A few weeks ago several bloggers that I follow made a post called "Hometown Traditions" and I found it so interesting to see how other towns and villages celebrate Christmas and the holidays. I live in Los Altos in Northern California and my hometown is brimming with traditions from tree lightings to fun runs. Want to see the traditions we enjoy?

Hi folks! Thank you all so much for your enthusiasm for this giveaway, and also many thanks to Mollie Ollie for offering this generous giveaway. This has been so fun and heartwarming to be able to offer such a lovely giveaway at this time of year. We have two winners today!

Hello! If you live in the USA, I want to wish you a happy Thanksgiving holiday. I know you're most likely busy right now but I wanted to pop in to remind you to save that turkey carcass (such an unattractive word!) and make turkey soup! Last year I wrote step by step posts to make no fail turkey soup. This post is where it begins!  We will be a small gathering this year but whether large or small, I always make a big turkey because we are a family who loves their turkey. The day after Thanksgiving I'll be listening to carols, decorating the house for Christmas, and making turkey stock. I actually look forward to the day after! 

I'm a gal who loves to give and receive gifts, but now more than ever I'm looking for practical, inexpensive, useful, clutter free gifts. Consumables are great to give; think champagne, lotto scratchers, candles, fancy baking mixes, and exotic jars of jam or honey, but I also love to surprise friends and family with supremely practical gifts they will love to use. 

Opening our stockings on Christmas morning is a big treat in our home. Each person is responsible for putting two items into each stocking and while we don't have a price limit, it's unspoken that they are supposed to be inexpensive. My son tends to give candy bars and my husband is fond of gifting lotto scratchers. My mother used to give toothpaste and floss and my daughter loves to give makeup and personal care items. My specialty is finding that quirky useful item. One year I gave batteries and scotch tape! Many of these items are appropriate for hostess gifts and a few are meant for more special under-the-tree gifts. I own, use and love every single thing on this list. Some you’ll find quirky but I think you'll love what I've come up with. All prices are accurate on posting day, but may change.

Are you ready to gift something that's a little bit out of the ordinary? Here ya go!

This little cardi is sailing across the beautiful blue Pacific to a baby girl who lives Upcountry in Maui where it actually gets cold enough to wear a sweater. The ruched detail on the yoke is very simple to do, yet makes a big splash style-wise. And then the flower buttons, sigh, I had them in my stash and they are perfect. I'm so happy with it and wish I could be there when the gift is opened.

Both my pantry and freezer need a good cleaning. They’re unorganized and jumbled, and despite my best intentions, I’ve simply let them both go.

I know myself well enough to know that I can’t even begin to clean either one until I use up much of the food I’ve been storing. So before the hectic holiday season begins, I’m going to challenge myself to eat mainly out of my pantry and freezer—use it up, create some space, and enjoy the bonus of making Zero Dollar Dinners along the way.

After the challenge, I can give everything a good scrub. But October is going to be for cooking and eating what I already have, not for shopping. Want to do it with me? Please say yes! Read on to see how we’ll do it.

The Zero Dollar Dinner Challenge

Let’s start October 1st and plan our meals with the intention of making Zero Dollar Dinners—also known as Pantry Clean-Out Dinners—for all our dinners, and go as deep into the month as we can. I’ve done this for a week before, but this is the first time I’ve tried it for a full month.

We’ll give ourselves a pass to shop for anything needed to complete a pantry or freezer dinner. For example, I have two cans of chopped clams, but to make chowder I’ll need to buy potatoes, clam juice, and half-and-half. Of course, I’ll still need to buy basics like apples, lettuce, and milk—but shopping for anything that goes into the pantry or freezer is off-limits.

The goal is to use what we already have before freezer burn or expiration dates force us to throw food away—something I really hate doing.

The Key: Meal Planning

The key to this challenge is meal planning. Start by assessing what you have and creating a dinner list. I’ve already done this and came up with about a dozen dinner ideas to get us started:

• Canned clams → clam chowder

• Canned salmon → salmon patties

• A slice of ham from the freezer → lentil soup (two nights!)

• A single frozen steak → broiled and sliced for steak salad for two

• Frozen brats → an easy sheet-pan dinner (perfect for busy days)

I also discovered three boxes of muffin mix I bought with grand plans to bake when my grandson was here… and never did. October will be the month we finally make those muffins.

And then there are the little European sauce packets I picked up on a recent trip to World Market. I’d be embarrassed to show you how many there are. What was I thinking? My bad—and now I need to figure out how to use them. This could make for some interesting dinners.

Join Me?

I hope this strikes a chord with you. Let’s make some interesting Zero Dollar Dinners together! I’m pretty excited about this—especially if you do it with me.

I haven’t explained this plan to my husband yet, but I know he’ll get on board once I tell him my reasons… especially if he thinks we’ll be saving some money.

And don't forget Crazy Soup! My most recent concoction ended up being southwest in flavor and was a real hit! Mostly made from a frozen container of sliced tomatoes and summer squash and something else I didn't recognize or remember--I whirred it together with stock, then added salsa, corn from two cobs, ground sausage and then topped with crushed tortilla chips and snipped chives, all leftovers. I usually make a salad but this week I had leftover bread and I always have cheese, so cheesy bread made a nice compliment.

I know so many of you come here for the knitting and I do have several knitting posts planned for the future. I have 3 test knits either finished or close to it, but I can't share until the patterns are published. Sit tight for knitting content--it's coming!

Please scroll down to leave a comment. I love to hear from you anytime, but especially interested in knowing if you are going to join me in October. Just imagine how wonderful it will be to face the holidays with a clean pantry and freezer, and just how nice it will be to save some money. Send this to your friends, your mom, your aunt, let's do it together!

Photo source from the top of page: Lacademie

Now it’s time for the easiest part: the cooking.

Empty the entire frozen contents of your container into a saucepan with a little water. If I have a lonely carrot or some other small vegetable in the refrigerator that doesn’t have a future plan, I’ll toss that in too. Cook everything on low heat until it’s fully thawed and heated through.

Next, blend the soup with a stick blender and give it a taste. It will almost certainly need to be thinned, so add chicken or beef stock, water, or milk—whatever you think will work best with your particular mix of ingredients. Let it continue to cook gently and season with salt and pepper.

Taste again, then add one interesting complementary flavor: curry, dill, an Italian herb mix, chipotle seasoning—whatever feels right. This is also the point where you can add a small amount of leftover meat, rice, or pasta if you have it. Chopped pork chop or a sliced chicken cutlet works beautifully (though most of the time, I don’t have those leftovers either).

Taste once more and make one final creative seasoning choice. Then dish it up and add your toppings.

For toppings:

• For color: chopped parsley, chives, or finely diced tomato

• For a nutty crunch: toasted sesame seeds or pine nuts

• For a flavor boost: a swirl of pesto or sour cream, grated cheese, or diced bacon (a little goes a long way!)

• For freshness: grated carrot or cucumber for a crisp contrast

Top it with whatever you have in your pantry and whatever you think will be great. That’s the beauty of this soup.

This is a fun, frugal soup and it’s different every single time. Honestly, we’ve never had one we didn’t love. Sometimes the soup turns out orange or red, sometimes green or white—and occasionally brown (like the time it leaned heavily on grilled onions and sautéed mushrooms). No matter the color, it always tastes good. But if it does look a little brown, I recommend a quick sprinkle of cheese or something colorful so no one notices… lol.

CRAZY SOUP RULES:

This was a beauty queen of my Leftover Soups. There must have been a lot of tomato, carrot and red bell pepper in it.

This one I purposely left slightly chunky. It was mainly leftover  enchilada casserole and potato. At the end I added some leftover taco meat  and topped with toasted pumpkins seeds.

This was the one with the leftover cauliflower au gratin casserole, half baked potato, and tater tots of all things, then topped with crispy bacon and pine nuts.

This had a suspicious color of greeny brown. I'm blaming the grilled onions. I quickly topped it with cheese, sour cream drizzle, chopped chives and shredded red cabbage. It was delicious despite the color.

This one was mainly chard casserole, asparagus, potato and broccoli. I topped it with grated Parmesan, chopped garlic chives and some beautiful purple garlic chive flowers.