Many of us have bragged about our brisket, or have friends who brag about their brisket, or their mother’s brisket, or their father’s third cousin once-removed brisket, right? So where, oh where, are all those brisket recipes, folks?

You’ve still got time to email (or snail mail) your prize-winning brisket recipe to me at [email protected] or Ellen Futterman c/o St. Louis Jewish Light, 6 Millstone Campus Drive, St. Louis, Mo. 63146. In case you’re wondering whether it’s worth your time, the top recipe, selected by an esteemed panel of judges, will win a $100 gift certificate to Kohn’s Kosher Meat and Deli. The lucky runner-up will get a beautiful collection of kosher and Jewish cookbooks.

Hurry, though, because the deadline for entries is 5 p.m. Friday, March 16. Submissions can also me made at www.stljewishlight.com.

And speaking of submissions, there’s still time to nominate a candidate for consideration as part of the 2012 Jewish Light Unsung Heroes, which will be featured in articles in the Unsung Heroes edition of the Light’s quarterly Oy! Magazine and honored during a major community event at the Jewish Community Center’s Arts and Education Building on Thursday, May 24.

Nominees should be individuals or groups making a major impact—but working largely behind the scenes and without substantial public recognition for their efforts. The honorees can be those making a difference within the Jewish community, or Jewish individuals making an impact in the community at large. 

A nomination form is available in the ad on this page of today’s paper and at www.stljewishlight.com. The deadline for nominations is Friday, March 16.

Local boys make good

What does the U.S. Ambassador to Portugal and an a cappella group at Yale University have in common?

Answer: Both have ties to St. Louis and will be appearing here this week.

So maybe the connection is loose at best. Just go with me here.

Allen J. Katz, who is the U.S. Ambassador to Portugal, grew up in St. Louis and graduated from University City High School. He is the son of the late Fred and the late Eileen Katz. Fred Katz was one of the original founders of the St. Louis Holocaust Museum.

Katz will speak at 6 p.m. Thursday (March 8) at the Sheraton Clayton Plaza, 7730 Bonhomme Avenue, about Portugal’s role in the European debt crisis and the potential impact of a Greek default on Italy, Spain and the rest of the world. He will also offer his perspectives on the U.S.- Portugal bilateral relationship as well.

The speech is sponsored by the World Affairs Council of St. Louis and International Studies and Programs at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, and costs $35. Call Jessica Bellomo or Bob Fischer at 314-727-9988 to register.

Ambassador Katz holds a bachelor’s from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a law degree from the American University Washington College of Law in Washington D.C. He is married to Nancy Cohn, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil, who also is a native St. Louisan.

On Monday night, MICDS alum William Schlesinger, who also attended United Hebrew Congregation, will return to St. Louis with the Yale Alley Cats, an all-male a cappella group that is performing at 7 p.m in the Upper School Danforth Chapel at Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, 101 N. Warson Road. 

The Yale Alley Cats (love the name), which date back to 1943, have their roots in jazz, but their repertoire now includes a mix of everything from the Beatles to The Temptations, and Billy Joel to Stevie Wonder—right alongside the classics of Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, and Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross.

A $10 donation is suggested, with reception to follow.  For more information, go to www.yalealleycats.com.

Local girls make good

Congratulations to three outstanding women in the St. Louis Jewish community who are among the 10 new, recently-named Women of Achievement. They will be honored at a luncheon on May 17 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Clayton.

The three women and their area of achievement are: (former Jewish Light board of trustees president) Barbara Langsam Shuman, community service; Carol Staenberg, spirit of giving; and Lisa Orden Zarin, youth advocate. For tickets and information call 314-421-2005.

Grow and behold

David Levine, a medical student at Washington University and his wife, Eli Margulies, a natural food gourmet chef, are spearheading a movement to import kosher meat to St. Louis for Passover and want others to join. They caution that this is not a fundraiser or an attempt to unseat the local Vaad or Kohn’s Kosher Market and Deli.

The couple, who are members of Shaare Zedek Synagogue, are bringing the meat in from Grow and Behold Kosher Pastured Meats, a New York-based small family business, which provides OU Glatt Kosher pasture meats raised on small family farms. They explain that the company’s poultry and beef are not fed growth hormones, antibiotics or animal byproducts but rather minimal grain, and mostly hay and grass. In addition, the beef is slaughtered with dignity under the techniques pioneered by Temple Grandin and animals are never shackled or hoisted by their hind legs, as they are at standard kosher plants. Workers are unionized, receive health benefits and are paid a reasonable wage.

If you are interested, order at www.growandbehold.com or at 888-790-5781 before March 20. All St. Louis area orders will be shipped directly to Shaare Zedek, 829 N. Hanley Road and available for pick-up on March 28 between 4:30 and 6 p.m. For more information, go to Grow and Behold’s Shaare Zedek/STL page at http://goo.gl/pylzd.

New customers using the order code “Pesach5772” will get $10 off their first order of $100 or more, but the order must be placed by March 15.