I try and limit what I spend on anything, including crafting. So it’s a good thing that I’m an expert bargain shopper! Here are some of the deals I’ve picked up lately.

At a church rummage sale (which are pretty much the best you can attend) I found these old patterns for just a nickel. I bought ten of them for a whopping 50 cents! I use them in mixed media pictures and other crafy uses. Plus, seeing those old graphics on there is pretty hilarious.

We have an American Science and Surplus store by us, and you just never can tell what type of bargains you’ll find there. Sometimes I find stuff for jewelry making, DIY house stuff, crafting, painting… whatever. It’s one of those places that has changing inventory, so when you go at different times you see different things. As you can see by this visit, I got some white mini poster boards, some crafting metal, and scrapbooking supplies for a total of $3.13. That’s right! Just $3.13. How can you go wrong?

I used to find a lot more items on sale at Big Lots than I do now, but occasionally I still come across the gem of a find. They have scrapbooks and scrapbooking supplies pretty cheap there, but this visit I found some yarn. Note the funky color and shape! This would have cost me about $3 a skein at least somewhere else, but I found it for just $1.

The other day my hubby came home, gave me a big hug and said, “I have something for you in the kitchen.” I thought: flowers? candy? love note? pizza, so I didn’t have to cook dinner?

I went out to see his surprise and said, “Zucchini? You brought me a zucchini.” He nodded, gave me a kiss on the cheek, and laughed as he went to watch TV.

I quickly noticed that this was no ordinary zucchini. It was massive. My hubby’s pal gave him this beast, which was about the size of three grocery store zucchinis put together.

Here’s the thing, I’m not a fan of zucchini. I never make it, and when we go somewhere out to eat I usually push the stuff under my mash potatoes. Still, I knew a challenge when I saw one. I was going to make so much zucchini my husband wouldn’t know what hit him.

As it turned out, it was a busy week. I was doing specs for a new client and had no time to make that beast of a vegetable. Still, I was impressed that for almost a week it stayed fresh, just sitting on our counter. When I finally decided to make it, I chopped up a few pieces into matchbook size chunks and fried it in some olive oil with salt and pepper. It was okay, but I’m a freak when it comes to veggie texture. I had cooked the zucchini a bit too long for my taste, so I made a note of it. Then, I looked for some more recipes.

Zucchini Chips
A few days later, I made Zucchini chips. I liked the fact that they were baked and so easy to make. They were good, but a little soggy. Again, it’s that texture thing. If I were to make these again I would try to do it in a drip pan that raised the zucchini off the surface.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
The thing about zucchini in a cake is I always find it so heavy. So I found this recipe taken from Cooking Light magazine and it was great. I did not use the glaze that is supposed to go on top, however. Instead I just sprinkled powdered sugar to finish. I liked that the recipe uses egg whites and two leavening agents to give it some lift. It was still moist but didn’t sit in your stomach like a rock afterward. We had a piece for dessert and then I sent the entire thing to my hubby’s place of work the next day.

Chicken and Zucchini Skillet
Last night I made this chicken and zucchini skillet dish. It was FABULOUS. I made a couple changes to the recipe, all very slight. I used penne pasta, skipped the fresh tomato and used half a cup of canned diced tomatoes instead. I also used a green pepper (because I had it) and instead of roasting it first I cut it up and placed it in the pan after browning the chicken. I also doubled the breading ingredients, and dumped the whole thing (breading and chicken) in the pan to brown. When the chicken was browned, I kept the remaining breading in the pan to mix with the pepper. Then, when it was time to add the Alfredo sauce it took on a nuttier taste. It was great. I added the zucchini right at the end to keep it from getting too mushy. The chicken comes out very moist, and the lemon and tomato add a nice bit of tang that keeps the whole thing from getting too sweet. However, if you have someone in your family that hates tomatoes, you can skip them altogether and you won’t miss them. This also makes a ton of food, so you’ll have a lot left over for lunches.

Sweet Zucchini Vegetable Saute
As the word this week in our house was zucchini, it was a kick to see Melissa d’Arabian make a zucchini dish on her show this week. I love that Food Network has put the shows from all the Next Food Network Star winners on Sunday morning. It makes them easy to find, and I really enjoy taping them and watching them later Sunday afternoon. The funny thing about Melissa d’Arabian is that I wasn’t initially rooting for her during the Next Food Network Star (sorry!), but once her show came on, I saw her fabulousness and have been a loyal viewer ever since. Her recipes are really, really great. This weekend she made a zucchini skillet dish that used Herbs de Provence, so she had my attention right there. I love that flavor combo, and even created a Chicken Riesling Stew recipe so I could use them. I’m making the zucchini and onion dish tonite with pork chops that have a Dijon mustard sauce. I think the Dijon and Herbs de Provence will be a good flavor combo.

All in all, I’ve been very happy with how long this zucchini has lasted and also how many different dishes we’ve been able to use it in. Since people tend to grow zucchinis in their vegetable garden, they also make an inexpensive item for a meal.

Whenever you don’t hear from me for a week or so, it usually means I’m doing some like soldering my fingers to the bone or creating another new blog or website. In this case, it’s a little of both, but more of the latter than the former. My latest blog site is called Frugal Home, and it contains all the things that make up my frugal lifestyle. Topics like recipes, decorating, flea market finds, what to look for at rummage sales, cooking well and with great ingredients, craft projects, and more. Can you tell I love this site?

Creating a new website or blog is always a challenge. There are things like colors, advertising, blogroll, logos, and even that handy dandy favicon on the top of the navigation bar. Notice how my teeny tiny mug is at the top here up by your browser? The Frugal Home blog has a lovely little house as its favicon. Aww….

Seriously, setting up a blog takes time, but I also have a lot of great people to help if I need it. I mean it when I say I worked with the best bloggers in the business at b5. They aren’t just great writers, but also knowledgeable about marketing, SEO, and making your blog work for you. I have sponsors and money coming in because I learned how to make it all work.

Frugal doesn’t necessarily mean going without, rather, it means doing it more creativity and less expensively. Being frugal also means reusing things, and finding a new way to use a product. Once you start living frugally, you begin to look at money differently. It isn’t that you don’t spend money but you feel differently about it. Money is more real to frugal people. We don’t just pop something on our credit card because we want it now. We find ways to save up, or even to use an alternate method, like creating something new instead.

Not everything I’ll blog about at Frugal Home will be “cheap” in the traditional sense. For example, this mirror is to die for but it’s also pricey. I’ve written about it because it’s an example of what to do with recycled materials. (It’s also gorgeous…. tell me you don’t want to order it as soon as you see it!)

I’m hoping you’ll visit Frugal Home often. I’ve got a lot of material for the site, and will be adding to it every day. I’ve always been a frugal girl but I also love to have fun, make great food, and have a comfortable home. All of it can be done in a frugal manner, and I’ll talk about different ways that I do it. I’m the queen of rummage sales and thrift stores (and have my Goodwill discount card to prove it!) but yet if you were to come into my home you’d see a lot of artwork and furniture. Hopefully, you’d sink in to a couch and feel at home. That’s my goal when you visit my house or my blog. Come on in and make yourself comfortable!

I’m not sure what’s happened to the world. For the last month I have been searching high and low for an address book. You know, a simple, not-office-looking book in which I can write the addresses and phone numbers of my friends and loved ones in.

But here’s what I’ve found: people must not use address books anymore! I used to be able to find a lovely address book in places like Wal-Mart (you know, because I’m cheap) or even The Dollar Store (for the same reason.) If I wanted a businesslike address book (I don’t know why I would, but still) then I would get one from the office supply store.

The thing that I’ve found is that address books are now considered one of those hoity toity things that people who love to write buy for an exorbitant price. They must be, because I can only find the nice ones that I used to find (at places like Wal-Mart) are now at places like Barnes and Noble. For too much money. Don’t get me wrong, I love nothing better than spending an afternoon writing poems with a luxurious pen in a fabulous journal. But I just wanted a simple address book!

I mean, where do people keep their addresses these days? Is everyone on a Blackberry? In the end, I bought a Jane Austen type address book. It was smaller. Much smaller than I would have liked. I wanted a normal size address book, not a mini, carry-in-your-purse address book. But ugh…. I gave in. I purchased this Jane Austen book with cute Jane Austen sayings and drawings throughout the book.

And then, I took great pleasure in writing (by hand!) all of the addresses I had. Electronics be dammed!

Image: sxc.hu.

I’m coming off a lovely weekend. First, there was Thanksgiving, which is probably my favorite holiday of the year. I love what it represents: celebrating gratefulness, praying for others, having fellowship and a meal with family, watching football, enjoying an old fashioned but time honored parade, and taking time off to relax and enjoy life. So many great things packed into Thanksgiving without any of the commercialism that comes with Christmas (unfortunately.) I once heard the pastor at our church say that we haven’t managed to wreck Thanksgiving, and that’s one thing he liked about it.

I agree! One of the more silly things I love at Thanksgiving is my turkey plates.   I’m not kidding, I really do love them. Sitting at a table of great food surrounded by gobble plates, turkey napkins, and corn candle holders makes me very happy for some reason. This year, I had even more reason to be happy, and that was my brand new turkey gravy boat. Behold:

Anyone that reads this blog also knows something else. I’m cheap a tightwad frugal. Yes, frugal. I love me a good bargain. This year’s bargain came courtesy of the Salvation Army Store where I purchased my beautiful gravy boat for $1.16. It had a broken ladle. As if that was going to deter me! I happen to have a very lovely ladle at home that went perfectly with it. I made a new gravy recipe to put in this gravy boat and it got wild raves from everyone. (The recipe is from the fabulous Barefoot Contessa. If you make it, skip the creme and white wine, and only use half the amount of butter. I’m just saying…) My husband was still complimenting me on it after eating the leftovers for two days. Good recipe!

This year was a Packer Thanksgiving, also. We beat the Lions in a convincing win, and the world was as it should be. Not much to say since we played the Lions. Stafford played hurt, which was a surprise, but he is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the upcoming years. Mark my words.

Since the Packer game was on Thanksgiving, we didn’t make soup for the game. However, on Sunday we settled in for a day of watching the Bears lose game watching and used up our leftovers by making turkey vegetable soup with stuffing dumplings. My GOSH this is a great recipe. First, however, I did tweak it. Rather than boiling the carcass, I used chicken broth. I skipped the whole black peppercorns and added some egg noodle pasta (about 6 oz) because the two cups of stuffing really did not fill up the pot. I opted for more broth rather than less (about 94 oz). In the future, I think I will make extra stuffing at Thanksgiving to use specifically for this recipe. (Or do as I did this time and just add some pasta.)

This was a wonderful way to use up all the leftovers. The soup takes some carrots and celery, onions, and leftover corn and combines that with the stuffing dumplings and turkey. I also used dry thyme instead of fresh (about two teaspoons) and put salt and pepper into both the broth and the dumplings. This is one recipe that is better the next day, also. Give the soup some time to mesh all those great flavors together and you won’t be disappointed. It’s a wonderful recipe, so hats off to Wes Martin for coming up with it.

I really had an epiphany this year, as well. So often I get a little sad at the holidays because our family is so very small now. But not this year. We had a lovely time, a relaxing weekend, and a few days that made me realize the blessings I have in my life. Hope your holiday was bright and here’s to the upcoming set of special days we’ve got in December!

Actually mulligatawny has been the word for about five days now. My husband saw this fabulous recipe on Guy Fieri‘s show and said, “Hey Babe, let’s try this.” It was made with ingredients we happen to have around our house every day, and it was cheap to make besides.

In case you’ve been out of the loop, I’ve been making a soup or stew recipe every week for the Packer game. This week it was the mulligatawny soup, and it was so good! Inexpensive to make and delicious besides. Also, it made TONS of leftovers. The soup was a hit, the game was a win, but the injuries of Al Harris and Aaron Kampman have left me very sad.

They’re both out for the season. This week we’ve got the Lions (on Thanksgiving – YES!) and to be honest, I’m not sure how this one will go. Thanksgiving games tend to be somewhat unpredictable anyways, and then with our two key injuries and the Lions performance from last week… I think it could go either way. I’m going to edge toward the Packers only because Matt Stafford could possibly miss the game with his shoulder injury.

Speaking of which, have you seen the very funny video about Stafford now? Someone is spoofing his newly found he-man status after toughing it out with that shoulder only to go back in and throw the game winning hail mary touchdown. Check it out:

Oh… silly sports fans! (And yes, I count myself in that mix.)

Which reminds me, I went to see Packer legend Forrest Gregg at one of our local bookstores last week. What a story this has turned out to be! I wrote about it on my EveryJoe column, but let me tell you that this visit is truly one of my favorites in terms of Packer memories. And not for the reason you’d think.) Gregg spoke about his new book, and we all politely listened, asked questions, and laughed. You know how it is with a bookstore appearance – you want to be polite and accommodating. Gregg, now in his 70s, talked about the Lombardi years, days of old, Brett Favre, and the kinds of things players used to do that now get called for a penalty.

Before and after his appearance, he was gracious about posing with the guys in the audience. As he came to the table to sign copies, I asked if I could have a picture with him as well. He looked me in the eye and said, “Let me tell you a sad story.” Since he had been standing for an hour, I thought he was going to tell me that he needed to sit down, that he was an old football player and his knees were bad, or that he has to draw the line on pictures somewhere. Anything would have been better than what he said.

Instead he told me about Bart Starr getting sued by some woman who had a picture of them together. The only thing I remember about Starr was that an 80-some year old woman tried to extort money from him a couple years ago and had written threatening letters to him. She pleaded guilty and we haven’t heard a word about it, but at the time the woman was claiming that she had a relationship with Starr.

I’m not sure if this is what he was talking about or not. But Gregg said ever since this happened to Starr, he doesn’t pose with women. We all laughed and he sat down. Our laughs were the kind that happen when someone says something stupid and you don’t know what to say in return. The bookstore lady looked a bit taken back, and even said, “Well what if she poses with you and her husband?” Of course by this time Gregg was seated. Discussion over.

He then asked me who he should sign the book to, and I was going to be a smarty pants and say, “Well you better sign it to my husband or else I’d probably try and sue you” but I didn’t. Why bother at this point? He’s an old football player that obviously thinks he’s charming enough to pull off a sexist comment and not have anyone think better of it.

On our way home, of course, my husband and I laughed our heads off. What a dippy thing to say! I still think perhaps Gregg really did have to sit down and was just tired of taking pictures. But whatever. This story is a way better Packer memento than actually having the picture. We’re taking the picture we did snap of Gregg alone while he was giving his speech, and are making it into an ornament for our Packer tree. I’m going to write “I don’t pose with girls” underneath Gregg’s photo.

The life of a Packer fan. You never know what’s going to happen next.

But remember, the word for today is not Forrest or Packers or even chauvinist but mulligatawny!

What a difference this weekend has been from last. Last weekend, despite being Labor Day, wasn’t very fun for us. But this weekend was! Had a fabulous evening last night with our pals Diane and Dave. We ate at the Bonefish Grill. Have you ever tried it? You definitely should. Get the bang bang shrimp if you go.

Today’s been another day of work (which isn’t unusual) but the feeling and pace of the weekend has been very different. Today we also put up our Fall and Packer stuff. It’s the start of the football season, people! Every year we try and celebrate in some small way. We have a few traditions, and one of them is putting up a bunch of Packer stuff. The other is planning a Sunday menu. This year we’ve decided on soups and stews. Each week we’re going to make one of our favorite soup or stew recipes. Today’s recipe is this great Provencal Vegetable Soup from Ina Garten. The saffron really adds something special to this dish, as does the pistou at the end. It’s not difficult, and even my meat-loving husband loves it. Definitely a winner on a chilly day. (Which today isn’t, but we’ll pretend!)

We also put up our Packer junk. First, the tree:

We’ve collected ornaments for years. I started almost twenty years ago and every year we’ve added one or two. We find them at rummage sales, flea markets, and even get them as gifts. (We’re frugal, I told ya that right?) We also have a couple Packer figures we’ve gotten over the years. Last year we saw the Green Bay offensive line at a flea market:

We have them lined up behind a mini-Lambeau field, which we got at McDonald’s a few years ago. The Title Town towel we picked up for $1 at a rummage sale last year. (Frugal people are more fun!)

The Pack plays late tonite against our division rivals Da Bears. I think it will be a good match up. I’m ready to relax and have some fun, how about you?