Everyday Celebrations From Scratch

by Maria Provenzano

Overview

Why wait for the holidays to celebrate?

Life’s everyday moments are worthy of connecting people together with food and crafts. Everyday Celebrations from Scratch is filled with impressive (yet easy) recipes, step-by-step craft tutorials, and inspiration to set the scene—all to help you create the life you want, from scratch.

First, Maria shares the essentials of everyday celebrations, including must-haves for a well-stocked pantry and the basic supplies for craft activities anyone can do.

Each section of the book provides inspiration for both food and do-it-yourself (DIY) projects, so you can invest minimum time for maximum impact! Discover how fun it can be to celebrate . . .

• Weeknight meals, so even a takeout night is memorable
• Family, including an inspiring and nourishing breakfast before a loved one’s major presentation or important test
• Friendship, with crafts like custom bookmarks for your reading club or wine glass tags for a girl’s night in
• Sports, which can involve the best-ever tailgating party or a neighborhood backyard Olympics
• Seasons, to make it even easier to feel festive all year round

Everyday celebrations are the foundations of memories that last a lifetime, and Maria will show you just how easy it can be!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780785245780
Publisher:	Harper Horizon
Publication date:	06/28/2022
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	683,889
Product dimensions:	7.70(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Maria Provenzano is a lifestyle expert who loves inspiring others through crafting and unique recipes. She believes in all things homemade and hopes to encourage others to add a bit of creativity (and fun!) to every day.

Maria is the creator of the site FromScratchwithMaria.com and has had recipes published in numerous magazines, including Bake from Scratch Magazine, Taste of Home, Luxe Life Magazine, and Focus Magazine. She has also been featured on such sites as The Local Moms Network, LaurenConrad.com, Refinery 29, CafeMoms, and Giada De Laurentiis’s Giada: A Digital Weekly.

On Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family, Maria shares her love of homemade crafts, food, and do-it-yourself (DIY) projects. As a mother, she also loves to inspire families to come together through crafting with kids. A native of the Great Lakes State of Michigan, Maria graduated from Florida State University with a BA in theatre and moved to Los Angeles after completing her degree. She is a wife and a mom to two happy boys, and she loves yoga, a great cup of coffee, and spending time with her family.

Maria is a lover of all things crafty and is obsessed with cooking and feeding those around her. She is self-taught—and mom-taught, taking inspiration from the most imaginative, organized, detail-oriented person she knows: her mom! Her hope is to inspire others to be hands-on in their own lives. Follow Maria on Instagram @fromscratchwithmaria.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Maria's Favorites for Celebrating Every Day ix

Part 1 Celebrating Weeknight Meals

Making Messes Monday 5

Taco Tuesday 19

Pasta Wednesday 35

Takeout Thursday 55

Friday Fete 67

Wonderfully Sweet Weekend 81

Part 2 Celebrating Family

"You've Got This" Power Breakfast 99

Creative Kid Time 111

Family Picnic 125

Favorite Family Recipes 139

Part 3 Celebrating Friendship

Friends + Wine = Everything's Fine 159

Books-Optional Book Club 175

Self-Care to Share Spa Day 189

"Forever Friends" Support 205

Part 4 Celebrating Sports

Breakfast of Champions 225

Soccer Mom Saves the Day 238

"Go Team" Tailgate 253

Neighborhood Field Day 265

Part 5 Celebrating Seasons

Summer Camp Classics 283

Autumn Colors 295

Snow-Day Play 311

Spring Gardens 323

Acknowledgments 341

Index 343

About the Author 350

Editorial Reviews

05/02/2022

Lifestyle television personality Provenzano, of the Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family, offers readers ways to “get the party started” in this entertaining collection of recipes and DIY projects. The “dedicated do-it-yourselfer” organizes her chapters around occasions that “are perfect for a touch of jollification”—from celebrating weeknight meals to hosting “books-optional” book clubs with friends. A game-plan for “Taco Tuesdays” recommends three different ways to create pom-pom napkin rings, alongside a recipe for slow-cooker chicken tacos, while a section on self-care instructs readers on how to make their own aloe and rosewater face mist. Busy parents will appreciate the abundance of fun, family-friendly ideas on offer: for picnic outings, Provenzano offers tips on creating personalized tables with breakfast-in-bed trays and nontoxic acrylic paint, as well as fruit and brownie kebabs that the kids can assemble at home. No recipe or craft goes without a dose of helpful advice (to create clay wine glass tags, Provenzano suggests using cornstarch for dusting to prevent sticking), and Provenzano’s delightful anecdotes about her own family (“Grandpa Provenzano would always have a red-and-white checked tablecloth on his table when we would have pasta”) add a sweet personal touch. Those looking for a reason to celebrate life’s little moments will find no shortage of inspiration. Agent: Eryn Kalavsky, Salky Literary. (May)

Publishers Weekly

03/11/2022

Provenzano's visually attractive guide to entertaining is filled with party ideas for all ages—craft projects, party ideas, food menus, and recipes (from the author's Italian and Midwestern American roots). She writes that the book should reflect an ethos of present mindfulness, celebrating the small moments of everyday life. Each chapter follows the same format: an introductory essay, a small craft project, recipes for the celebration, and useful tips interspersed throughout. The book emphasizes DIY as opposed to buying pre-made items, but the lists of tools and supplies for each celebration are lengthy, and some items are expensive and may be hard to locate; it would have greatly benefited from adding a list of sources to find tricky items or suggestions for substitutions that may be more readily available. Another weakness is a lack of safety and sanitation procedures, critical in this COVID-conscious era. The section on beverages has cocktail recipes but no mocktails, and the book doesn't suggest vegan- or allergy-friendly substitutions. VERDICT A useful resource to cull ideas, with the caveat that its advice mostly applies to homes with ample storage space, budgets, and time. An optional purchase.—Marjorie Mann

Library Journal