November - Holiday Dinner

We started out the night with two service projects.

1.) Making holiday cards to give to hospice
2.) Donating books to youth in need (ages 12-18)

Then, we had a dinner provided by the Relief Society. The activities committee prepared the meal at home and brought it to the church. We had...

ham
brisket
mashed potatoes
gravy
scallop potatoes
salad
corn
rolls

The dessert was potluck style

Prior to the activity, sisters signed up to decorate tables. Here are a few pictures of table settings.

After dinner we had a 30 minute program. First one of the bishops counselors spoke, then there was a musical number, and the bishop was the final speaker.

October - Apple Cider Pressing

We pressed apple cider at a members home for our R.S. harvest activity. Everyone had a job to do. Prior to the activity, people donated apples and jars. We split the cider.

 

Visiting Teaching Gift

This is a gift I put together for one of the ladies I visit teach. I picked some blackberries in our yard and decorated this thank you card box to put them in.

Garden Party - September

We had a garden party in September at the R.S. President's backyard. She had such a lovely garden there and we had a potluck with a garden ingredient theme. One person brought pudding with crushed oreos on top, candy rocks and gummy worms. I thought the dish was very appropriate for the event.

The missionaries came for dinner and they gave a spiritual message on service. It was more of a discussion with all of the sisters and it was very uplifting.

These are the table settings that we put together for the event. I love how they turned out.

Beautifying the Home - August

I loved August's R.S. activity. We started out at the church and had a 30 min class on interior design from a sister who got her degree in it at school and who worked in the profession.

Then, we went to a another sisters home to see the practical application of beautifying the home. This sisters home was so lovely and she prepared an incredible assortment of dessert refreshments that could be found on table tops throughout the house. She gave a spiritual message too that was very uplifting.

Fresh Mozzarella and Artisan Bread + Service Project - July

For our July R.S. activity we started out the night with a service project making hospice cards.

Then we had two cooking classes -
1) artisan bread making
2) how to make fresh mozzarella cheese

I taught the artisan bread class. I started out by introducing these breads.

1) Babka (marbled chocolate bread)
2) Challah (sweet bread)
3) Pain d'epi stuffed with bacon and covered in a herb garlic mixutre

I showed the methods for shaping the dough into these loaves and provided samples and recipes. I had braided Challah loaves and rolls that were stuffed with a sweet cream cheese mixture and blackberries.

Here is a picture of my stuffed rolls and here is the recipe for challah.

Here's a picture of a braided challah loaf.

Here is a picture of a chocolate & cinnamon babka and here is the recipe for the chocolate one.

 I don't have a picture of the pain d'epi with bacon, but you can find one here along with the recipe. I brush the loaf with garlic herbed butter once it comes out of the oven.

Our second class was a demonstration on how to make mozzarella cheese.
There were samples of regular and marinated mozzarella at the end.

Health Night - June

We had a "Health Night" activity for June. There were three 30 minute classes.

Class #1 = Nutrition (taught by a nutritional counselor in our ward)
Class # 2 = Chefs healthy cooking class (taught by a professional chef in our ward)
Class #3= Physical fitness class (taught by a marathon runner in our ward)

All the classes were great. I summarized my favorite parts from the night below...

Nutrition class
There were three small tables with healthy grains and other foods displayed. The presenter talked about the importance of eating whole foods, which are foods closest to their original form (unprocessed.) She talked about how diet can help cure a lot of our aliments. I felt like her message was really inline with the word of wisdom. At the end of her speech we got to sample healthy granola that she had made.

Chef's Class
The chef's class was really fun. I learned that there are a lot of different kinds of salts. He displayed five to ten, but I think there are somewhere around 100 different kinds of salt out there. He cooked and let us sample thai chicken curry and salsa chicken with rice. We also talked about cooking with lemon grass, lemon leaves, and other spices that add flavor.

Physical fitness class
This was a really motivating class. The presentation was done by a marathon runner who invited some friends and family to share personal stories about how they had met their physical fitness goals. One of the ladies that spoke had lost over 100 pounds. She brought in before and after pictures. At one point the main speaker talked about how phyisical fitness can add to your happiness and emotional stability. I thought her presentation was really on point with the word of wisdom too.

Service Auction - May 2013

Our service auction was so fun. We started out with dinner (Italian themed potluck.) Then, we had the service auction. The seminary teacher was our auctioneer and he was so funny. He had the ladies laughing the whole time. 

Here's a picture of a flower centerpiece on one of the tables

 

I had the numbers for the paddles printed off on card-stock at office depot. Then we cut them in circles, glued a colored piece of paper on the back, cut around the colored pieces with special scissors to make them look like flowers and hot glued large pop sickle sticks between the 2 pieces of card stock. I got most of the supplies for this project from Michaels. Here is a picture of how the paddles turned out.

 

When people won services we gave them a filled out coupon. See pic below.

Here is a pic of the s'mores pie that I gave away as a service.

Cupcake Decorating Class - April 2013

Cupcake decorating tutorials

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5jxPN5xYpw&feature=player_embedded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nreNuE_HuU4