Homemade Stuff

My hubby us the king of this sort of thing. He loves it. He's a home brewer, so he makes his own beer from scratch...even grows some hops in our back yard. He also makes sodas from scratch. It takes a lot of lemons and ginger to make ginger ale. I don't know how he has the patience for it, but I am glad he does, because I love it. He also makes his own yogurt. Right now at the top of our pantry is a bottle of rum stuffed with vanilla beans, because he is attempting to make his own vanilla extract. And he and his brother have aged and flavored rums in a small wooden barrel he got as a gift. He and my son(who is six) often make their own cheese. Mozzarella is the favorite since it's pretty easy and quick to make. Last year he and the kids made bath salts and bath bombs for everyone. He also cans and pickles things.

Hi Melissa~

I have to run errands, but I just wanted to say ..... just do an online search for "copy cat restaurant recipes" and you will find a ton of ideas!

I have used recipes from this site before: (I find myself going back to this site a lot lately to safe money.) Hope this helps!
~J.
http://www.budget101.com/frugal/copycat-clone-recipes-163/

I made a spa set for christmas one year for my mom, grandma,etc. They loved the facial scrub (oatmeal) and still make it!! I made bath salts that smelled wonderful to accompany and a facial scrub out of sugar.

The 1st time I whipped up some honey mustard my daughter thought I was a magegenius.
And I accidentally stumbled on the recipe-technique for homemade sweet and sour chicken. The bottled sauce at the store is better than a resteraunts and I fry the chicken with a little more flavor in the batter, so it looks just like a restaraunts but actually tastes better, if I do say so myself.

Vanilla extract and yogurt are my 2 favorite "I didn't know I could make that myself" things. Both are so easy too!

Everyone I know is coffee drinkers so one year I made homemade flavored coffees and creamers. They were SO EASY (and cheaper than buying them at the store)!!! They were a big hit. I recently found a recipe for flavored coffee syrups too. (Message me your email address if anyone wants them).

This year I'm making flavored popcorn salts. I thought that was a cute idea. (I can email that to anyone too).

Have you tried Pinterest.com? There are so many fun ideas on there!