Potlucks are known as a thrifty alternative to other dinner parties, but rarely do the terms elegant (or cool), and potluck go together. Here are some inexpensive ways to liven up the typical potluck event.

Have a theme. Same old potluck = dull. Create a theme; like an around the world potluck, a fiesta, a Hawaiian potluck, or a nature based organic potluck. You’ll still only be called upon for a dish or two, but a theme will bring something creative to the table.

Have a nibbler potluck: Have people bring their best appetizers, deserts, and cocktail fixings. This is a more adult gathering than your typical casserole potluck event.

Make your decorations work double time: Create a neat centerpiece that can actually be devoured. Use fresh fruits or edible herbs. You can freeze tiny violets or lilacs in ice cubes for pretty drinks, or even create ice bowls to use for serving. Learn how to make an ice bowl.  Ice bowls are especially nice with fruit salad or sorbet inside. Other decoration ideas can be inexpensive summer paper fans as place markers, flowers from your garden, or a plain white paper tablecloth livened up with stamps.

Shiny drinks: If you have an old tin bucket – or can find some sort of tin bin at a thrift store, cover it in clear glue, and sprinkle on the glitter. Fill with ice, and use for holding cold drinks. This looks better at night, with say, torches shining light on it. If you do it well, it’ll look good during the day as well though.

Lighting: Pull out last year’s holiday lights and hang them up. It’s an inexpensive way to create a nicely lit evening potluck. If you don’t have any left over lights, snag some LED string lights. They’re not always cheap, but one, you can find great deals online, and two, the LED lights conserve energy and will last and last.

Another idea that does double duty – lighting plus keeping bugs away, are these bamboo citronella torches. They’re a great deal for a set of six, and would look really nice either on the beach as shown, or you could place them in sand, in pretty containers or big garden pot.

What other ways can you think of to liven up a potluck; maybe bring in some extra style? 

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

She never used recipes. Progress was marked by the look, the feel or the flavor of the dish. Getting her to write down her recipes was no easy task. How does “knead the dough until it feels right,” translate into an amount of time? Well, if you had the pleasure of being in the kitchen when she cooked, you would know exactly how it should feel. She always called us over to learn how to make the perfect pie crust, or mouth watering rolls. There was never a store bought package of dough in her fridge…ever. Breakfast always consisted of homemade biscuits and sausage gravy, homemade jam, farm fresh eggs and squeezed orange juice. Cooking was not just her job, it was her passion. It was her gift from God and she joyfully shared it with others.

She cooked for all of the families in her church. She brought rolls to the ill or handicapped, every Sunday. She always fed the hometown vagrants a good hearty breakfast. Granted, they were only allowed in to the house if they were sober and they had to bow their heads in prayer, but all were welcomed at her table. Her meals delivered so much more than nutrition. They fed people love. Everything she made, was made with love. She cooked for other people, right up until her last year of life. I’m sure that she is in Heaven, making biscuits and gravy for the angels and teaching them how to knead the dough until it feels right. I feel so blessed to be her descendant and honored that she chose to bestow upon me, her love and knowledge of cooking.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

The fourth of July is my husband’s favorite holiday. His family has always gotten together for a huge potluck (I say ‘huge’ because it is at least 40 people strong,) and a night time fireworks display. However, times have changed and most of his family goes camping at the beach, now. Since gas prices and rental of a motor home are too outrageous to even consider, we are left behind. Does that mean that we cannot have fun? Heck no! We are going to stay local and make our own simple celebration. Here are some ideas that I’ve come up with for a simplistic, yet fun Independence Day.

1. Block party! If you have a street that is relatively quiet, your neighbors might appreciate the chance to take part in a travel free celebration. It’s a great way to get to know everyone. I’m even going to take the opportunity to pass out neighborhood watch fliers.
2. Reading of the Declaration Of Independence. Have you ever read it in its entirety? It really is a powerful statement. You can even break it down into kid friendly portions and let the kids take turns reading it.
3. Crafts! Making presidential hats and beards out of construction paper and cotton balls is always a blast for kids. Then they can wear their costumes while reading the Declaration.
4. Red, white and blue potluck. Make a menu of fun items that are colored American or bear patriotic names. For example: Red strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream on pound cake. Arrange the items on the cake slices to look like a flag. Then name it “Stars And Stripes Cake.” Make iced tea and float the strawberries in it. Call it, “Oh say can you tea?” Garnish burgers with red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, and blue cheese dressing and call them “Statues of Li-burger-ty.”
5. Organize water games that large groups can play. Red white and blue water balloon toss is always a favorite. More ideas: three legged races, spoon races with patriotic colored eggs, and “Name That President” (players have to match up clues with the president who said or did each thing.)
6. End the evening by finding a local fireworks show and enjoying the spectacular show on a blanket, under the stars.

Here’s hoping that you all have a safe and memorable fourth of July celebration!

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Today after running some errands, I treated my son to ice cream. While standing at the counter my son noticed a sign that said there was 10% discount if you sing. He asked the teenager behind the counter if he could sing a song and the teen told him to go for it. So my obviously not shy six year old sang “Supercalifragelisticexpealidocius.” The manager came out to listen and my son got a nice applause. There was no one else in the shop, but it was cute anyway. Plus we got a discount on our ice cream.

I don’t know if I’d ever sing like that, but with my son around, we’re sure to always get a discount.

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Today is my son’s birthday. We had a party with friends and family over the weekend, and tonight is just for the immediate family. He asked for barbecued burgers for dinner and said the leftover cake from Sunday is perfect and I shouldn’t get another, is this my kid or what?

We bought some gifts we know he’d like such as a bird house making kit and a children’s book of gardening tips. I was thinking of some of the other gifts we’ve given throughout the years – the ones that don’t come wrapped in pretty paper or cost money. You see, my husband and I are creative types and encourage that creativity in our son. My husband used to be a carpenter and is still pretty darn good with his hands. Our son helps him in the basement work shop and even has his own screwdriver, hammer and ratchet.

Through me our son has developed a love of gardening and writing. Plus he designs buildings in his sketch pads, mostly dog houses, and helps my husband or I cook and bake for each night’s dinner. He especially likes helping to bake treats for dessert. His favorite meal is salad made from fresh garden vegetables.

When we plant corn or weed the strawberry patch together my son will repeat things I said the past year or year before that, making me so proud of what he’s choosing to retain. At my very first meeting with his kindergarten teacher last November she was proud to tell me he was the only one in his class who could identify a cardinal or knew marigolds helped keep the aphids out of the tomato garden.

My son knows to go with the grain when sanding and the difference between using a dry or wet rub on smoked ribs. He writes and illustrates small books – usually about dogs, cats or mean mommies who make their kids clean the room instead of playing Wii, and can measure out the perfect amount of vanilla for our strawberry pancakes. Can you tell I’m proud?

We parents buy so many gifts throughout the years, and most of them aren’t carried through with them into adulthood. It’s the simple gifts, the gifts that don’t cost anything they’ll remember for life. Today, as I’m typing this on my son’s sixth birthday, I’m watching him pick strawberries and pull out some weeds and I’m amazed at how gentle he is with the plants. It hits me that he’s listening and paying attention even when I think he’s not. This reminds me he’s giving some wonderful gifts of his own.

What are some of the simple gifts you give to your kids?

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How timely. Yesterday I talked about how Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family spent their evenings back in the day when there was no television or Internet. Soon after I posted, major severe storms rolled into our area. My husband and I shut down computers and televisions and unplugged appliances. Last year my sister in law’s house was struck by lightning and their modem fried as did many of the appliances. We weren’t taking chances.

I read and he puttered around putting some things together handling little odd jobs. We also spent some time chit chatting and watching the lightning storm. We were both very content and didn’t miss television or the Internet at all. I suppose if this happened every night we’d miss it, but last night we didn’t.

My brother in law and his family were without television for over a year. When their set went they decided to see how long they could go without. My sister in law took up knitting and the kids learned music and took up art projects.  The missed television a little, but enjoyed playing games and talking together each night too.

I think every family should shut down now and then and reconnect, don’t you? What do you do when you shut down?

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I went to a book auction at one of the local libraries the other day and came back with a real treat. A lot of books and booklets about the Ingalls family – that’s the Laura Ingalls Wilder family, for those who didn’t spend a jillion years watching “Little House on the Prairie. Included were biographies, diary excerpts, letters, and even some books filling the gaps between and after the “Little House” books. Oh and I paid $5 for this glorious lot of books and pamphlets.

This was a real find for me. My sisters and I loved the “Little House” stories and always had an interest in the Ingalls and Wilder family. Reading Grace’s diary or letters between Laura and her daughter Rose gave me a deeper glimpse into their lives than I imagined and answered many questions.

That wasn’t what I was going to share with you today though. What I found interesting was how Laura and her family spent their evenings in the days before TV and radio.

The Ingalls family was tight knit, even those outside the immediately family. In fact many of Charles’ (Pa) and Caroline’s (Ma) brothers and sisters married each other! Talk about keeping it in the family.

One way they spent their evenings was with letter writing. The families kept in touch with a circular letter. One family would start a letter and mail to the next. They would each add to it until it came back to the original writer, the the chain would begin again. As Laura and her sisters grew older and married, they became part of the chain as well.

The family also did “fancy work” in the evening. Beading, knitting, crocheting, sewing. They read aloud from books and magazines, a chapter or two at a time. And when the lights grew too dim to read they, sang and danced to the sound of Pa’s fiddle.

Kids today would probably say most of that is boring. Who wants to sing and dance with family? It sounds like a good time to me though. I really look forward to Saturday nights – that’s our designated family night. We play games, pop corn, read stories and do things together. Now that it’s summer, we’ll probably spend our Saturday nights in the pool.

My son is a little too young to not want to spend time with his old mom and dad, but by starting the “family night” tradition now, we’re hoping it leads to a Saturday night habit as he grows older.

Families today can learn a lot from the Ingalls and Wilder families. Even as they grew older they didn’t grow apart. With miles between them they still wrote to each other and enjoyed each others’ company. They kept busy without electricity and somehow didn’t consider any of it boring.

Sounds like a good time to me.

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Right now it’s raining – not too light but not so heavy I have to close the windows. I love summer rain storms. One of my favorite sounds is that of a gentle rain hitting the leaves. It reminds me of my summers camping with my family. I didn’t really hear that sound in the city, but where I live now there are plenty of leaves. You may think I’m silly opening my windows to hear a rainstorm, but for me it’s one of those pleasures money can’t buy.

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Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Growing up without air conditioning proved to toughen me up as an adult. In fact, I didn’t have air conditioning in any of my homes or apartments until my husband and I bought this house six years ago. And my husband never had it in his house either. So you can see why we’re not one of those families who have to have the a/c on as soon as the outside temps hit 70’s.

Now don’t get me wrong, we do get hot and we do like to cool off. Sometimes though, air conditioning seems so cold. Here are some of the things we do to keep cool before flipping the switch:

• Eat watermelon – I really love ice cold watermelon and it’s very cooling on a hot day.
• Ceiling fans – This house came with ceiling fans in every room. We open the windows to create a cross breeze and turn on the fans.
• Sit under the old maple – We have a huge maple tree in our backyard. I can’t believe how much cooler it is in the shade! My husband sets up a hammock and I get out the soccer mom chairs and we sit under there and read and chill.
• Drink lots of water – I won’t lecture you on the importance of keeping hydrated, but I will mention how an ice cold glass of water truly does hit the spot.
• Swim in the pool – We were fortunate to have bought a house with a pool. Every afternoon when my son comes home from camp, and most of the weekends we’re out in the water.

What are some of the ways you like to cool off?

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Last year I planted a dozen strawberry plants. We had a few strawberries but I didn’t expect much with the first season. The strawberries spread and grew though and took over about 3/4 of my vegetable garden. In May we noticed lots of pretty strawberry flowers and this weekend we started bringing some nice big, sweet ripe berries inside. It’s going to be a good crop this year too. We can probably freeze enough to last through the winter – if we don’t eat them all that is.

Don’t you love it when your veggies and berries are ready? Nothing beats the stuff you grow at home!

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Post from: Thrifty Mommy