Make Mascara Last Longer

I hate buying mascara.

I spend ten bucks on something so tiny!! And does anyone ever really notice if I am wearing it or not?

Then two months later it starts drying out and I feel the need to go buy more. What really bothers me is that there is still so much in the bottle that I haven't used! But it is dry and clumpy so all I can do is throw it out. Well it is time for that nonsense to stop.

There are several tricks to making your mascara last longer. The easiest by far is to add a few drops of contact solution to it and stir it up. This alone can add a month or more! It keeps it from getting dry and clumpy so you can actually use the entire bottle. When was the last time that happened?

Another trick is to never 'pump' the wand into the tube. This increases the amount of air that gets in and drys it out. Instead, twist the wand to get more mascara on it. This helps keep it moist longer.

Now if you are like me, with very sensitive eyes, the dryness of the mascara is not the only thing that bothers you. As the wand gets older it gets more dust and germs on it. After a couple months or so, even if it is not dried out, it makes my eyes itch so bad that I would have to throw it out if not for this tip. Boil the wand! I know, it sounds weird. But seriously, boil a bit of water and stick the wand in and clean off all of the old mascara on it. This removes enough germs and dirt for me to use it for another month at least.

Mascara is expensive, especially when you think about what you are getting (goop on your face.) But if you take care of it you could wind up only needing to buy it twice a year. You may think it is not worth the effort, but if someone was willing to pay you ten dollars to boil a small pot of water, would you? I would. So just think of it as paying yourself! =)

If you spend $10 on mascara every two months you would spend $60 a year. Or, by making it last longer you could spend only $20 or $30 a year. I don't know what your family's budget looks like, but that helps mine.

Taco Seasoning

One more way to save money and know what you are feeding your family. Make your own taco seasoning! No preservatives or modified anything. You control what goes in it.
It is so easy to make and saves you money!

Here is the recipe I use.

2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t red pepper flakes
 1/2 t oregano
1 t paprika
1 Tbsp cumin
2 t pepper


You may want to add salt. We are not big on salt in our house and we like it just fine without any.

I add about two Tbsp per pound of meat with a little bit of water, a few splashes of Tabasco and a can of southern ranch style beans. SOOO yummy!!

If you like a dryer taco meat without a bit of a 'sauce', just omit the flour and water.

You could also substitute the flour for ground rice. Just run a Tbsp through a coffee grinder until it is a powder. You would only need to use 1 Tbsp of rice instead of 2 Tbsp of flour.  

You can also use this mix for chili. The only difference is the chili to cumin ratio. So I just use this mix and add more chili to taste.

Store in tupperware or an old spice bottle.

=)

Glass Stove top Cleaner

We moved into a house a few months ago that had a glass stove top. I thought it looked so nice! But I quickly discovered that I do not like glass stove tops. They burn water!! I still have not quite figured out how they do it. But any time I boil something and it boils over, the water burns onto the stove and is so hard to get off. Not to mention anything else that drops on a burner. And even when nothing is spilled, after using a burner just a few times there is always a black ring around it. Needless to say I will never buy a glass stove top.
They have special cleaner that works okay, I guess. I was still scrubbing my hardest even with the cleaner. And it cost $5 for a tiny bottle!! I am just not okay with that. My husband tried a very entertaining method. He turned all the burners on high, poured water on the entire stove, and used a metal spatula to scrap the burn stuff off while it was still hot. Not a bad approach but not something I want to do every other day or so.


So I thought, "What would Grandma do?"

Of course! Baking Soda!!


So to test it I waited until it got pretty ugly (doesn't take long when you are teaching a 13 year old boy to cook) and tried it out. I poured a bunch on the stove, got a scratchy sponge and scrubbed. It took seconds!! My husband was so impressed at the minimal effort I was putting into scrubbing that he took the sponge to try it out himself. To which I had no objections. When a man volunteers to clean, don't question it.

Anyway here are the before and afters....

Why waste the money? Baking soda is pennies per ounce. And it is so useful for so many things. The same night I cleaned the stove, I noticed our white sink was not so white any more. I hate the smell of bleach so I tried baking soda. I looks new! I also use baking soda to clean our toilets, to treat grease stains in our laundry, and to deodorize tennis shoes. The list of uses is endless! You can save so much on different cleaners. And even though we don't have young children in our house just yet, I love that we don't have to keep so many chemicals around.

What do you use baking soda for?

Tortillas!

I can't imagine why anyone with a working kitchen, basic ingredients, and a a few extra minutes wouldn't want to make their own tortillas. Unless they have a phobia of great tasting food. Is that a real thing? Is there a word for it? Deliciophobic?? Yep let's go with that.

Then a friend of mine pointed out that it is probably because they just don't know how. A little more reasonable I suppose. But for those of you suffering from deliciaphobia, don't wait to get help!! You can conquer this!!

 For the rest of you, you are only minutes away from acquiring a skill that will make you powerful beyond belief! You will be the most popular person you know! People will actually want to be you!
Well..... you will be able to make tortillas. That's close to the same thing.


So here we go......

Step one:

Ingredients. No this is not an advertisement for Great Value. I'm just cheap. Or as I like to call it economically intelligent.

You will need:

• 4 cups of flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 T shortening or firm butter 
• 1 1/4 cup VERY hot water

Step two:  

Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl. Cut the shortening or butter into the flour mixture (I just use my hands but you could easily use a fork or pastry cutter). Be sure to distribute the shortening or butter throughout the entire mixture. If there are large clumps you will have greasy spots and dry spots in your tortillas. It should look like small beads covered in flour throughout the mixture. It is hard to see in a picture but you will understand as you do it.

Step three: 

Next, mix in the water. It should be as hot as you can handle on bare skin. My water is steaming from out of my faucet so I usually don't heat it up. But if yours isn't, stick it in the microwave for a minute or so. You want it to be hot so that it will melt the butter. If the butter is melted before you add it to the flour it is very hard to distribute through the whole batch. That's why I use the water to melt it. (I use my hands to mix in the water too.... it's not as much fun if you don't get a little messy!).
Then dump the whole thing on a clean counter top or table. It is okay if it looks like this. This is normal. 

Step four:

Now is the fun part! Knead the dough until most of the flour is incorporated. This is where trial and error will teach you to make the perfect tortilla, since I can't take a picture that tells you how the dough should feel. It should be very smooth, not too sticky, but not dry. I usually don't use all of the flour. What I don't knead into the dough I use when I roll them out. It will look something like this. Notice that there is still flour on the counter, that isn't extra, that is from the original four cups.

Step five: 

This recipe makes 16 tortillas. So I divide it up as evenly as possible. I pull the dough apart in halves. Then again with the halves and again and again. They will seem very small but they roll out to a good size. 

Step six:

Roll them out!! If you have a tortilla press this part is ridiculously fast and easy. But I don't. And I think it is safe to say if you are reading this you don't either. So I use a rolling pin. The most important thing is to not use much flour at all. This isn't a pie crust. It will dry out and the loose flour on your griddle will burn and smell awful and make your tortillas look awful and it will all probably make you cry. So just don't do it. *sigh*

If you want perfectly round tortillas, take a plate or lid of a pot, put it in the middle and cut around it with a pizza cutter. I use to do this but now I just don't care that much. They taste good enough that it doesn't matter what they look like.



Step seven: I usually have my griddle heating up from the time I start. I put it on medium and adjust as I go if needed. The MOST IMPORTANT part of making tortillas is the towel...... Have a towel ready for the tortillas when they come off of the griddle. Keep them covered ALWAYS. By trapping the warmth and moisture, you will keep your tortillas soft and flexible. This is the most common mistake made and it is the easiest to fix. I usually use the thickest towel I have and line it with paper towels.

Put your first tortilla on the griddle. And start rolling out the next one.

When you have a few good size bubbles on your tortilla, flip it over.

You will only need to keep it on this side for about 10 to 15 seconds. Then place it in the towel and cover it. Keep going until they are all done.

Don't they look so yummy?!?

Well good luck with your tortilla making adventures! If you have any questions feel free to comment. I will get back with you as soon as I can.

Thanks for stoppin' by!! =)