Yummy Shepherd's Pie

Yummy Shepherd's Pie

I made this for the first time a few months ago. It is now one of our favorites and we make it frequently. I have looked at several recipes for shepherd's pie. This seemed to me the easiest and the tastiest.

Dice and boil potatoes. Personally I don't peel them before cooking. It's the dietitian in me. If it grosses you out, then peel them.

Brown onion and ground beef.

Add veggies. Continue cooking.

Add worcestershire sauce and broth.

Sprinkle with flour. Mix well.

Mash Potatoes:

Add meat mixture to pan.

Spread mashed potatoes on top.

Yummy Shepherd's Pie

1 1/2 lbs ground round beef
1 onion chopped
1-2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
1 1/2 - 2 lbs potatoes (3 big ones)
8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup beef broth
1 - 2 TBSP flour (optional)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 C warm milk
Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice
1/2 - 1 C shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Peel and cube potatoes, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes).
While the potatoes are cooking, melt 4 Tablespoons butter (1/2 of a stick) in large frying pan.
Sauté onions in butter until tender over medium heat (10 mins). Add ground beef and sauté until no longer pink. Drain meat if desired. Add salt and pepper. Add the vegetables. Add worcesterchire sauce. Add half a cup of beef broth and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes, adding more beef broth as necessary to keep moist. At this point you may sprinkle this mixture with flour, if desired.
Mash potatoes in bowl with milk and remainder of butter, season to taste.

Place beef and vegetable mixture in baking dish. (At this point you may sprinkle meat mixture with cheese if desired. I sometimes so this. Most of the time I don't.) Distribute mashed potatoes on top. Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. You can use the fork to make some designs in the potatoes as well.
Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown potatoes.
Serves 4-6.

Making Homemade Chocolate Syrup

Make Your Own Chocolate Syrup
In my opinion, this chocolate syrup is amazing. It tastes so much richer than you-know-who's. It is so easy to make. I will never buy syrup again. Unless of course I find a killer deal. In the Bing house, we make chocolate milk by the gallon!

Combine dry ingredients.

Add water.

Stir to combine.

Stir constantly while boiling to prevent it from boiling over.

Finished product. Boy is it yummy!

Make Your Own Chocolate Syrup

1/2 C cocoa

1 C water

2 C sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. vanilla

Mix the cocoa and the water in a saucepan. Heat and stir to dissolve the cocoa. Add the sugar, and stir to dissolve. Boil for 3 minutes over medium heat. Stir constantly to prevent it from boiling over. (This comes from experience. Very messy.) Add the salt and the vanilla. Let cool. Pour into a sterile glass jar (or contianer of your choice. I use a chocolate syrup bottle from you-know-who), and store in the refrigerator. Keeps for several months. Yields two cups.

Making Homemade Fabric Softener

We do a lot of laundry at our house. I used to go through fabric softener like it was going out of style. It gets really expensive so I found this recipe to make my own. This costs about $.02 per load (not counting the added water cost). From one batch, I am able to get 32 loads. The only fabric I have ever had a problem with while using this softener is my flannel pajamas. But to be honest, I don't mind a little static on my jammies.

How to make your own Fabric Softener:

Ingredients: 3 C water, 1 C conditioner, 1 1/2 C vinegar

Start with 3 C water

Add 1 C conditioner (I use coupons to buy conditioner. I can get a bottle (2 C) for $.50)

Use a whisk and mix together.

Add 1 1/2 Vinegar

Whisk again.

Pour into bottle of your choice.

Homemade Fabric Softener

3 C water

1 1/2 C vinegar

1 C hair conditioner (I use Suave)

Measure water into a bowl. Add conditioner. Whisk together. Add vinegar. Whisk again. Pour into a container or bottle of your choice. To use, add to your washer in according to the washers instructions.

Mulberries

I just found out that mulberries are not poisonous. We have 2 trees in our yard and would never let the kids eat the berries because we didn't know if they were edible. It only took 2 years for me to figure out that I could research them online. Duh!

Guess what, they are (edible)! The kids were so excited! They just couldn't wait to try a berry. After we tried them, we realized how good they are. Those berries are really sweet. The only bed part is that they don't have a very long shelf life. Because of that fact, I tried to dehydrate them. Just an FYI, don't ever try that, they were really gross. I don't understand what happened to cause them to taste like cardboard.

We'll stick to the fresh berries. Whenever the kids are wanting a snack, all they do now is get a bowl and go outside to pick berries. I couldn't ask for a healthier snack.

Anyone out there in bloggy world have any recipes using mulberries?

Breakfast Surprise Chowder

Shadow found this recipe on a website where he plays games. We made it last night and it was really good. It is a nice warm grainy meal. I thought I would share...

Breakfast Surprise Chowder
3 Cups cooked brown rice
3/4 C soy milk
1 TBSP honey
1 medium apple, cored & chopped
2 tsp cinnamon
3 TBSP raisins

Cook rice according to package directions. While rice is cooking, chop apple (leave the skin on) and add to honey, cinnamon, and raisins. Stir to coat apples. When the water is absorbed from the rice, add the milk and apple mixture. Stir to combine. Heat until warmed.

We used white rice (it would have been better with brown), fat free milk, and added a little bit of granulated sugar. We also added roasted soybeans, shelled sunflower seeds, flax seed, and dried cranberries.

Is Anyone Hungry?

Tuesday was the staff picnic for the church. It was held at the senior pastor's (Pastor Dave) house. We all had a great time swimming in the pool, playing games and talking to people we don't usually get a whole lot of time to talk to.

It was a nice calm day, until...

Bible Bat Boy found a grasshopper climbing up the wall of Pastors Dave's house. He came to me and said, "Mom, quick, get me a bug container!" (We have numerous bug containers at home. Bible Bat Boy is my bug fanatic.) I picked up the tongs that were beside the grill (with hot dog and hamburger guts still on it) and tried to help him catch this grasshopper. I certainly did not want to touch it with MY hands. That in itself was a feat. Grasshoppers DO NOT like to be caught. After enlisting some help from a few staff members, we finally caught the grasshopper. Now, where to put it? Sherri had a candle holder sitting on one of the tables so I grabbed that. The grasshopper was safe and happy in the container for all to enjoy.

While Bible Bat Boy was enjoying his catch, he called his brother and sister over to look at it. Shadow loved to watch it climb up the walls of the container. The next thing I knew, I heard Pastor Eric, the missions pastor, say to Shadow, "Hey Shadow, I'll split it with you. You eat half and I'll eat half." I ignored that comment because I thought nothing would come of it. Boy was I wrong.

Pastor Eric stood up, walked to the grill and turned it on. He told Shadow to bring the grasshopper to him. I wasn't sure what to do. Do I let him eat it? Will it hurt him? So I asked Pastor Eric if it was okay to eat. He told me that people eat them as a snack in other countries. Although I didn't particularly like the idea, I was okay with it.

In the process of bringing the grasshopper to the grill, it escaped. It was caught and then it escaped again. And again. I think it knew what was coming.

Pastor Eric finally grabbed it and put it on the grill where it jumped out before the door of the grill was closed. The grasshopper was caught again and this time held firmly in place on the grill. After about 2 minutes cooking time, Pastor Eric removed the catch from the grill and set it out to cool.

When it was cool enough to eat, Pastor Eric broke it in half. He took the head and handed Shadow the body. Shadow just stood there looking at it. "Eat it, Shadow" was cheered on by numerous kids and staff. Pastor Eric went first. His assumption on the taste was..."it tastes like burnt popcorn."

Shadow asked Bible Bat Boy to eat it. He said, "no way!" Shadow asked me to eat it. I said, "NO WAY!!!" (A mom has got to draw the line SOMEWHERE!) Shadow got up the nerve and was ready to put it in his mouth when Pastor Eric said he should take off the wings, "They are a little hard to swallow. They get stuck in you throat." Shadow took the wings off and bit part of the body. I asked him what it tasted like and he said , "nothing, really." Then he started to gag. He spit out what was in his mouth into the nearest trash can. I asked him if he was okay and he said he didn't like the shell.

He then ate the rest of it, even the legs.

Rumor has it at church, that Pastor Eric is telling all the staff that he is going to make a missionary out of Shadow yet.

All this said that if you ever don't know what to make for lunch or dinner, all you need is a yard and a grill.

Dishwasher Detergent

Here's my recipe...

1 Cup Washing Soda (not Baking soda). You can find this in the laundry section of most grocery stores. It's made by Arm & Hammer. It's sold as a laundry booster. Comes in a big yellow box.
1 Cup Borax soap powder. You can find this in the laundry section of most stores.

Combine. Add 1 - 2 TBSP to closed soap section. No need to add to pre-wash section with this detergent. It works well.

After using this for a while I realized that I was using too much (I don't measure. I just pour it in) and there was a white film on my dishes. To combat this (since I am still too lazy to measure), I added 1/2 C powdered Cascade to the mix. That took care of the problem.

I honestly don't know if it is cheaper. I never figured it out. It should be though because I have been using it for a bunch of months and have only had to buy another box of washing soda. I do like however that it is safer on the environment.

Enjoy!

Orange Juice Milkshake

I found this recipe a while ago from a book I used when making baby food. I have a hard time getting Shadow to drink milk unless it is in this form. Here's the recipe. It reminds me of an Orange Julius.

Orange Juice Milkshake

1 Cup orange juice
1 Cup Milk (higher fat milk work the best)
Put all in a blender and process for 2 minutes or until frothy and blended.

Experiments

Shadow has been doing lots of experiments lately. Most of them deal with food. One of the things he wants to do when he grows up is find new foods.

Here are a few...

1. COW M Drink
Mix equal parts of Cranberry Juice, Orange Juice, Water, and Milk together in a cup. Enjoy. (The little neighbor boy who Shadow got to try this said it was good. I beg to differ!)

2. Milky Water
Mix equal parts of milk and water. Enjoy.

3. Oyster Cracker Ice
Mix equal parts of water, ice, and oyster crackers. Freeze for 2 hours. Enjoy.

I would love to hear about the experiments that happen in your house.