I received this message from Kevin Frost, the CEO of amfAR, just two weeks before our joint benefit dinner in NYC:

What if I told you that a man in Germany was cured of HIV? Well, it’s true—recently a man in Berlin was indeed “functionally cured” of HIV. At amfAR, we call his extraordinary case “the Berlin patient,” and we’ve talked about it a lot over the last few months. This remarkable leap forward has given me a renewed sense of hope that a cure for HIV/AIDS will be found in my lifetime.

But just hoping for a cure is not enough. We have to act—and act swiftly—to bring the best scientific minds together to find innovative ways to eradicate HIV from the body.

That’s why we have launched a new initiative—the amfAR Research Consortium for HIV Eradication (ARCHE)—that supports collaborative teams of biomedical researchers who are exploring the barriers to, and potential for, eradicating HIV infection.

This new concept will not only provide funding to scientists working on innovative efforts to cure HIV/AIDS—it will also offer an active forum in which participants can challenge each other’s ideas and push the boundaries of research innovation. But as you can imagine, new initiatives cost money, so I am asking for your help. Please give generously so amfAR can continue to stand at the vanguard of cure-focused research.

Your gift will not only help support the ARCHE initiative but will strengthen all of our core programs.

There is a great need to advance novel approaches to fighting this deadly disease. This is exactly what amfAR does best. Please support our research efforts, including ARCHE, today.

Together we can work toward our ultimate goal—a world without AIDS.

Sincerely,

Kevin Robert Frost Chief Executive Officer
amfAR, The Foundation For AIDS Research
So please join me, Dolce Debbie and commit to a cure. Join us at our April 24, 2010 benefit dinner in NYC for amfAR or make a donation by clicking here. Thanks, Debbie

As some of you know, I am frequently a guest on the syndicated show Daytime. While I was taping my infamous Christmas Tree segment, Lindsay asked if I would be interested in coming on and making baklava. Well, of course I didn’t hesitate to say yes, it’s always so much fun hanging out with Lindsay, Cyndi, Dave, Rob, Larry, April and the whole gang. Definitely never a dull moment with them!

So, after I accepted the invitation, I realized that I had never made baklava. Kinda important to be able to know how to do something if you’re going to go onto national television to explain how to do it! Although this was going to be a segment following a story Lindsay did on Istanbul….and by the way WOW, it’s now on my list of must do’s!, but I took the opportunity to reflect on our trip to Greece that Barry and I had done while living in Italy. While in Mykonos, Barry went on a quest for the world’s best baklava. Needless to say we tasted our fair share of this decadent dessert. We actually found a little boutique café with the world’s largest variations of baklava I had ever seen, more on that later, I’m in the process of trying some variations myself. Then I remembered a couple of months ago while doing a boot camp at the Culinary Institute of America one of the dishes prepared was baklava. Then I recalled how sinfully good it was, so I went and dug into the recipes that we were sent home with. Fortunately, the baklava recipe was one that I did manage to make it home with. The Culinary's recipe is posted on Epicurious.com. Click here for the recipe, which by the way consistently gets rave reviews as the best baklava ever! It is not difficult in terms of technique, but do allow yourself about 2.5 hours to make. If you are doing this for serving guests, also allow time for it to cool, it must be served at room temperature.

If you aren’t able to watch the segment on Monday, January 11 then make sure to go their website at http://www.daytimeonline.tv/ for a recap of the show. – Debbie

As much as I hate to see time pass by so quickly, in my mind at least, I am always so excited for the holidays. It always seems to bring out the brighter, more loving side of people…most of us anyway! There always seems to be time to add one more lunch, coffee, or “meet-up” to our already full schedules.

This year I am very thankful to have been able to add my twitter friends to the mix! Skeptics will say that you can’t develop relationships and or friendships with people without having ever met, I BEG to differ. Not only did I meet the love of my life via a computer started relationship 13 years ago, but I have made friendships and have watched other relationships blossom, which will blossom even bigger (you know who you are…LOVE Y’ALL) but I have also made business relationships as well. In fact, if you tuned in to one of my favorite morning shows, Daytime, you will see one of the many relationships developed over this past year. I was invited to come and share one of my family’s favorite holiday traditions, Grandma Cookies. I had just had dinner with some of my friends a couple of days prior, one of them being Kim Randall. She was so sweet and had brought me one of her gorgeous hand painted ornaments that she and her Mom are making this year, KimRandall.biz, so I decided that this would be a great gift for my friends on Daytime. Well, y’all check out what happened on the show if you didn’t see it on air this morning. Don’t worry the ending was a good one! (<;

I’m off to make another round of Grandma Cookies now, they seem to disappear as soon as I make them and heaven help me if there aren’t any in this house come Christmas Eve and Christmas, so with that being said, Merry Christmas! Hope you all are as blessed as I have been this year with family, friends and of course……GREAT FOOD!!! - Debbie

I'm in the Christmas spirit! This Friday, December 18, 2009 I will give away a Chocolate Pear Panettone from Italy to one of the people leaving a comment on this blog between Dec 14th and Dec 18th. These are incredibly good, and nothing like the ones from the grocery store. A friend of mine from Venice brought them to me this week, and I want to share. So, leave me your name and email address in a comment below. Good Luck! - Debbie

12/19/09: Congratulations: From a double blind selection process, Kim Randall is my winner for the Chocolate Pear Panettone! Thanks for everyone who participated, and Merry Christmas!