New foods and movie

Mr. V has some weekends off. He works in a factory so there are some weekends (many weekends) he's working pretty much the entire time. He had this weekend off and we enjoyed a new recipe and a movie. Since we have a 2 year old, most of our family movies are animated or family oriented, and last night was no different.

So, we sit down to dinner with Spaghetti and garlic bread (doesn't sound so new, does it?) however this spaghetti has no pasta. I wanted to try out spaghetti squash and make a more healthy version of a popular meal. And we start the movie "Where the Wild Things Are". If you haven't watched the movie and you WANT to watch it, go on and stop reading because this is what I think on it and spoilers. Or skip the paragraph text and move on to the recipe for the spaghetti squash spaghetti.

Anyways, we all know how the book goes. I've always taken Max to be a little boy, 6 at the oldest. In the movie he's around 10, ignored and left ALONE a....LOT.  And when he acts out, instead of looking at herself (the mom) or the older sister (who LEAVES HIM ALONE), he's the one that's punished, (apparently the Mom never thought that he'd act BAD to get ATTENTION.) So he runs off and ends up in the land of the Wild Things. He becomes their king and is put in charge of making everyone happy (impossible task and doomed to fail and he does.) And when his best friend, Carroll, is unhappy with him and goes on a destructive rampage, he leaves to go back home. And Carroll understands his mistakes and makes it just in time to see him sailing off. Max ends up back home and eats supper. The end. The movie is depressing and really doesn't do the book justice. I understand that they have to take some creative liberty because the book isn't long. However, the beginning part irked me because of the obvious neglect, but the overall tone of the movie wasn't one of wonderment like you get from the book. It's just depressing because in this boys imaginary world he STILL couldn't please anyone. Shoot, not only is his reality depressing he can't even imagine a world without disappointment and depression. Ugh, needless to say, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I'm glad that they got the wild things right in the costumes, but the story just is blah.

OK, end of movie review and spoilers. Now onto the dinner.

Since I had never fixed spaghetti squash before, I didn't do much. Which made for a rather bland spaghetti, but that's ok, because I can make it much better next time.

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

2 Medium Squash
1 Jar Spaghetti sauce (store bought or you can make yourself)
1lb Ground beef (chili grind)

Cut the squash in half lengthwise. scoop out seeds and strings and brush with olive oil and garlic salt. Turn flesh side down on cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour at 350°.

While squash cooks, brown ground beef and drain.

Add spaghetti sauce to meat and heat to warm.

Remove squash from oven flip flesh side up and let cool for a moment. After it cools slightly, I used tongs to pull the flesh out and put into sauce. Mix it up and serve with parmesan cheese on top and garlic bread.

Overall it was more bland than I expected, but I didn't use a very strong tasting sauce. I know to use a more robust sauce next time.

Superbowl goodies.

So I made a few new things for the Superbowl. One of which was these poptarts. They were good, only to me the crust was a little dry. So changes for next time will be to use a phyllo dough instead of pie crust. oh yummy! :D Another thing that I did was make these s'mores muffins for my brother. They were very good. :) I wouldn't change anything about the recipe. The only thing I'd do is use less filling than it called for because my muffins were going EVERYWHERE.

Here's the recipes here for you.

Poptarts

Pie crust rolled out thinner than you would for a pie. Maybe 1/8th inch thick. Cut into rectangles. 3" x 4" inches.

*I used strawberry jam for some and pumpkin butter for others*

1tsp to 1 1/2 tsp filler

Place a second rectangle of crust on top of that and press into bottom. Bake for around 15 minutes on 425 degrees.

Glaze if you want or sugar up if you want.


S'mores Muffins

• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons 2% milk
• 1/3 cup milk chocolate chips
• 6 tablespoons marshmallow creme

Directions

• In a small bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Stir in sour cream. Combine the flour, graham cracker crumbs, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and baking soda; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips.
• Coat six muffin cups with cooking spray; fill one-fourth full with batter. Spoon 1 tablespoon marshmallow creme into each muffin cup. Top with remaining batter.
• Bake at 400° for 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted neat the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm. Yield: 6 muffins.

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)