Czech Anniversary

(Here is just a minute portion of missionaries who served under President Winder.)

The Czech Republic found a place in my heart 17 years ago, when I served there as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Last weekend we celebrated 20 years since the country has been opened to missionary work. It's history goes back even farther before communism and has some amazing history to go with it.

I arrived in the Czech Republic in April of 1993. I served for a few months under the direction of President Richard Winder. He and his wife, Barbara Winder, were true examples of faith and good works. Still today, you can sense their own deep affection for the people of the Czech and Slovak people.

It wasn't difficult to love the people and I had some wonderful experiences working among them. I also grew to love the Czech food. I am fortunate to have a close Czech friend who helps satisfy my addiction of their food. (She even helped me make this cake. Okay, so I helped her make this poppyseed cake for the reunion.)

Here's a Czech recipe (in case you were begging to try something Czech after reading my blog) I tried this recipe this summer. It came out successfully (*note: Czech desserts are not sweet) and can be used with just about any fruit:

Fruit Kolache

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons cocoa powder (for color)

2 1/2 cups white flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients together to form a dough and spread into a greased 9X13 pan. Randomly place choice of fruit on top and sprinkle (optional) with cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 350 for 35 to 45 minutes.