Shepherds pie and garlic dip

The other day I was reading a book and the grandma made Shepherds Pie. I love Shepherds pie soooooo much! So of course the book made me want to eat some (this has happened before with spaghetti. lol) So, I looked up a recipe, got the gist of it, Mashed potatoes over veggies and ground meet in a gravy. So I threw some goat and sheep's cheese and lots of cream and garlic in the mashed potatoes, and added some yummy spices to the gravy, and wallah!

Shepperds Pie:

Prep time: 10 min Cook time: 20 min

• 2 ibs of potatoes, pealed and cubed,
• 1/4 cup of sour cream
• 1/2 cup of cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 cup of cream
• 1/4 cup of manchego cheese
• 1/4 cup of creamy goat cheese or cream cheese
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• salt and pepper

Boil the potatoes, drain and mash. mix all the rest of the ingredients except the cheese and garlic with the potatoes. Stir in the cheese and garlic. You can put some of the manchego on top of the potatoes once the whole pie is put together.

The filling:

• 2 tbsp of butter
• 1 pound of  ground meat, beef, lamb, mutton, turkey whichever you prefer 
• 1 onion diced
• 1/4 cup of flour or cornstarch
• 2 cups of beef or chicken broth
• 2 tbsp of tomato paste
• 1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp of rosemary 
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 2 cups of frozen veggies (carrots, peas, green beans, and corn)
• a couple dashes of paprika and salt and pepper to taste

Cook the meat and onions in the butter in a cast iron skillet. Add in the flour or cornstarch and stir it in, then add in the broth. You may need to add in more flour. Add in everything else and let cook on medium till the gravy is thickened. Put the mashed potatoes on top, and if you want cheese then that too. Sprinkle with some paprika and parsley. Broil until the top gets golden and a bit crispy. You can always use a casserole dish if you would like.

 This dip is supper easy to make. mix 1/2 cup of Whole Fat yogurt and creamy goat cheese (can use cream cheese if you don't like goat cheese) with 1/4 to cup of fresh chopped parsley, and 2 to 4 garlic cloves minced. Add in 1/4 cup of olive oil and pepper to taste. If you want a Mexican or Indian flavor use cilantro instead of parsley and put in a squeeze of lime. (my cousin used cilantro and lemon juice and it was so yummy!) This dip is supper good for you. The garlic and partly (parsley has vitamin c) help to fite colds and the olive oil is just plane all around awesome for you.

And now... Sputnik!

Balsamic Orange Chicken

This chicken is so yummy! I fried it in coconut oil which gave it such an amazing flavor, without the sauce! Then when I added the sauce, oh my goodness! Incredible! I used balsamic vinegar instead of rice wine vinegar, and I loved the sweetness and the extra complexity that I got from it. I also highly suggest that you use it in sweet and sour sauce (another supper easy recipe). For this recipe you can use boneless and skinless chicken, or take of the meat and use the scraps to make a yummy broth for a soup later. 

Balsamic Orange Chicken

Serves 4 (or 2 hungry teens). 

Prep time, 10-15min

Cook time 10 min in total 

The Chicken:

• 2 Ibs of chicken cut into cubes. (if you use bone in, get at least .5ibs more)
• 2 cups of flour (you may need more, Pamela's baking mix works good for gluten free)
• 1 to 2 eggs
• a bit of salt and pepper about 1/4 tsp
• Oil for frying. I used coconut in my walk, but peanut would work, or if you want a nutty flavor use sesame. 

Put chicken in egg, then flour and fry in a wok or pan with high sides in batches at 375 until golden and crispy.

For the sauce:

• 1 cup of water
• 1 orange juiced and zested 
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar 
• 3 Tbsp of soy sauce (for gluten free use Tamari)
• 1 Tbsp of molasses 
• 1/3 cup of honey (use 1 cup of brown sugar in place of honey and molasses if desired.)
• 1 Tbsp of ginger root minced. (I like a strong ginger flavor so use less if desired)
• 1-3 cloves of garlic, depending on how strong you like it.
• Asian hot sauce, however much you like.
• 1/4 cup of corn starch mixed with 1/4 cup of cold water

Mix everything together but the cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil. Add in the cornstarch mixture slowly, until it thickens nicely. Use on the side, or poor over chicken. You can also get fancy and toss the chicken with the sauce together in a bowl until everything is evenly coated. Serve with a salad  rice, millet, or quinoa, or just eat! Lastly, enjoy your meal. :)

Low Tea, and book swap

I didn't get around to doing a video tutorial, no surprise their, but I have something even better! Low Tea treats!!! Low tea is held around 1-3 the typical time for the wealthy who don't go to work, wear as High tea is held around 6 with dinner for the working class who get off of work at that time.

 

We had  a simple chi tea, and a cinnamon orange rooibos blend. I used cream instead of half and half (which is homogenized and absolutely terrible for the body).

We had blueberry lemon scones, orange cranberry salad, turkey open faced sandwiches, and a delicious quiche made by my cousin.

Since all our beautiful flowers are gone I used some fake flowers that actually look quite nice  and I put them in a mason type jar with a flip lid.

The lovely quiche. 

Us ladies have a bit of an affinity to hot sauce.

We also discussed the books we had read the month before, and traded for some new books to peruse.
This is the book that I am borrowing. I haven't started reading it ye, but I am looking forward to this collection of short stories.

Now for the Recipes!

The Sandwiches were so easy. Great harvest has Stuffing bread right now so I sliced that and put cream cheese on it, some homemade cranberry sauce that I pureed in the blender, and some turkey slices. You can change this by using mayo and by putting pickled red onions on too. If you don't have access to the bread then a whole wheat will work great. So Yummy and easy either way! 

The cranberry sauce is supper easy, 1 cup of water and 1/3 cup of honey in a small pot. Bring to a boil and add 4 cups of cranberries. Bring back to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Now you can add orange zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, nuts, blueberries, or something else, or nothing else. For the two recipes that I used it for in this blog I din't add anything else.

The Orange and cranberry salad was just 4 oranges sliced, and about 1/2 cup of cranberry sauce with the cranberries still mostly in tacked. (As in Not Pureed and not that canned jelly kind). Mix the two together, and their you go. Now that I think about it though, It would have bean nice to put a cinnamon stick in with the cranberries while they cooked.

For the scones I used a recipe from a blog Be book bound. I did alter it, so this is my little twist, and I also didn't have the sugar to I didn't do the topping I made my own up instead.

• 2 1/4 cups of flour
• 2 tsp of baking powder
• about 1/4 tsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 2 tbsp of honey
• 1/4 cup of cubed and cold butter
• 1/4 cup of non hydrogenation shorting, chilled.
• 1/2 cup of yogurt mixed with 1/4 cup of water (easier to keep on hand than buttermilk)
• 1 egg
• Zest from 1 Lemon plus a bit of juice, about 1/8 of a cup
• about a cup of frozen blueberries (if you use frozen too, don't dethaw them or they will make your scones all weird, the same goes for muffins)

Preheat your oven to 400. sift all the dry ingredients. Add the butter and shortening and cut it in by hand or with a food processor. Just like making pie. Mix the wet ingredients and combine with the dry. Fold in the berries. Put on a buttered baking sheet and form into a squareIsh shape. You'll want it to be about 1/2 in tall. With a nice knife, cut into squares but leave them in place. Bake for about 25 to 30 min. When you pull them out let them cool for 5 min, then re-cut, will be so easy, you might not even need to. After they have cooled completely drizzle some glaze on 'em.

For the glaze:

Mix juice from 1/2 a lemon with 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar till smooth. Now add in 1/8 cup of cream cheese to the mix. (you can add more if you like) It is easiest to mix with a fork. You may need to add some water, about 1/4 cup so that it is the consistency of thin to medium paste, depending on what you like. I like mine thicker because it stays on the scones nicer. 

My bag: natural and handy products

It seems so silly to me to post about what I keep in my bag/purse. I mean, why would I want to show people all the boring stuff that everyone keeps in their purse. But I decided that I would share my essentials that I keep in my bag at all times because some of them are, in my opinion, quite helpful. 

All of my bags are either vintage (above) or big earth friendly totes that I keep my embroidery and what not in. I love my wallet. It doubles as a clutch. It opens up like a wallet, but it also snaps open on each side that I can fit everything but my nook and notebook in, including my phone, this makes it so that I can take everything with me that I need out and be all fancy dancy. 

I like to use my bag (I usually use a fair trade bag that fits over my shoulder more comfortably) because it is easier to carry that way. I have a larger notebook and a smaller notebook that I interchange  I usually have my nook (I'm so addicted, haha) and a ponytail, you just never know when you need to but your hair up. I always have a bit of first aid because, well, I injure myself quite often. i have band-aids, Clean well alcohol-free hand sanitizer, Hemp-Eaze that I use like neosporin. It works so AMAZING!!! 

I like to keep lavender oil and a blend of clove and peppermint oil in a roll on in my bag. The roll on I put about 20 drops of clove and peppermint oil in and fill it the rest of the way with almond oil. I use this for basically any aches and pains and headaches. 

I usually have either a 100% pure lip gloss or some sort of chap stick like Terra Tints or Burts Bees. I also keep a shaker with my veggy supplement in my bag to sprinkle on food. You can dry greens from your garden and crush them up and use that as a supplement in the winter so that you can get plenty of greens. I like to use hankies simply because I like them better and the one above goes really well with my purse. It comes in handy for all sorts of things, such as spray off a table at a park and use one side to wipe it off and the other as a place mat, it is better on your wallet and the planet than using wet wipes. 

Other things that I like to keep in my bag are a small tape measurer, a water bottle, some sort of snack like dried fruit, and a nifty little fold up brush that comes in so much handy. If I'm going to be out for a long time I might bring along a makeup compact.. maybe. It is so easy to find natural products for your purse. If you go to a natural grocery store then chances are just standing in the sales line you'll find most everything you need.

My cat decided to get in on the action and I couldn't resist putting her in here. :D

Delicious beets and eggplant.

Howdy doody! I am so awake, it's crazy. I actually slept until about 9:30 because oddly my chickens stayed quiet. And then after I did dishes and laundry I decided to make coffee with my new french press. It's actually really easy. I figured it would be, and I like it a lot better than those complicated machines. (I know what your thinking, but for someone who drinks coffee like 3 times a year, they are complicated to try and figure out.) I have some supper yummy cream from grass fed cows (I know, cows not goats. But hay! I can't control when the goats are pregnant!) so I decided to pour some it. I usually like my coffee black, but I needed to use up the cream, plus with the cream in it pares a bit better with this awesome chocolate. Unfortunately its only 55% cocoa (I like baking chocolate. So Yummy!) but the Ancho and Chipotle chilies and dried cherries make up for it. Plus they wrap them in love poems, awwwwww. 

 Yesterday at about 6 I started dinner. I was just going to fry up the eggplant that I had, my husband likes to eat them like french fries dipped in mustard and ketchup, he likes them basically any way, but that's the easiest. I fry them in a batter like fried chicken in a bit of olive oil in a pan.  But, about halfway through I decided to use up the zucchini and bell pepper that I had. I was being to lazy to clean up the dishes, so I didn't have enough room to batter the eggplant, so they were going to be kind of plane. I ended up making this fancy dancy thing that tasted so good! i normally don't like zucchini at all, and I only sort of like eggplant, but MAN! This was GOOOD STUFF! The side veggies are sauteed with a bit of butter and olive oil, and molasses. They tasted like roasted beets but tool way less time to cook.

Eggplant baked in a Bechamel sauce served with zucchini, bell pepper, and beets.
Serves 4. Active time is about an hour, inactive time about 3 hours depending.

• 2 large eggplant sliced to a width of 1/2 inch and with the bitters drained. (slice them and put a couple layers of paper towel between them to remove the bitter juices. This will take from about 1 hr to 3 hrs)
• olive oil, for frying. (do this at a lower heat. If you want to fry them faster use grape seed oil)
• 4 tbsp of butter
• 1/4 cup of flour. Either white wheat, spelt or rice flour or cornstarch. (I have never tried anything else to thicken a sauce, but I know that these work great.)
• 2 1/2 cups of milk
• 4 to 8 cloves of garlic minced

Preheat an oven to 350. Fry the eggplant in oil of choice for 2-3 minutes on each side. Layer them in an 8 inch baking dish with the garlic and some salt and pepper. In a saucepan melt the butter and combine the flour with it. Let it get a bit brown then slowly whisk in the milk. Let it thicken and bubble a bit then pour over the eggplant. You can either season the sauce with salt and pepper or put some Parmesan or Asiago cheese in it. About 1/4 cup of cheese if you choose to do this, I went with the salt and pepper instead. If you want you can also put some cheese on top. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the top is bubbly and a bit golden.

Beets and Zucchini: even if you dont like zuccini you will love this.

• Six medium zucchini
• 4 beets
• 2 bell peppers
• 4 tsp of molasses or maple syrup
• 2 tsp of fructose or sugar (it actually seemed to need this even with the sweetness of the beets)
• 1 tbsp of butter
• 1/8 to 1/4 cup of cilantro chopped. you can always use parsley if you don't have cilantro. 
• Feel free to add any Swiss Chard or other type of green sliced into ribbons.
• salt and pepper

Slice the zucchini and beets thinly, about 1/8th of an inch or thinner if you can manage it. A mandolin works great for this. slice the bell pepper fairly thinly. Put everything in a saute pan reserving the cilantro and other greens. When the butter melt mix it all together, you want everything to be a bit purple. Put the lid on and cook until the beets are easily pokeable. Add the cilantro and if you chose to have greens put those in now also, saute until the greens are easily chewed. Serve with the eggplant dish. 

October

 I'm going to have a couple tutorials sometime this week, one on making sauerkraut, and another on either making quill pens or a fabric dying diy, and possibly both with video. Frankly I'm astonished that I'm actually thinking about doing something so involved with my blog. My slacker self aside, their have actually bean some fun stuff happening around my little homestead!

I made Sauerkraut with my mom. We also made another batch yesterday with red beets instead of the golden ones. So pretty! 

Why did our chickens cross the road, to vises with the neighbor chicken of course!  The chickens in my neighborhood are all very friendly with each other. My neighbor down the street's chickens also like to go over to my neighbor's house to visit with his chicken.

I have bean working on some collagy things that are pretty fun. 

This is now officially my favorite soap. It smells so good and  makes my skin so soft. It is scented with essential oils so it doesn't bother my nose or head. :) Also it's only about $4, and for me that's about $1.50 a moth for a bar of soap, an I use it quite liberally. 

The cat and chickens keep having all these face offs, ware they both end up running away in fear.  I am rolling my eyes at Isabella, she is such a city cat! I suppose I should be glad she isn't eating my chickens. lol

I painted some awesome shorts. Their are all sorts of diy's for this kind of fabric painting this is my favorite, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aZ2ri_EDaI

We celebrated my grandma's birthday with muffins from farmers market (and cupcakes)  and tea for breakfast. Then we went to an alternative health fare at Barns and Noble's. Later we had pie from farmers market and goat milk ice cream. 

I have bean enjoying this awesome weather, sitting in my rocking chair. Oh, and those are a pair of my new glasses. 

We went to goblin valley in Utah. It was my first time camping in a tent and I loved it! 

Sputnik decided to climb into the bike trailer. 

This is my first ever white lasagna! I put greens and things from the garden into it. 

Jacob was the Brawny man for holloween. 

I was some space princess person, I'm still not quite sure exactly. 

My chickens are becoming ugly. This was from yesterday. This morning when I went to feed them, they had so many more patches. Sad, so sad. But, they need to molt so that they can be warm for winter. 

And I found out that my husband is obsessed with arcade games. He even likes watching people play them on You Tube. Sometimes he amazes me with he things he likes.

Happy Fall Back everyone! I hope you enjoyed that extra hour of sleep that I didn't get because my chickens demanded to be fed. At least I finally got something posted for once. Don't forget that tutorials are coming up within the next week!!!!! Yay!

And Here are some supper cool you tube channels that I follow. Most of them are nerdy, but I really like expanding my mind when I watch videos.

This one is about how trees get water up so high. by 1veritasium 

by minutephysics

You live in the past, by vsauce. This is my favorite, they have all sorts of neat things.

Death of Yolo by bball1989

Elements- Dubstep Violin- Lindsey Stirling by lindseystomp

Young Blood and making your own Makeup

My mom just came to my house and brought over some goodies from the beauty supply store! Since she is a cosmetologist and of coarse has her licence she gets to be supper special and get beauty products at supper awesome wholesale prices. Not only are the prices great, but they oftentimes get products before other places. So, back to the story. My mom came buy with some supper awesome sparkly hair ties, AND, here is the best part, Facial Powder!!!!! We have both bean out of foundation because 100% pure has bean out for quite a wile so we have bean using MyChelle instead. The ingredients aren't bad and we can get it at our grocery store. But it is a cream, and I don't like it as much. I have bean needing to use some of my old loose powder over it so that I get a bit better coverage and a better finish. This is where the finishing powder from Young Blood mineral cosmetics comes in. I used it just now all by itself and it worked almost just as good as regular foundation, for my needs anyway, and I can get it cheaper. (If you have a SalonCentric and know someone with some sort of beauty license you can get it for a bit less than half the price.) It doesn't cover up my "blemishes" quite as well, but I need to use cover up with any foundation anywise. I figure, that if I just use a moisturizer underneath or if I really need some long lasting coverage use a light amount of my MyChell foundation and then applying the Young Blood Finishing powder.

 I know your probably thinking whats so great about this product. Well I'll tell you. First of all it is only like $15 with my mom buying it, and secondly, it has AMAZING ingredients. By amazing I mean the bestist most awesomestly Amazing ingredients EVER! I'm not sure about the ingredients in some of their products. Some of them sound a bit shady. However the setting powder has a whole bunch of great extracts and other such skin awesomeizing stuff in it. It smells so good! Also it is a lot less than many foundations. The 100% pure foundation is about the same price, but until that returns, I'm gonna stick to this. The ingredients are something that I can make for really cheap, but I don't have any of the extracts or anything, and I need some more oxides. (They do have it at sephora, so if your lucky enough to have one I suggest you stop buy and check it out.) You can get the actual foundation for on $30 on Amazon which is pretty cool.

If you do want to make your own foundation here are some basic recipes that I like experimenting with.

Tinted setting powder or foundation:
Various types of iron oxides, browns, yellows, and reds. I get these for painting (making your own paint is so much fun!) so I just took what I had to mix and match.
You can add some Ultramarine pigment and mica also but isn't necessarily needed.
Rice flour

Only get a small amount (you will most likely need to order the pigment online) of various colors so that you can get the right color for you, but make sure you have enough probably at least 20 grams if not a bit more just in case. About 50% of the mixture should be from the rice flour. Give it a whirl in a food processor or use a mortal and pestle. Keep mixing until you get the perfect shade. This way you can leave out any bad ingredients and you get to change your foundation as your skin color changes with the seasons.

You can use your extra pigments to make blush, lip gloss and eye shadow.

Make your own Lip Gloss:

• 1tbsp of Alo Vera gell
• 1/2 tbsp of coconut oil
• 1/8 tbsp of vitamin E oil
• A drop or two of essential oil it you want flavor. (You might want to mix your oil with a vegetable oil first if it is a hot oil like mint or cinnamon)
• Earth pigments, basically what you use for your foundation but you get to play around with more colors. You can also melt down some of your lipstick in with the coconut oil if you want that exact color, or use some eye shadow or blush you have on hand. I also like beat powder or juice as a coloring. 

Mix well, and apply. Keep in an old lip balm container. If you want sun protection you can add some zinc and/or titanium oxide. It may make your lips look a bit odd though but adding pigment should help.

To make Eye Shadow:
Basically it is just a bit of rice flour with earth pigment (includes oxides) and mica. mix in a small food processor or with a mortar and pestle.

To make blush:
This is just like making foundation, only you want to use only red pigments mostly. if you want it to be a bronser  make your foundation but make it a shade or two darker and put some mica in it for sparkle.

For a natural mascara, just empty out an old mascara bottle really well and fill it with alovera and if you want a bit of vitamin E oil. Coconut oil would work too. Just sweep it on. If you want it to be colored add some eye shadow and rice flour, enough that it will form a peek when you lift you mixing tool out of the mixture, then put in a mascara container. The colored mascara wont go into a mascara container as easily. What I find that work's best is to keep it in a separate container. Put your mascara wand into the colored mascara and then push the wand into the original container and take it out so that you don't have a big glob of mascara.

If you want a kit for mineral foundation their is one at Amazon HERE. The base has titanium and zinc oxide (the least harmful way to have sunscreen) which I wouldn't use and just use rice flour instead. But then again my 100%pure foundation has them in it but I don't like how it makes my face stay lighter as the rest of me tans. That is actually my only complaint I have ever had with any of their products. However it really isn't that noticeable I just need to use foundation that is a bit lighter.

Have fun and don't be afraid to let out your creative genius!