While the nation was celebrating with fireworks and cotton candy, we were home catching up on sleep and Harry Potter. We did participate in a number of blog carnivals this week, however: here is a recap of those carnivals along with a few of my favorite posts.

Carnival of Recipes

The Carnival of Recipes went live on Sunday, hosted this week by Wee Wifey.

• The Hawaiian Burger recipe (made with teriyaki sauce and pineapple juice) posted by Deputy Headmistress had me salivating.
• Emrack’s Mashed Potato Casserole sounds like a giant dish of comfort food - I can’t wait to try it.
• Chef Jules at Gourmet a Go Go has a recipe for Spiced Chicken Skewers with Herbed Cous Cous. The perfumed spices in the chicken seem like they’ll combine nicely with the apricots in the cous cous. This is definitely going in my “to try” pile.
• Our $25 Dinner Party experiment was included, with recipes for Stuffed Teriyaki Pork Loin, Peanut Ginger Noodle Salad, and Coconut Flan with Caramel Sauce.

Carnival of Personal Finance

Blogging Away Debt hosted the 107th Carnival of Personal Finance on Monday.

• Boomie at the Wastrel Show tell the story of her journey to financial independence in Start Small, Finish Big. This is a shining example of the direction that Mer and I are headed in.
• Paula at Queercents talked about Work and Happiness. She discusses what to do when you’re unhappy at your job, how to know when enough is enough, and how to find (or create) something that works for you. She makes the excellent point that no job, not even the perfect one, will make you happy — you need to rely on yourself for that.
• The media-wide hot topic this week is, of course, the iPhone. Family Finance ran the numbers in their article, The Cheapest iPhone costs $16,245, calculating what would happen if they invested the money that some people are spending on the iPhone.
• Mer’s exposition on Spaving was our contribution to this week’s carnival.

Festival of Frugality

Tuesday saw the 81st Festival of Frugality go live at Tight-Fisted Miser.

• From one extreme to the other: The Common Room discusses Drastic Budgeting in the Kitchen and MoneyNing talks about convenience foods at Groceries That Help Make Us Rich.
• Wallowing in Debt reports on her experiments in The Pros and Cons of Henna Hair Coloring. I’ve thought about going this route, but the reason I dye my hair is for the salon experience, and the “me” time it provides.
• Argonautica gives us advice on how to Avoid Vet Prices and Save Big on Pet Meds. The numbers are a little scary to me, but I think that’s because I get off easy having an indoor cat. (One vet visit a year for shots, and we’re good.)
• Estate planning is one of those things continually shuffled down our to-do list. Eric Hundin at My Estate Planning Career reminds us how important it is, and gives some basic tips in Smart Estate Planning Strategies for the Average Joe.
• Piggy Bank Raid provides some Free (and Useful) Tools — the list is short, but I love the idea of using a temporary free number when getting insurance quotes.
• Our offering to the festival gods this week was 11 Simple Kitchen Solutions That Really Work (formerly known as Spend Time Save Money).

And finally, I’d like to make a special mention of Consumerism Commentary. In this post, Flexo asked readers to post the financial advice they would give to their 13-year-old selves. Two of the posts would be selected to win a copy of Cash, Cars, and College by Janine Bolton. I found out last night that I am one of the lucky winners. Consumerism Commentary is an excellent personal finance blog that I read daily - please visit the site, or subscribe to the RSS feed today!

Have a great weekend, folks!

Image courtesy of Morgue File.