COEUR d'ALENE - Kuwait isn't in Jim Purtee's delivery zone.

But for U.S. soldiers based there, Purtee, owner of Jimmy's Down the Street restaurant on Sherman Avenue, did the next best thing. He sent his sacred pecan roll recipe to an American citizen there who sometimes prepares meals for U.S. soldiers.

"It's very flattering," Purtee said of the recipe request from the other side of the world. "We're certainly happy to help soldiers overseas with anything that will make them feel at home, remind them of home."

Home in this case doesn't just link North Idaho and the Middle East. It's got the rich flavor of the Deep South, too.

On Wednesday, The Press received an email from Ruthie (Schaeffer) Al-Qallaf, writing from her home in the Adan neighborhood of Kuwait City.

"I know this is a long shot but I will try anyway," she wrote. "I am Ruthie Al-Qallaf, an American living in Kuwait and we do business with the American Military. We entertain the troops in our home in Kuwait and some of them are from Idaho. They were talking about a place called Jimmy's Down the Street, a restaurant in Coeur d'Alene that served monster [pecan] rolls. Their mouths were watering as they were describing them and I have invited them over to the house again at the end of this month. I would love to surprise them and serve them these rolls they keep talking about just to give them a little taste of home. Would it be possible to get the recipe from Jimmy's? It would be my honor to serve it to our troops."

A reporter took the email to Jimmy's at lunchtime Wednesday, and he was only too happy to comply. Purtee emailed the recipe to The Press, which forwarded it to Ruthie. The southern connection? Ruthie is from Memphis, Tenn., and Purtee says the pecan roll recipe comes from his great great aunt in Atlanta.

Without even baking the first big brown bun, Ruthie Al-Qallaf was thrilled.

"I will NEVER share this recipe with anyone," she wrote Thursday. "I know how it feels to have a great recipe to protect. I really appreciate [the newspaper's] effort and the generosity of Mr. Purtee to share a treasured recipe."

Ruthie and her husband, Kazem Al-Qallaf, operate a logistic company that has supported the U.S. military for the past nine years.

"My husband is Kuwaiti so [soldiers] get to see the different cultures and how we live but they always enjoy my cooking and the Southern food I cook," she wrote.

The Press asked Ruthie if she could name the Idaho soldiers who requested Jimmy's rolls, but she couldn't.

"Each time it is a different group so I may have a difficult time finding the same people who came once before," she wrote. Regardless, she said she plans to bake the rolls for the next group of soldiers later this month.

She also begged the reporter not to make this story about her.

"I do not want to make this about myself AT ALL," she wrote. "My heart goes out to them for being so far away from home and living under base conditions and eating that horrible Dining Facility food."

Purtee is pretty sure his pecan rolls will perk 'em up.

"Once you try 'em," he said, "you'll be back."

Even if you're coming back from 7,000 miles away.