'Twas a Merry "cooking" Christmas

It's been almost a month since Christmas now, but I must share how I think my family was sending me a "sign" with all the gifts they gave me for Christmas... see below!

Posing with my mom in my "Will cook for SHOES" apron (haha soooo me) and my mini Giada pot (what in the world will I cook in it, I have no clue, lol).

The ORGANIC spice rack from my sister-in-law Jen... looooooooove it

An awesome cast iron pan from my brother Ray.. Emeril, no less =)

And my "green" cooking pan (along with a bunch of baking items) from Steve!

All of these items are FOOD & COOKING related! (duh, haha). These are just a few of the many cool cooking-related items I got.. So, I'm taking this as a sign - I am meant to have a career involving food. Haha, that or maybe they just know I like to cook and want me to cook for them.. but either way works for me.

So bring it on 2011.. let's see what dishes I'll whip up, what culinary adventures await me, and maybe what cooking-related hobby (or even career?) I may pursue.. I'm hoping to motivate myself to blog about them all (the tasty & not so) as well as other things that "inspire" me this year!

Oh, and here's a few more pictures just for good measure. I love my family.

Christmas Shopping!

Ahh, some of my wonderful online purchases have begun to arrive!  I have to say, I really enjoy shopping via the web, more this year than any other! I think about 50% of the shopping we've done has been online. Pretty cool :)

Anyway, on to the goods... First is vitacost.com - for all my natural & organic things like toiletries and some food.

Here's the loot!

Now for some close-ups..

Some of these are repeat products that I already love.. others are new for me to try. I've liked everything I've gotten at Vitacost so far, so I'm sure the new stuff will be favorites soon.

Ok, more tomorrow! Goodnight =)

Shopping for a cause...

Happy belated Thanksgiving! Can't believe it's December tomorrow.. that gets me to thinking about Christmas, and of course Christmas shopping!

Since I don't really do the Black Friday thing (too many crowds for me) & I haven't really gotten the Cyber Monday deal down,  I've decided to find ways to make my Christmas purchases actually give back.

So I did a bit of research and found some great shopping sites (some I've used before) that donate a portion of their sales to charity:

Greater Good

This is a great site. It lists various websites that donate part of their profit to charity. I've actually purchased from some sites like the Hunger Site and the Breast Cancer Site (where you can click to give too!).

Toms Shoes

I love the idea of the "One for One" movement - for every pair of shoes you buy, one is given to a child in need through a charity organization. What a great cause. Though I'm not particularly a fan of the original style of TOMS shoes, I see that there are so many

Warby Parker Eyewear

Similar to Toms' movement, Warby Parker donates a pair of glasses for every pair that's purchased. They do this through charity organizations like RestoringVision.org. Can't wait to buy a pair of Warby Parker glasses for such a great cause.

iGive

I'm still learning about this one, but I believe you register with a charitable cause (you can add your own, very cool) and then going by through the iGive site, you shop on brand-name shopping sites like Barnes & Noble, Gap, Best Buy. Sounds like a wonderful site that I may register for right now..

I'm sure there are so many more sites and organizations that do the same. Hopefully these sites will inspire me to buy gifts for my family & friends while being able to help people in need =)