Sunday, December 14, 2008

Stuffing Stockings


My future Mother-in-law, Ginny, invited us all to stuff stockings yesterday for the local shelters and homeless kids around Seattle. She had the largest division with over 500 stockings filled! We had so much fun and of course it felt good to give back as well. Last year I volunteered to tutor kids in low income housing projects and I loved it, but it became too difficult for me to do once a week with my own work schedule, taking classes and having a new home so I had to stop doing it after a year. I am now looking for some volunteering activity that is perhaps once a month or I can sign up on days I know I'm free, so that's one of my goals for this next year. Remember, New Year's Resolutions are coming up soon. I've always like New Years Resolutions, it's a time to re-evaluate and see if there are things you can do better in the year to come--it makes me feel good to know I'm actively working on myself and making note of it.

We've got our spa Christmas party at our house tonight so I made my very first gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting. We'll see how that tastes tonight. I also made one of my favorite pasta salads with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes and arugula, but this time I added some salami and extra basil as well. We like it because it's so tangy. I made truffles this week with Sarah and Morgan--Caramel salt, oreo, toffee, kahlua and peanut butter. I'm terrible at making them, despite them tasting good, and I will never make them again. What a pain in the butt!! They are ugly too. Really ugly. The lasagna recipe I promised to report on turned out to be incredible and now my current favorite lasagna and the one I will use from now on. Some of the secrets to it were less noodles, both beef and pork, three kinds of cheese, fresh herbs, red wine and lots of good tomatoes. I also simmered the sauce for 3 hours before I even got started on the assembly of it--it was so good!

I'll be student assisting in a couple of CC classes this week so I'll take pictures and report on what we make. That is if I can get through the snow to get over to Beacon Hill. Happy Holidays!

1 comment:

Jenny + Mark = Love said...

Hi. Hayley, Molly and I have been talking about volunteering but are not sure where to start and what is appropriate for a 7 and 9 year old to do. We too could do something once a month. Let me know what you find, and if it is something we can do with you! I would have loved to stuff stockings. Have fun at your party!