Shepherd’s Pie amazingness!

Yes the title totally sounds like a year 6 project, but I don’t care because I am super proud of the tasty, tasty meal I made the other night!!!

I started out wanting to make a healthy Shepherd’s Pie for my family, originally the plan was to make cauliflower mash for the top, but Dad kind of 86’d that idea in a heartbeat. So on the way home I went to the fruit and produce market and bought a bunch of ingredients setting myself to make an amazing hot dinner to combat the cold nights we have been having.

Ingredients Shepherd’s pie:

• 1 kilo lean beef mince
• 1 jar of tomato based pasta sauce (I got a chunky one for extra veg)
• 1 red capsicum
• 1 brown onion
• 1 large carrot
• 2 cloves garlic
• TBSN mixed herbs
• 2 medium sized tomatoes
• TBSN BBQ Sauce
• TBSN Tomato Sauce
• Charisma Potatoes – these are low GI potatoes
• butter and milk for mash

Ingredients bread:

• sliced loaf of Pane di casa bread
• margarine or butter
• mixed herbs
• 2 cloves garlic
• grated parmesan cheese

What I did:

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
• Peel potatoes, place in a saucepan, add water until just over the potatoes then place on heat to begin boiling. Once the water is boiling turn down to half heat.
• Dice the capsicum, onion and carrot and place in a hot pan with the lean beef mince, dice/break up the mince as it is cooking. Continue until meat is cooked.
• Add pasta sauce, tomatoes, BBQ sauce, Tomato sauce and mixed herbs. Mince the garlic and add this to the mix too. Allow the mixture to simmer on a low heat.
• Check potatoes, when they are done drain the water. Add about 2 teaspoons of butter and a dash of milk and start mashing. Add more milk as required to get a creamy consistency, try not to make it runny. I use New Milk which is lighter, but still creamy.
• Grab a baking dish (it will need to be a biggish one) spoon your entire meat mixture into it and pat it down a bit so the surface is even.
• Grab your mash and a spoon and spoon the mash on top of the meat mixture. Use the back of the spoon to smooth it to ensure distribution is even across the pie. I then like to texture the top with a fork and sprinkle some low fat grated tasty cheese on top.
• Place in the oven for approximately 10 minutes (or until top is golden brown and cheese melted – do NOT burn the cheese 🙂 )
• Grab a small bowl and mix up approx 2 TBSN margarine with 1 TBSN herbs and 2 cloves of minced garlic. To be honest I did not measure these amounts I just kind of felt it out and added what I felt it needed from the look of it. (Sorry – it’s how my Nan and Aunt cook and I kind of adopted the idea).
• Spread the mixture on one side of the pane di casa bread and place under the grill on medium heat. Keep a close eye on this as different grills cook at different speeds and everyone has a different idea of “perfectly” toasted 🙂 So… toast it until you are happy then remove from the grill and place on a plate lined with all foil, sprinkle a small amount of grated parmesan over the top the wrap the foil over the top of the bread to keep the heat and moisture in as well as melt the cheese.
• When you pie is cooked serve immediately with the bread.

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200+ Followers & Liebster Award

Hello my friends! I have amazing news, I have just cracked 200 followers woohoo! That was one of my blogging goals for the year and I did it hooray!

What I wanted to do today was thank some awesome people who have nominated me for the Liebster Award, thanks to Joel from Chesapeake films and Elfypie. I know it took me time to get to this and I am very sorry, I certainly feel slack, but I am doing it 🙂 Watch me go 🙂

Here are my answers to Joel’s questions:

1. Why Blogging?

Because I love to write, I love to tell stories and share experiences and if I don’t write for a long period of time I feel fidgety and weird. It is part of who I am and I felt blogging was a good way to go. I love that people read my blog and get something out of it, it makes me strive to be regular with posting and I am getting so much out of it.

I have met so many amazing people through blogging, I have made connections with others based on writing, sense of humour, similar pursuits etc. and it has been wonderful. One of my favourite things is guest blogging for others, I don’t know why, but I just love doing it!

(Also number seven from the next lot of questions 🙂 )

2. Twitter or FB?

FB – I cannot be limited to 140 characters haha.

3. Has there ever been a book that made you cry?

I can’t really think of one off the top of my head, but I am sure I have. Possibly (SPOILER ALERT) when Beth dies in Little Women, that part gets me every time.

4. What was the last meal you prepared from scratch?

Pancakes on Saturday om nom nom nom they was sooo good!

5. If you could go back in time, would you change anything?

I would have done my Librarian degree earlier and started trying for babies as soon as I met my Husband 🙂

6. Do you believe in “the road less travelled?

I prefer “The Road Not Taken” by Frost.

7. Robin Williams…go!

I am positive Joel wrote this question with me in mind. This man is magnificence personified. His genius has so many layers, it is just endless. I cannot even think of an all-encompassing word to describe him anywhere near accurately. Dead Poets Society made me fall in love with poetry, Aladdin made me believe in magic, What Dreams May Come made me believe in the power of love. He has been one of my heroes from a very young age. Due to his passing I am having a hard time with number 9 now 🙂

8. What was your worst experience while travelling?

When I was 14 I was in Fiji on holiday with my family and whilst my parents were at the pool and my brothers were at a coconut tree climbing class a man tried to force his way into my room.

9. What are the top three things on your bucket list?

* Having a coffee with Robin Williams

* Singing with Bette Midler

* Write a story and publish it (e or hardback) – I am actually working on this currently

She’s just divine!

10. Is it the journey or the destination?

The journey and more importantly who you take it with.

11. What do you do to unwind/to get rid of the toxins from the day, to vent out your frustrations/to clear your head?

Sing, sing, sing.

Here are my answers to Elfypie:

1. Favourite book?

Of all time? Oh man, this is such a hard question! Okay, I am going to choose two, that is probably against the rules, but you all know I am such a rebel 😛

So my TWO favourite books (of all time) are Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice.

Little Women I fall in love with the story every time I read it! Interview with the Vampire for pretty much the same reason, I adore Anne Rice’s writing, she has this amazing way of depicting people and places which makes the story come alive in your head.

2. Who inspires you?

My Mum is my biggest inspiration, all my life I have looked up to her and wanted to be as good a person as she is. She is so successful in so many aspects of life that it is impossible not to be inspired by her. She is a massive part of the reason I wanted to become a Librarian, to follow in her footsteps and without her my marks at Uni would not have been as good – great editor.

3. Music taste?

I am very eclectic, don’t ask me who my favourite band or singer is because it changes. At the moment I am loving Imagine Dragons, Pentatonix, Pink! (always loving Pink!) and Carrie Underwood – told you my taste was eclectic 🙂 I am also listening to a lot of Queen, ACDC, Adam Lambert and the song Titanium (working on a slow, kind of country version of it).

Queen ft Adam Lambert @ the Sydney concert. Best. Night. Ever.

4. What is your main ambition in life?

Man these are hard questions. My main ambition(s) (had to add the “s” sorry) are to be happy, to make others happy, to constantly work towards helping others become information literate and making them lifelong learners and to love my family with everything I have. I guess as part of this you could now add my goal to become a Mum, some people might not think much of that goal, but I don’t think much of those people 🙂

5. Dogs or cats?

I love both, but adore my 2 rescue puppies, they are such sweet and beautiful souls. I still can’t believe anyone abused and abandoned them! I don’t care that one of them is almost 10… they are still my puppies 🙂

6. Did you believe that the moon was made out of cheese when you were a kid?

No, but I did believe a man lived up there. Also… since he was in the sky and I thought heaven was in the clouds I kinda had this idea that he was in charge of looking after the people in heaven.

7. Why did you start blogging?

Because I love to write, I love to tell stories and share experiences and if I don’t write for a long period of time I feel fidgety and weird. It is part of who I am and I felt blogging was a good way to go. I love that people read my blog and get something out of it, it makes me strive to be regular with posting and I am getting so much out of it.

I have met so many amazing people through blogging, I have made connections with others based on writing, sense of humour, similar pursuits etc. and it has been wonderful. One of my favourite things is guest blogging for others, I don’t know why, but I just love doing it!

8. What are your top 3 qualities you look for in a person?

• Good heart
• Straight talk
• A giver not a taker

9. What is your favourite place?

Before my Grandparents passed away they owned a house on a beach, every holiday we would go and spend time at my Grandparent’s house. Some of my best memories are there; it is my biggest wish that I could one day buy that house back. It is the most beautiful place in the world.

10. Who is your favourite Disney character?

The Genie from Aladdin!

11. Why is the sky blue?

Because if it were purple people would never stop looking at its awesomeness and nothing would ever get done 🙂

Annnd nothing was done this day

Here are the rules for this award!

– You have to link back to the person that nominated you.

– You must answer all 11 questions given to you by the person who nominated you.

– After completing these questions you must nominate 11 bloggers under 200 followers and give them 11 questions of your choice.

– You must not nominate the person who nominated you.

I’m not great with rules (as I am sure you have noticed) and a lot of the people I find awesome have over 200 followers because other people have also recognised their awesome J So here is what I am going to do, I am nominating people whose blogs I love, if they are under 200 awesome, if not then you should definitely check them out and follow them.

Here are my questions:

1. What is your go to song at Karaoke?
2. What was your favourite book growing up?
3. What is your Starbucks order?
4. Favourite dessert?
5. The best poem ever is….?
6. What is your favourite movie of all time?
7. In one sentence please explain why Firefly should not have been cancelled.
8. What is your best “ain’t nobody got time for that moment”?
9. What is your “I cannot even be bothered” dinner? – something you make not buy
10. How much do you love Tim Tams?
11. What one thing would you change about your life in this moment?

And here are my peoples:

The Cat Bed

The Dimwhit

LauGraEva – you have to check out her handiworks!

The Gone –  This is a novel written online, pretty awesome. I am a little addicted… check it out!

Cutie Cameras – Love this blog and its author. Such a fresh, fun and colourful blog.

Storytime with John – John in hilarious! You have to check him out!

Cellulite Looks Better Tan – finding this blog was like finding a kindred spirit. I love how this lady writes!

Plus+ Beauty

A Red Lip and a Nude Shoe

I could list ALL day, but I am going to stop now 🙂 Like I said I know that some of these people have more than 200 followers, but I don’t think being successful should stop me from showing my appreciation of their blogs.

Dessert Experiments

So I decided (much to my Mothers chagrin) to make my own birthday cake this year, because I wanted to experiment. I found out later that my Mum must not have had very much faith in my cooking ability because they had bought Vienettas as back ups in case my experiment failed. 

The inspiration from this cake came from seeing a picture of an insane multi-layered chocolate, ice-cream and Violet Crumble cake. I decided that it was crazy and just too much, also I bet I could make something like that. So I began planning. 

I wanted the top layer to be ice-cream, my fear of having a chocolate cake bottom layer was that the ice-cream would be too heavy for it… my solution… 

Triple choc fudge brownie base!!!

Omm nom NOM!!

So then I took 2 litres of Peters Vanilla Ice Cream (No I did not make my own – ain’t nobody got time for that!) and smashed Tim Tams and crunchies all through it. Crunchies I left in BIG chunks so that the honeycomb didn’t get too hard. 

I used the same tin as the brownies and put the ice-cream into the tin and into the freezer overnight to set. 

Then the ice-cream gets laid straight on top of the brownie, you can used whipped cream to “frost” and decorate the top as you like. 

Finished product

This cake was such a roaring success that I have already had a request to make one for someone else’s birthday next weekend! 

Side on glory! So many NOMS!!

Seriously you guys, this was my best. Experiment. Ever!

Felix Baumgartner’s Historic Jump

Felix Baumgartner
from redbullstratos.com

Felix Baumgartner has redefined what human beings can achieve through succeeding in smashing the skydiving record held by Colonel Joe Kittinger (retired) since August 16, 1960.

Baumgartner is no newbie to freefall, he started skydiving at the age of 16 and has always pursued his passion of aviation building a career by pushing the boundaries of human flight. He is well known for skydiving across the English Channel. The jump from the RedBull Stratos however has dwarfed his previous achievements.

43 year old Baumgartner ascended to a height of 128,051 ft in the stratosphere, before stepping off into the skies above New Mexico and free-falling back to Earth on October 14, 2012. Felix reached an estimated speed of 1,342 kilometres per hour (834 mph), or Mach 1.24.

Whilst Baumgartner certainly smashed the highest freefall record, he was in actual freefall for 4 minutes, 19 seconds, this is actually 17 seconds shy of his mentor Joe Kittinger’s 4 minutes, 36 second record from 1960. Previous highest freefall record holder Kittinger jumped to earth from a height of 102,800 feet from a high altitude balloon, he has a permanent spot in the National Aviation Hall of Fame. Kittinger, being a National Aeronautics Association Elder Statesman of Aviation holds a great amount knowledge in this field and therefore was asked to join the RedBull Stratos team to provide his knowledge to ensure the success of the jump that would break his record.

Felix Baumgartner & Joe Kittenger
from usnews.com

Missing out on longest freefall most likely wont upset Felix too much as completing this colossal feat has earned Felix 3 other world records;

• after 2hrs 2mins of ascent he broke the record for highest manned balloon flight,
• first human to break the sound barrier during freefall
• highest freefall

These can be added to his growing list of records, including;

• highest parachute jump from a building (Petronas Towers in Kaula Lumpur, 1999),
• world lowest base jump (30m-high arm of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, 1999),
• first person to skydive the English Channel (2003),
• highest parachute jump from a building (Taipei 101, 2007).