Cooking Matters thanks our fantastic volunteers for helping to make our celebration on Saturday, February 27 so much fun! I am still in a nostalgic food coma from such a wonderfully diverse selection of pizza that I could enjoy, especially without receiving a charge per-slice. Here’s a recap of our fun evening of pizza building, apron decorating and terrarium creating activities.

Pizza Creations

The pizza building went way above and beyond my expectations. All of our pizzas (and a couple of experimental calzones) successfully made it to the oven and were eaten up without a hitch. It was such a pleasure to be able to taste-test so many amazing flavor combinations. Even a half-and-half split between Cynthia and Amy created a colorful juxtaposition that I’m sure had the same effect in flavor.

Apron Art

As far as the crafts go, we had a serious creativity blast. I’m proud to say our volunteers will be much more colorful in the next round of classes with their beautifully decorated aprons. Edgar revealed his artistic talent through a fruit portrayal that even incorporated shading.

Other beautiful examples include Sharon and Crystal’s ultimate pun-tastic aprons.

Kathleen found her creative instinct by pushing away the brushes and literally digging her hands into the paint and creating a fun and vibrant piece. Anna brought some Disney magic into the mix with her adorable Mickey apple.

Miniature Gardens

While our terrariums looked daunting at first, everyone was able to bring out their crafty sides and build little mushroom and vegetable gardens or even a giant tree, as Ben successfully took on. Erika was able to tackle the challenge of our smallest jar and accomplished a magical mini garden, with a mini p-patch sign to spare. Even Tena and Ashley (The winners of our cookbook raffle) have decided to take on terrarium building as their newest hobby, filling their house with as many terrariums as possible. (For that last case, I may or may have not exaggerating the impact of this project…)

Once again, thank you to our volunteers for the time and amazing attitudes that they bring to class for three hours, once a week, for a six-week course – that is, if they’re only volunteering for one class at a time! We would not be able to make an impact without your help, and I’m excited to start planning the next opportunity to celebrate with all of you.

Along with throwing parties, we love the opportunity to learn more about our volunteers and to share their experiences with as many people as possible, so we are thrilled to publish volunteer of the month recognition blog updates. Please be sure to take a look at our previous volunteers of the month, Sharon and Dee and keep a watchful eye for a post about our next star volunteer, Edgar.