Autumn Muffins

In honor of autumn, pumpkin, spices and butter!  Mmmmm, I can smell these already!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix together dry ingredients:

1 cup flour

½ cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

Melt 4 tablespoons of butter, then mix into

½ cup milk

1 beaten egg

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla

1 cup pumpkin puree

Quickly stir together wet and dry ingredients, pour into buttered muffin tin, bake for 25 minutes.

If you like a little streusel topping, mix ¼ cup brown sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 2 tablespoons flour and 2 tablespoons melted butter, spoon on top of batter in tins before baking.

Enjoy!

Kick A** Fresh Salsa

A family favorite - great on chips or salad, even served with cucumber chunks as a salad!
Worth all the hand chopping.

2 large tomatoes diced
1 finely minced jalapeno
2 finely chopped scallions
1/2 lime, juice only
chopped cilantro
salt to taste

Combine.  Adjust heat by adding more or less jalapeno, note that the seeds are hotter than the flesh, so seed the pepper to keep the heat down.  Best when eaten fresh - same day.  If you really want to be hot stuff, fry up your own tortilla chips.  Cut up corn tortillas, fry in 1 to 2 inches of hot oil, salt and serve.

**After handling pepper, don't touch your face until scrubbing hands well with soap and water!**