One of the curious aspects of the Internet is the meeting of and chatting with virtual strangers. Or are they now virtual friends? Something even more profound happened when one Ketchum resident, Joan Diteman, came across a particularly heart-wrenching story from a woman she did knot know in South Dakota.
"I first read about Kelsey Keegan in a poker forum," Diteman said.
Kelsey, 6, was born with quad spastic cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus (fluid on the brain). She spends almost all her time in a wheelchair and although she cannot speak she attends public school. Kelsey's grandmother, Nancy Rasmussen, almost won a home makeover for Kelsey and her other grandmother. Their old farmhouse—two bedrooms up, one bathroom down—has narrow halls and small doors too difficult for her wheelchair to fit through. Her grandmother must carry her up and down the stairs.
Diteman was moved enough to contact Rasmussen and ask what she could do to help. Upon hearing the story, she said, "When all else fails, fall back on a cookbook." After all, Diteman reasoned, there wasn't a poker cookbook on the market. All the proceeds from the resulting book, "Shuffle, Deal & Dine Cook Book," will go to a fund for Kelsey Keegan, the "little girl whose needs fell through the cracks," Diteman said. She ultimately took on the role as the book's editor.
This wasn't such an odd idea, considering Diteman co-published "A Cook's Tour of Sun Valley" in 1972 featuring recipes by Wood River Valley residents. It sold 1,500 copies with all the proceeds going to the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation.
Diteman posted a request on the poker forum and began receiving responses from players all over the country, including professional poker players such as "The First Lady of Poker" Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher and Gyla Whitlow.
"The word spread at tables and tournaments," Diteman said. "Poker players have some good ideas on how to spend less time in the kitchen and more time in a poker game."
Many of the recipes are the kind one might serve during a game so there are variations on spinach dips, cheese balls and the requisite tuna noodle casseroles made the "old-fashioned" way with a can of cream of mushroom soup. Some sound marvelous. Some sound dicey but fun, like the Kitty Litter Cake, made in a cat litter box with melted Tootsie Rolls as embellishment.
Everything is geared toward poker, so the 350 recipes have names such as Drawing Dead Deviled Cauliflower, Big Blind Lasagna, Pat Hand Picha Ollas, Shot Gun Raise Bran Muffins and Up The Ante Cranberry Raisin Nut Bread.
Clever stuff.
The entries are interspersed with poker tips and snippets of poker humor.
To purchase the "Shuffle, Deal & Dine Cookbook," go to shuffledealanddine.com or check with local booksellers.
?Shuffle, Deal & Dine Cookbook?
