Wednesday's Hearth...gardening and recipes of all kinds!

Yup, its the middle of the week again and there are a couple of recipes to share with you today. Two are food recipes and one is a cleansing recipe that I found in a book I got from the library, and it is really awesome. But first, lets tackle the garden! This past week my niece, the Goob, and I planted our pumpkins out back. Since then Momma Na decided to bring us lots of cold water, so since today seems like it's the prettiest day, I'm going to go out there and see if they've drown or not. My seedlings aren't flourishing like I would hope that they would, so I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing wrong. I'll have to figure it out. But my cucumbers are awesome! They're thriving in the window sill at the moment. Hurray! I grew something!

Now onward to the recipes. First is the recipe for the cleanser. This is a natural face cleanser. This is a cleanser for those who have dry or sensitive skin.

Oatmeal Cleanser

1 cup warm water
1/2 cup oatmeal (quick cook, plain, not instant)
1 tbsp honey

Put all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth.
Place in an air tight container.

To use: Place a small amount in your hand and massage onto your face, rinse with tepid water and pat dry.

Oh and cheap and easy eye makeup remover!

(I worked retail and this is always between $4-8 per SMALL bottle. This always amazed me.)

1 tbsp each Canola oil, caster oil, and light olive oil.

Mix together and put into a clean container.

To use: put on a cotton swab and wipe over your lashes and eyelids.



Now onto the food recipes!

Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins-makes 24 muffins (as gotten from The Frugal Girl

Dry Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (or 2 teaspoons cinnamon + 1/4 teaspoon of cloves, ginger, and allspice)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup oil

2 cups peeled, chopped apples

Streusel
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 teaspoons butter

Heat over to 350. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, pumpkin and oil together. Stir apples into pumpkin mixture. Gently mix pumpkin mixture into dry ingredients. Spoon batter into 24 greased muffin cups.

Combine streusel ingredients, using a pastry blender. Sprinkle on top of muffins.

Bake 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.

And

Beef Tortilla Casserole

2lbs ground beef
1 medium onion
8oz jar of taco sauce
6 corn tortillas cut into 1in strips
16oz sour cream
8oz of cheddar cheese

Cut up onion
Brown ground beef with onion until done.
Drain
Mix in taco sauce.
Add tortilla strips

Place half the mixture in a greased casserole dish (2.5 quart dish) and layer 1/2 of the sour cream and half the cheese. Repeat layers. And place in a pre-heated 375 degree oven. Cook until cheese is melty and bubbly.

(this is the basic recipe. Next time I'll probably cook the meat in a taco seasoning and add some salsa to the mix. It's good on its own, but for me, it's missing something texturally, and for Mr. V it's missing a certain "kick" he's used to)