Quick menu is just what your looking for, though Another possible option for them recently used items..
If, you use Titanium, download the home customizer off of marketplace, It has a nice working weather widget, contacts, search and a Apps widget that install into the titanium gui.
The Application widget if you may call it that, you can add up to 8 favorite items, then when its been in use for more then a day, it has a option to show recently used items that used to show in the start menu.
I use it for that option myself, and use the tweak on the start menu to itemize it similiar to how it used to look, then I folder everything lol.
Yeah I know, too much detail.

anyways, the pic below is how my start menu looks, and I attached a cab for that, folders you have to make on your own.
And the App for recent items is part of a package that you get from Windows marketplace, it is free, and really is a nice titanium tweaker.
Peace
WR