Gift Recipes: Cornbread Mix in a Jar

Flickr Photo Credit: Carol 329

I recommend using a wide mouth, quart-sized canning jar for this recipe. It’s much easier to ladle in the mix that way.

3 cups sifted flour, 3 cups yellow cornmeal, 1 1/2 cups instant nonfat powdered milk, 3 1/2 tbsp baking powder, 2 1/2 tsp salt, 3 tbsp sugar. Mix all of these items together and put in the clear glass jar. Add a decorative gift tag and a label with the following directions:

Combine 2 1/2 cups of the mix with 3/4 cup vegetable shortening, 3 lightly beaten eggs, 1 cup water. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Put dry ingredients in a bowl and cut in the shortening. Add eggs and water and mix well. Bake in an 8″ x 8″ x 2″ greased pan for 15-20 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Planting Memory Trees

Flickr Photo Credit: Jan Tik

This is a great way to add to your landscaping and memorialize special events in an affordable way. Whenever a new child is born or a special birthday or anniversary comes along, plant a tree in a specific place in the yard. You can watch it grow over the years and remember a special event for generations. Children love to sit beside their special tree for a story, to write in their journal, or with a friend.

Mini Frittatas

Flickr Photo Credit: Inga Beretta

This is kind of a fun and inexpensive one to do. Use any quiche recipe and pour it into muffin tins to bake. You can use crust for mini quiches as well. This way, you have individual servings of the main dish that look a bit fancier but keep the party budget under control.

Fun Family Trees

Flickr Photo Credit: Rick

This is a nice idea you can use for a family reunion or a gathering to document your collective genealogy. Have a tree potted in a prominent visible location. Hang pictures of old ancestors, and have people bring family photos to hang as well. You can then scan all of them for everyone before the event is over.

Final Uses for Tattered Family Quilts

Flickr Photo Credit: Normanack

Got a quilt from Grandma that really can’t be repaired, but has some decent parts left to it? Turn it into throw pillows, or if you have a bunch of grandchildren you want to have a piece of family history, turn it into ultra mini pillows to be used as pin cushions. Another idea would be to cut out the good sections and stitch solid colored borders around them. Then, frame under glass to make sure it’s completely protected.

Rainy Day Family Activity: Make Some Puppets and Put on a Show!

Flickr Photo Credit: Dlade

This is a great way to kill some time during a rainy day and preserve your parental sanity at the same time. I can tell you from my years in the classroom that students of all ages find this activity to be tons of fun. Afterwards, make up a skit or script that implements the new characters you have created. Put on a family show!

Try a Pot Luck Soup Supper!

Flickr Photo Credit: Sashertootie

This idea takes pot luck dinner parties to a whole new level of affordability. Soup is about as cheap as it gets. Have everyone sign up to bring a different type of soup in slow cooker, a topping or two, and a bread / biscuit / bread stick item. Make some flavored, whipped herb butters to have on hand. I would think this would be a fun menu to use for a winter activity outing, or after a fall hike.

Family Reunion Ideas

Flickr Photo Credit: Any Jazz 65

Even immediate family members can have difficulty finding time to spend together in today’s society. Finding the finances to do so can also be a challenge. Following are some ideas to make these events worthwhile, efficient and affordable:

1. Vintage party games - In this day and age of computer games and videos, many children do not even know about some of the old fashioned games the rest of us grew up with. Let Grandma or Aunt Josephine organize a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey, freeze tag, or an old fashioned board game tournament with some of the classics such as Trouble, Scrabble, Chinese Checkers, etc.

2. Tie dye some tee-shirts. This is great particularly if you are all meeting at a national park or campground. Basic tee-shirts are very affordable, and so is RIT dye. Using this strategy can be a fun activity for all groups of the family getting ready for the event and also helpful to keep an eye on the children during the big day.

3. Pick an affordable and simple menu. Breakfast / brunch gatherings, baked potato buffets, pot luck dinners and soup buffets are all very economical. The point is to make the event do-able for all members of the family, regardless of their financial situation.

4. Book a group cruise. OK, this one is not exactly the cheapest option. However, there are some decent package deals out there and compared to other destination get togethers, cruises can be very affordable. Other benefits? Nobody is stuck planning and coordinating all the activities, there are things there for everyone including the kids, all food is prepped, and nobody has to clean.

5. Assign a few photographers and have people send digital pics ahead of time.Make one person responsible for putting together a digital slideshow at the end of the event.

That’s what I have for now, although I’ll be looking for more ideas in the coming months. If you have a great and simple idea to make family get togethers run smoothly, by all means, let us know!

Keeping String, Twine and Ribbon Organized

Flickr Photo Credit: Lainey’s Repertoire

A couple of ways to keep things from getting tangled when working on craft projects with string, twine or ribbon is to put the ball of yarn (or whatever) into a saucepan or bowl . . . or even an empty restaurant style sugar dispenser. The kind with the stainless steel top and a hole in the center work great. Just feed the string out through the top. Got a helpful hint? Post away!

Preserve Your Family History by Digitally Archiving Old Documents

Flickr Photo Credit: Beachut 

Hand written recipe cards, old journals, immigration documents, awards, old newspaper clippings . . . these are all things that can be digitally preserved and used for custom printed scrapbook paper, put on a CD with pictures and have audio clips of the words being read, or used as parts of a larger graphic collage on a family web site. This is also a nice idea if there are numerous people in the family who would like to enjoy these bits of history, as there is typically only one copy of such documents floating around. I’d love to see some individual samples if anyone out there has any posted online.