.  I know how hard you worked and the joy and pleasure these events brought into your life.  Me?  I was usually under the grandstands alternating between throwing up and wetting myself with nerves for what you were getting ready to do.  Going out in front of all those people, putting yourself out there to be judged.  Granted, your competition was not on the same viewing level as the Olympics, but in my world it was just as important.  I can still picture in my mind your free-style reining programs.  What fun those were to help you choreograph them and then to be able to see the judged performance.  To see you and your horse, Candy, spinning and sliding always took my breath away.  Horse and rider acting and re-acting as one unit was just an amazing sight.  Each and every time they announced your name as the winner I could be found doing the “ugly cry” in the grandstands.  I truly admire you and am in awe of your determination and single-minded focus.  You are my hero!

I tried to find something along the lines of a gold medal cooking or baking performance, but I was striking out.  Until I kept seeing this recipe in several of the blogs that I follow.  Such an easy and fun recipe…….I will be making these again.  I did not have a fish cookie cutter, so I could not make them into “gold fish”, but the heart was a pretty good choice I think.

The Women’s Figure Skating Short Program is ready to begin, so I am going to grab my “gold fish” and hope for more gold medals for Team USA.  Joy Rising!

Gold  Winning  Gold  Fish

Prep  Time:          5 minutes

Chill  Time:          20 minutes  up  to  24 hours

Bake  Time:          15-20 minutes  at  350 degrees

Source:                 www.savoryseasonings.com

Ingredients:

• 1 c all-purpose flour
• 3/4  tsp salt
• 1/2  tsp  ground pepper
• 4 T  cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 8 oz  grated cheddar cheese
• 3-4 T  water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Pulse the flour, salt and pepper in your food processor until blended.
3. Add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
4. Add grated cheese a little at a time until the mixture again resembles coarse meal.
5. Pulse in the water, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough forms into a ball.
6. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes or up to 24 hours.
7. Roll dough out to 1/8″ thickness either directly onto the baking pan or onto your counter.
8. “Dock” your dough (this means to use the tines of a fork to poke holes into the dough.  This will allow the steam to escape during the baking process).
9. Either use pizza wheel to cut dough into 1″ squares or use cookie cutter to make into desired shapes.
10. Bake 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until crackers are golden brown.  Watch them carefully starting at the 10 minute mark.
11. Once removed from oven sprinkle lightly with salt.