Make It From Scratch Carnival #40

Bean Sprouts is proud to be hosting the 40th Make It From Scratch carnival. I've decided to include a short quote or a picture from each entry to give you a flavour and hopefully inspire you to follow the link.

Let's start with a bunch of Thanksgiving-related posts. I think we just missed it, didn't we (forgive me, I'm English). But you can bookmark them for next year.

Is pumpkin butter Thanksgiving-y? Amy Allen Clark presents Overcoming My Fears: Canning posted at Amy Allen Clark. Amy was afraid of home canning following a traumatic experience in a home economics class (!), but she says:

The whole process really went smoothly and I ended up with eighteen jars of Pumpkin Butter. I can't wait to give these away as hostess gifts!

Karen Weideman presents Children's Thanksgiving Activities posted at Thrifty Mommy. I'm including a picture for this one rather than a quote, because I loved this jolly turkey. Follow the link to see instructions for this and other activities.


Melanie Ellis presents Pumpkin Bread/Cake posted at Homeschool Help Web. Sounds wonderful. Melanie says:

It's delicious on it's own, or you could bake it as a cake and add a lovely cream cheese frosting to it. Mmmmm......

If you want a main course to go with that, StarXLR8 presents The Leftover Frittata posted at midwest neurotica. Star says:

Would work well with leftover Thanksgiving turkey or ham!

Stephanie presents Homemade Stuffing for Thanksgiving posted at Stop the Ride!. Stephanie says:

There are few food items that I am picky about, but one would be stuffing, especially at Thanksgiving. Serve me the stuff out of the box for a quick dinner, or on a camping trip, I have no problem with that. At Thanksgiving though I am looking forward to something more like my grandma made. The stuffing grandma made was moist and flavorful, and really shouldn't even be compared to the stuff from the box.

I couldn't agree more.

Heidi presents Our not so traditional tradition posted at Butterfly Mama. It's a recipe for Vietnamese salad rolls with peanut chile dressing. Sounds great. Heidi says:

They are so delicious I actually get a craving for them and the peanut sauce is really yummy over rice noodles too!

And here are some recipes that aren't specifically for Thanksgiving.

GP presents Kids can "do lunch" on the farm. posted at Innside Montana-Your Home at the Range. I love this recipe for Montana Muesli, and I just have to include this quote:

I want to see our communities get more and more localized, with more local food produced and consumed, more local goods bought and sold. I want to see local entrepreneurship encouraged. What a win, win, win… our environment, our local economy and… our kids… Yeeha.. eat up

Amen to that.

Teresa presents Corned Beef posted at Changing Seasons. Teresa says:

Our first year here, Daniel and I really wanted corned beef for Saint Patrick's day. However, we are unable to buy it here. So, last year we decided to corn our own beef. It worked well!

Mmmm, I love corned beef.

delilah presents Apples, Apples and more Apples. posted at The Miller Way.... Delilah says:

Here are a few apple recipes that I have tried that turned out fabulous! The Chicken & Apples recipe is TO DIE FOR! I am not kidding it was one of the best things EVER! Everyone in my family gobbled it right up!

Melissa presents Tightwad Wednesday - Stain Recipe & No-Knead Pizza Dough posted at A Penny Closer. Melissa says:

This dough was disturbingly easy to make. ... For the lack of effort/skill/time needed to make this recipe we definitely give it a “thumbs up”.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we can turn our attention to Christmas.

Alison presents Christmas Letters With a Twist posted at This Wasn't in The Plan. Alison says:

I always love reading all the "this is what our family has done this year" letters that we receive in Christmas cards.

Me too, Alison, and I hate all those sad sacks who complain about receiving them. What, you're happy to receive a Christmas card from me but you can't be bothered to read about what I've been doing? If you don't like keeping up with what your friends are doing, you don't deserve to have friends. Cross them off your Christmas list and save a tree, you old Grinch! Anyway...

joanie presents Mini dioramas for Christmas posted at joanie. Got to include a picture of this project. How cute is this?

And finally here are some miscellaneous makes and tips.

Jon Dyer presents Make Your Own Kubb Set For Dirt Cheap - Jon Dyer’s Blog posted at Jon Dyer's Blog. Jon says:

Kubb is a fun Swedish yard game for 2-12 players that is similar to horseshoes or bocce. It always attracts a crowd when we play the game on the beach, and I’ve yet to meet a player that doesn’t want a set of their own after a couple of rounds.

Sounds like a fun project and a fun game.

zamejias presents Bookmark It! posted at Verb. Instead of a quote I'm going to include a photo of Zam's frugal and unique pary invitations:

Laura Williams presents Candlemaking: Making use of those little candle stubs posted at Laura Williams' Musings. Laura says:

Making "new" candles from those little candle stubs is an easy way to use them up and get new life or light from them.

Summer presents Make your own Baby Wipes posted at Summer's Nook. Photo time again:

Tara presents Dry Brushing posted at walkabout. Tara says:

I've noticed benefits that make me miss brushing if I skip more than three days in a row. Plus it meets two of my biggest criteria for anything these days: it's cheap and good for me.

STOP PRESS

This entry was submitted before the deadline but was somehow missed in the initial release - I blame gremlins. HowToMe presents How To Make a Draft Stopper for a Door or Window Sill posted at HowToMe. HowToMe says:

In the autumn, I begin laying beach towels against the inside of exterior doors to stop drafts. This year, I’ve decided to recycle some material and leave the towels in the cabinet. Would you like to make a draft stopper for a door or window? Here is how I made an Evergreen Draft Stopper and a Sand Draft Stopper.

That's it, hope you enjoyed the carnival. Next week's carnival will be at Stop the Ride. You can submit your stories here.