News Flash, News Flash!

If we ever sold any cake, this will be our "icing on the cake". Our story was interesting and important enough to the community that it made it to the Dallas Morning News. Read part of the print version below:

Classmates reunite in kitchen

An informal school reunion in spring 2007 brought together five women who discovered a common interest in food and cooking.

Menchu Dauz Tungala of Allen, Marivic Marifosque Miksits, Marissa Guinto Purser, Innah Nocos Garciano and Cecille Solidum Lelina were schoolmates from the University of the Philippines and were brought to North Texas, by career and fate. They take turns organizing get-togethers with fellow alumni to enjoy great food and reminisce on their school life.

This month, the ladies joined together again for the Share the Strength Foundation’s Great American Bake Sale to help end childhood hunger in America. They called their team “UP Maroons,” in honor of their school colors.

Because the women all have a corporate career background, they took the project seriously and planned a meeting to cover everything from product offerings to packaging requirements. A website was posted so friends can view their products of cookies, pastries and breads.

The repertoire included Filipino and American favorites like pandesal, a popular Filipino bread roll, mung bean-filled bread, banana bread, peanut tarts and chocolate crinkles. The team was soon overwhelmed with calls from friends who suddenly had a craving for a taste of home-baked goods.

The UP Maroons decided to limit their target customers to friends from the Collin County area to ensure and limit quantity of production to a level at which the activity remained fun-filled and stress-free. They baked for five days in Tungala’s house in Allen to fulfill all the orders.

The products that came out of the kitchen underwent strict quality control and packaging reflected a professional finish. The project was a huge success and the team raised $500.

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Submitted photo by Jeana Kristin Clemente.

NOTE: For Innah's sake, our youngest in the group, we will make this note, we are not really "classmates" or even "batchmates". The original title of the article was "Schoolmates and Fellow-Foodies Bake for a Cause" but it was probably too long and was edited to a shorter version. But, who cares? When we found each other, North Texas suddenly became smaller and closer to home. For some reason, when we reunite with a fellow UP alumni, you feel like you are with family. We shared the same campus, same streetfood, same classes and possibly same "vintage" scholarly professors. Whether you are a hippie from the seventies (none of us came from that batch) or from the ultra-high tech modern times, it does not matter, we have our motto, "Honor and Excellence" to go by. So at work, in our homes or in our humble kitchens, nothing is too small for the UP Maroons. An erratum needed? Nah, you know who's the oldest right?