Welcome to TBO.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.
WFLA News Channel 8 The Tampa Tribune CentroTampa.com

TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online

South Shore News

Sinfully Delicious: Customed-Designed Cakes

Posted Mar 22, 2007 by Clarisa Gerlach

Updated Mar 22, 2007 at 07:29 AM

By JOHN CEBALLOS
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

A new Riverview-based business wants South Shore residents to discover the latest guilty pleasure to hit the area.

“The idea behind our company is that you’ll enjoy our cakes and the rest of our creations to the point that it could be considered a sin,” said Michelle Fields.

Fields is the co-owner and pastry chef of Sinful Delight Cakes, which began operation in March. The company offers homemade, custom cakes for weddings, anniversaries, graduations and other special events. Each item is prepared by Fields in her Riverview home.

The other co-owner and operator is none other than Doug Fields, Michelle’s husband of seven years. While Michelle handles the baking, Doug pitches in by making deliveries and performing other assorted tasks.

Michelle Fields said she has been making wedding cakes for more than 20 years. In 1989, the Denver native started formal training when she was selected as one of two applicants from Colorado

or the Walt Disney World College Program in Hotel and Restaurant Management.

After completing the three-year program and earning her “Ducktorate Degree,” she became a junior member of the American Culinary Foundation.

Soon thereafter, she established herself as a chef of some renown in Colorado. She has prepared cakes for the rock ‘n’ roll band Van Halen, singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt and rocker Ozzy Osbourne. She has also worked with famed chefs Wolfgang Puck and Stephen Pyles.

Although the Fields moved to Riverview a little more than two years ago, they are just now re-establishing their business. Doug said the delay was partly attributed to the fact that recipes had to be converted from their mile-high specifications to sea-level.

“I think the most important thing to point out is that not only do the cakes look good, they taste good,” Michelle said.

The Fields are currently looking to schedule cake tastings in the area sometime in the near future, with the hope that the tastings will expose their product to the area.

In addition to cakes, Sinful Delight offers goodies such as fruit tarts, cookies and fondant flowers. Doug said they are currently servicing areas within a two-hour radius of Riverview, including all of Hillsborough County, St. Petersburg and Orlando.

Since every cake is unique, the price for each creation varies. They also offer a free, no obligation consultation service, where they collaborate with customers on the cake’s flavor and design.

“I’ve made a lot of cakes for lots and lots of weddings and parties,” Michelle said. “We’re just happy to be able to make some of the most important times in those people’s lives a little better.”

For more information, call 234-0992 or visit www.sinfuldelightcakes.com.

(0) Read Comments

Eight Is Enough - Tragedy Creates Instant Family

Posted Feb 9, 2007 by Clarisa Gerlach

Updated Feb 9, 2007 at 02:04 PM

By LOIS KINDLE
South Shore News
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

At 3:23 a.m. Oct. 23, Kimala Achor’s life was changed forever when her 29-year-old sister, Edith, was murdered in a Belle Glades motel. Although the investigation is still pending, law enforcement officials now suspect Achor’s sister may have been the victim of a drug-related shooting.

Achor had already become the custodial guardian of her sister’s children two-and-a-half years before the incident. There were issues of neglect and self-destructive behavior, Achor said.

“Edith was unable to care for them properly,” she continued, adding her sister had been abandoned by the children’s father. Eking it out as a housekeeper, her sister had been arrested a number of times for things like petty theft, robbery and domestic violence. Struggling financially and emotionally, she eventually began using cocaine.

When she died in October, eight children – ages 21 months to 12 years – suddenly became orphans.

“Nobody would take them all, and we didn’t want them split up,” Achor said.

So to keep them together, Achor, 43, took her nieces and nephews into the 980-square-foot trailer she and her lifelong friend, Tara Barnes, 43, share. Achor has begun the adoption process, but the snag is finding a large enough home to meet state requirements. Two bedrooms and two baths will do for the time being, Achor said, but it’s not an ideal situation.

Achor currently receives $463 per month in food stamps and $1,963 in subsidy per month from the Florida Department of Children and Families. She has a full-time job at DriRite, a mold remediation company, and Barnes, who cannot work due to a disability, stays home and cares for the children when Achor is away. The two pretty much share parenting responsibilities.

But things are rather tight, they admit.

There are two mortgage payments and both of their vehicles need work. They have Medicaid health coverage for the children, but neither has life insurance and the trailer isn’t insured, either. Achor is still paying off her sister’s funeral bill.

But neither woman is complaining.

“We appreciate the help we’re receiving,” Achor said, noting area businesses and schools donated gifts and food for the children over the holidays. Congregants of the Maranatha Temple Church of God in Ruskin gave $374 to the family to help with the funeral expenses.

“We just need a larger home,” Achor said.

Although the family is poor by some people’s standards, they are rich in love and security. The family plays and prays together. Instead of iPods and computers, the kids make up their own games, ride bikes, go fishing or toss a football around. Often Barnes and Achor are out there with them. And every night, they help the children with their homework. Since living with their aunt, the four oldest children have become honor roll students.

“We love having them,” Achor said. “We are truly blessed.”

“We’re living on a wing and a prayer,” she continued, “but we have lots of love, and Jesus protects us. What’s important is the family is together.”

The kids agree.

“It’s awesome,” said 12-year-old Othiniel, the oldest of the children. “I’m glad we didn’t get separated, that we got to stay together. I knew Aunt Kim wouldn’t let that happen.”

A typical weekday finds the family up at 6 a.m. The older boys – Othiniel, Nelson, 10, and Carlos, 9 – help their younger brothers, Alex and Adrian, who are twins, get dressed. Barnes lays out clothes for all of the children and helps the girls – Carollynn, 8, Kimala, almost 5, and Clarista, 2 – get ready. The kids eat breakfast, Achor drives them to school and picks them up after school. Baths begin at 5:30 p.m., then comes homework, dinner and a bit of TV. By 7:30 p.m., the youngest children are in bed. An hour later, their older siblings follow.

Achor is currently filling out applications to Habitat for Humanity and ABC-TV’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition. She said DriRite has offered dry wall and wood should she find the help she is seeking.

Meanwhile, anyone interested in aiding the family can make a donation to RBC Century Bank’s Family of 8 Fund, 112 S. Pebble Beach Blvd., Sun City Center, FL 33573. The trustee is Guerre Barnes of Ruskin, Tara Barnes’ brother. For more information, call 633-6281.

(0) Read Comments

Association Board Votes On Dues Oct. 11

Posted Oct 9, 2006 by Penny Fletcher

Updated Oct 9, 2006 at 03:59 PM

By PENNY FLETCHER
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
For part of the summer, temperatures were raised in some of Sun City Center’s common rooms and temperatures were lowered in the exercise pool in an attempt to cope with rising costs of electricity and insurance.
For almost two months, the spa was also drained and turned off.
Hard work by Sun City Center’s Community Association board and treasurer Peter Walker has enabled room and pool temperatures to be made more comfortable again, and the spa filled and heated, said Bruce Arnold, association president. But as costs continue to rise, the association will have to find ways to continue to pay its bills.
At the Oct. 11 regular monthly board meeting, directors will vote on whether to raise members’ dues, and if so – how much.
“The dues are now annually $194 per person,” Arnold said. “Our costs have risen an average of 3 percent a year for four years and we haven’t raised our dues. The charges for reinsurance and electric are definitely the driver for this.”
All association members may attend board meetings every month, Arnold said. But unless there’s an issue like this, they are rarely well attended.
Oct. 11 at 9 a.m. in the Caper Room at the association complex, 1009 N. Pebble Beach Blvd.– not Community Hall – the nine-member board will vote on whether to take the question of raising dues to membership.
If the motion passes, it would then be put on a referendum ballot for the association’s 10,500 members to vote on in December, Arnold said. An Oct. 11 “yes” vote by the board will not automatically raise the dues.
“The members will decide,” Arnold said. 
Preliminary meetings, including one held Oct. 1, suggested dues of around $250 per person being a more realistic figure than the present $194.

Blog your comments about this, and other South Shore issues here and let others know how you feel.

Penny Fletcher is editor of The Sun

(0) Read Comments

Stroke, Heart Attack Not Same

Posted Oct 3, 2006 by Penny Fletcher

Updated Oct 4, 2006 at 08:44 AM

PATIENTS, DOCTORS SPEAK OUT

By PENNY FLETCHER
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
It’s been a long haul for Mark Buehler since his stroke Dec. 19, 1990.
But Mark never lost his sense of humor. It’s one of the things that saved him. Now he’s a shining example to other patients, said Larissa Pickett, an occupational therapist in Sun City Center.
“I want to help,” Mark said as he pulled on a green Theraband, a therapeutic tool used for strengthening arms, hands and shoulders.
Since beginning his therapy, Mark has gradually recovered enough to accomplish the tasks of daily living: dressing, bathing, cooking – even playing golf, although he still has trouble with speech.
“I am interested in providing support for other patients,” he said with some difficulty.
Then he laughs at himself.
Pickett, Mark’s other therapist Beth Fischer and a therapeutic assistant, Kelly Regina, all agree attitude is more than half the battle after having what many in the medical community now prefer to call a “brain attack” rather than a stroke.
“Too many people think strokes and heart attacks are the same thing,” said Dr. Ghassan Ksaibati, medical director of South Bay Hospital’s emergency department and a member of the West Central Florida Acute Stroke Committee, a group that sets policy on treatments. “A heart attack is caused by low blood flow to the heart and a stroke is an attack on the brain– a brain attack really. And it’s (stroke) the third leading cause of death in the U.S., with 700,000 people dying each year and those who don’t die ending up with some form of disability.”
While approximately one-third of the people who have strokes have heart problems, the two conditions are not always related, he said.
“About 10 percent of people – about 67,000 a year (in the U.S.) – have bleeding into the brain with it (the stroke),” he explained. “This is the worst kind, caused by a hemorrhage, or trauma of some kind.”
There is a very small window of time to save someone who has this type of stroke, he said. “The window can be from three to six hours, depending upon many factors, including where the patient gets treatment,” he said. “A trauma center where they have all the new techniques of course, is best.”
Strokes can also be caused by narrowing of the arteries, especially the carotid (in the neck) or from a clot in a different part of the body making its way through the blood vessels into the brain, or from a trauma, like an accident or blow to the head, he added.
Dr. Kamlesh Patel, a specialist in neurological disorders based at South Bay Hospital, explained the symptoms.
“There could be acute confusion that’s clearly not related to dementia,” Patel said. “Transient confusion.” (Meaning not all the time.)
Numbness, tingling , pins and needles or weakness, especially on one side of the body; difficulty in speech and clumsiness are also signs, he added.
Some patients, like Marianne Fedyschyn, never have a clue until the attack happens.
“They were waiting for me at the library (where she is a longtime volunteer) and I never showed up,” she said. “What had happened was that I rolled out of bed in my sleep. I knew something was wrong. I called 911 myself.”
Knowledge and prevention are key to getting, and staying healthy, Patel said.
People who want to learn more about strokes may visit the American stroke Association Web site at http://www.strokeassociation.org.

(0) Read Comments

Personal Experience Drives Couple To

Posted Oct 3, 2006 by Penny Fletcher

Updated Oct 4, 2006 at 08:44 AM

MEETS MONTHLY AT KINGS POINT CLUBHOUSE

By PENNY FLETCHER
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
It took only a moment for Natalie Meltzer to realize her husband, Len, had passed out at the wheel.
What started out as a carefree trip to Busch Gardens five years ago could have had a tragic end had Natalie not been able to reach across her husband and bring the car to a stop.
“We were going about 70 mph in the passing lane when he had his stroke. He completely blacked out,” she said. “I put my leg over his leg, took the wheel and brought the car across all the lanes of traffic onto the side of the road and shut it off.”
Fortunately for the Meltzers, there was only one car near them, and the driver – a nurse whose name they did not ask – was a good driver. After carefully avoiding an accident, she pulled up behind them and called 911, Natalie said.
Len owes his life to the fact his wife had the presence of mind to tell emergency personnel he was taking the blood thinner, Coumadin, an anticoagulant given to people at high risk for blood clots.
“If they had given him the standard shot for stroke victims, he would have died,” she said.
As it turns out, Natalie, a writer and former newspaper publisher, has her facts straight.
“Anyone taking blood thinners could die if emergency personnel treating them do not know about it,” said Dr. Ghassan Ksaibati, medical director of the emergency department at South Bay Hospital. “This can be a very dangerous situation.” Ksaibati advises that anyone taking medication to aid in blood flow or clotting wear a warning bracelet.
With her reporter’s eye for detail, Natalie recalls events from that day as if they had happened yesterday.
“The first prognosis after we got to the hospital (University Community Hospital) was not good. They told me he wouldn’t live through the night,” Natalie said. “Then later, they told me because he was one of only 15 percent of stroke victims to have a brain-bleed, he’d never get normal functions back.”
She had more faith in him than that.
A retired pharmacist, she knew her husband would also work hard to get well. And after long months of physical, occupational and speech therapy, Len regained more abilities than any of his physicians or therapists had predicted.
Upon his release from UCH, the couple flew back to their home state of Massachusetts to see family, and while there, Len took six more months of therapy and joined a stroke support group.
The couple had participated in a stroke support group while at UCH as well.
“But when we returned to Sun City Center, we found there was no such group here,” said Natalie.
Together, the two founded   Together, the two founded one in 2003.
Based in Kings Point where they live, the Sun City Center Stroke Support Group soon went from its original 12 members to more than 70 from all over the area.
Not just for stroke patients, the group is also geared to educate and inform caregivers, family and friends of stroke patients and others in the general public who want to learn more about strokes, aftercare and prevention.
“She (Natalie) gets us speakers from all over,” said Len. “One time it’ll be a doctor, another time some other (kind of professional).”
The group focus is always on balance between medical, nutritional and alternative, holistic methods, she said. It meets the first Wednesday of each month at 1 p.m. in the Kings Point clubhouse, 1900 Clubhouse Drive in Sun City Center.
For more information about the group, call 633-9366.

(0) Read Comments
 

ADVERTISEMENT

Advertisement

IYP and SEO vendors: SEO by eLocalListing | Advertiser profiles