Beefy Shepherds Pie

Shepherd's pie is one of my favorite comfort foods... Flavorful ground beef in a rich gravy, vegetables, sauteed onions and garlic, baked in a casserole dish topped with yummy mashed potatoes. Even though it's the end of May, it rained here today! So I thought, why not make a nice comforting shepherd's pie for dinner? And why not use some of that Twisselman Ranch grass fed ground beef that I just bought to stock my freezer with? 

https://www.twisselmanranch.com/mercantile

So I reached into the freezer and got the meat out to defrost and I saw some frozen peas and corn that I figured I'd I can take out to make more room for more good beef! I mean right now my freezer is stuffed! Usually, I chop up all the fresh vegetables to put in my casseroles, but today the frozen ones will do. Of course, I augmented with a nice white onion that I sauteed in the skillet before adding the beef. Then I looked through the fridge and saw some fresh snap peas, so I figured why not dice up those to add a little bit of crunch? Also, there was a few green onions in a little container that I was saving for just something like this. I mean, if you can't clean out the fridge while you're making a casserole, you're doing something wrong. One thing this casserole didn't have added was diced celery. Why? Because my husband hates celery. Weird, I know...

I diced the onion and smashed the garlic to sautee in some avocado oil in the skillet. Then I crumbled in the ground beef and seasoned it with our Big Daddy's BBQ beef seasoning. I noticed as this beef cooked, there was very little liquid coming out -- very lean ground beef! So after the meat was browned, I sprinkled on some flour and stirred in a little beef broth to make a sauce. 

Once that had cook down a little bit, I stirred in the vegetables and let it cook a little while till the snap peas began to soften. This would also be a good time to add in some herb seasoning like parsley, oregano, or marjoram. It didn't look colorful enough for my taste, so I opened up a can of corn and put in half. 

Now Shepherd's Pie can go right in the casserole, but I kind of like it to have a little crust on the bottom to hold it all together. I didn't have any frozen pie crust and I wasn't up to making a pie crust, so I just use some flour tortillas to line the bottom. I poured the meat mixture over the top and then dolloped on the mashed red potatoes. Dinner is ready to put in the oven!

I will bake this casserole for about 45 minutes at 350° until the mashed potatoes start to slightly brown on top and the meat mixture is bubbling. 

California Chicken Bacon Ranch quiche

My husband said he wants more eggs for breakfast. I've been pretty lazy during the last few months not wanting to get up a few minutes early to cook a hot breakfast. Most often will have a smoothie or just some coast of peanut butter or avocado. But a few months eggs then I think this crustless quiche bacon cast iron skillet on Sunday is just the ticket. I'll have a nice hot breakfast today and more slices to reheat during the week for a quick and hearty breakfast.

I came up with this California chicken bacon ranch quiche named after my favorite pizza because I had leftover chicken in the frig and a bag of bacon bits. So I started by caramelizing some white onions in a cast iron skillet with a dab of olive oil. I left the onions get nice and brown with little crispy bits. Then I added some chopped red pepper, a can of diced green chiles, some chopped up leftover chicken, and sliced green onions. Next, I seasoned it with ranch dressing mix and a little of my all purpose Chicken Fixin's seasoning.

I scrambled the six eggs with 2 cups of milk and a couple of tablespoons of flour, added some salt and pepper, and poured that all over the chicken bacon mixture. I topped it with about a cup of shredded cheddar cheese and put it in a preheated 350-degree oven. I set the timer for 45 minutes and let it bake. When the timer went off, I checked it and the eggs looked set, so I pulled it out and let it cool for about 10 minutes before slicing into it. It came out nice and firm and yummy! I topped it with some sour cream and salsa and we had a feast for breakfast!

Dry Canning

My husband and I have been talking for years about being prepared for an emergency. But when this Covid-19 pandemic hit, we found we were pretty low on many staple items for long term supply. In the beginning, I only had a six-pack of paper towels and a 24-pack of toilet paper in the hall closet. I mean, the items we had in the pantry would probably last us two or three months if we had to stretch it. But what we would really feel more comfortable with is having a year's supply of basic food items such as beans, rice, flour, sugar, salt, and water. Also toilet paper, paper towels, and disinfectants.

Anyway, we were soon able to catch up on our supply of toilet paper and paper towels once the grocery stores replenish their inventory. and I will probably never do my weekly grocery shopping again without buying an extra pack toilet paper! But it was time to get serious about food storage. 

I already keep most of my pantry staples in glass mason jars. I have some half gallon jars in which I keep different types of flour, cornmeal, quinoa, oats, white sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, etc. I have several types of pasta in the boxes that they come in, but when I open it up, I pour it into a glass storage jar because I don't normally cook a whole box at a time. 

I also have I also have anywhere from 3-6 cans of a variety of soups, beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, tuna, and jars of salad dressing, vinegar, oil, lemon juice, and condiments on hand in my kitchen. So that being said, everything I have stored now could probably keep us going for a couple months. 

So my plan was to buy case lots of items that we use frequently like cans of pinto beans, black beans, refried beans, chili beans, corn, peas, green beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, pineapple, tuna, chicken broth, soup, chili peppers and maybe some other can fruits. Those are the products we use most frequently, and having them available in a 15 ounce can size works for daily meal preparation. 

One of my most recent trip to the store I found a 25 lb bag of white rice $13.49, which happened to be grown and produced in the USA. We are trying to be more aware of where food comes from and have been reading labels more carefully, so I thought this was a good find! 

I bought a six-pack of half gallon size Ball canning jars. The plan was to dry can the rice into the jars and store them in our garage storage cabinets. We figure this amount of rice will probably last us for a year. 

I started by running the new jars through the dishwasher cycle to clean and sterilize them. I let them dry overnight and then fill the jars with the rice from the 25 lb bag. We measured out that one jar would hold 7-1/2 cups of rice. The 25 lb bag actually filled seven half-gallon jars, so I have one jar in my kitchen pantry in 6 to store in the long-term storage. 

Then we put the filled jars into the oven and set it for 225 degrees and let them heat for almost 2 hours. This process is to kill any insects that might be in the rice. 

Then we took out the jars, put the lids on and proceeded to vacuum seal them. You can see in the picture how the divots sucked down and the lids are on tight.

I added some labels with what kind of rice and the date that we sealed them. Now they're ready for the pantry! Next up: black beans, pinto beans, flour, sugar, salt.