If you're a regular reader here, you probably know I've joined a few online cooking and baking groups along the way. It all started two years ago when I stumbled upon the Sweet Melissa Sundays baking group. I did a brief stint with French Fridays with Dorie. I'm currently baking out of the Baked Explorations cookbook with Club: Baked once or twice a month and cooking/baking along monthly with Secret Recipe Club. I love all these groups because a.) I learn things I didn't even know I wanted to learn, b.) I connect with fabulous food bloggers, many who are now friends, and c.) I get to eat some tasty stuff.
I'm pretty excited to tell you about a new baking group that is a little different than the rest. This month I joined Operation Baking GALS. Baking GALS (GALS stands for Give a Little Support) is a group of volunteers that bake and ship home baked treats to soldiers deployed in a war zone. "Our goal is to show our support and send a little bit of home to remind them that we appreciate all that they do for our freedom." Pretty darn cool.
The GALS started back in 2008 and have been baking ever since. You don't have know someone in the military to join. Though if you do know someone, you can nominate that person to be a recipient of the Operation Baking GALS goodies. Every month teams are formed, each representing a solider or soldiers to bake for. Baking GALS read about each team and choose one or more teams to join. Up to 20 people can join each team. All the teams bake and ship within the same 10 day period with the idea that the solider(s) get showered with all sorts of treats that they can share with the rest of the their unit.
I sent my first box out on Tuesday to a solider overseas in the Air Force. The box included these homemade brownies and homemade ginger snaps. With a little extra room in the box I filled in the gaps with gum, candy, cornnuts and cup of noodles. It was a fun project to put everything together. Hopefully it brings a little taste of home to some of the brave soldiers who make freedom possible for all of us.
If you are interested in joining, head over to the Operations Baking GALS website and read through the FAQ's. The next round of baking will take place in June. Come and join the fun!
On completely unrelated note, you might have noticed that today I've posted my first photo collage! Woo hoo! I've always admired blogs with a snazzy collage. A quick web search led me to easy breezy instructions on how to do it with my Lightroom 3 software. I'm looking forward to playing around with it. Meaning you can totally expect to see more photo collages here.
P.S. Do something special for your the moms in your life on Sunday, May 13th, Mother's Day!
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