Simple Simon's Meat Pie



   



BEHOLD THE ALMIGHTY MEAT PIE.....

It's simple Simon kinda stuff.....the meat pie.  Whether you stuff it with meat or not.  Choose your meat; beef, chicken, pork, lamb or choose another filling without a face; beans, potato, squash, tofu and fly at 'er. 

Check the fridge and pantry for these:

Ground beef or other choice of flavour

Can of tomatoes or freshly chopped tomatoes---whatever ya got.

Can of tomato sauce, leftover pasta sauce, leftover chili will work too.....use it all up.

Chop one onion

Chop up some peppers; green, red, yellow, orange

Clove of garlic wouldn't hurt

Pepper, basil, Old Bay, check out your herb supply and go for it...

Brown the meat and drain.  Soften up the chopped onion and peppers in a glob or so of butter in a hot pan until they're soft. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, browned beef, herbs and spices. Stir and heat at a medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, 'til it thickens,  then turn it down to low, cover and simmer while you conjure up a pie crust.

You can fire up a homemade pie crust if you want just add about 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese and a little garlic salt and oregano to the flour and you've got a  wicked Herb Pastry.  Nice and hardy too as far as pastry goes....I usually SUCK at pastry....but this one isn't as delicate and seems to always work for me. Cut in some cold butter or shortening until the mixture is crumbly then sprinkle some cold water over top and mix with a fork until it holds together enough for you to handle it.  Throw it on a floured surface and let your daily frustrations with your trusty rolling pin work it into a circle.  It works for me often.  That grocery store cashier who asked if my 3 year old was my granddaughter?....Roll THIS bitch. 

Anyway......if you don't have the time or culinary fortitude to make a crust from scratch there are good options out there as far as pre-made crusts and tart shells.  Pillsbury makes a double crust roll-out that works like a hot damn.  Fool your friends....have a laugh.

Scoop the meat/tomato mixture into the bottom shell and place cheese slices - your choice here so clean out the cheese drawer- over top before placing the top crust on.  Seal it....flute it....pretty it up how ever way you want just make sure you put put vents in the top either with a sharp knife or a cookie cutter like I usually do then place in a400 degree oven.  

Should take about 35 minutes.....if you brush egg white or melted butter keep an eye on the pie edge so it doesn't burn.

Let it sit out of the oven for about 15 minutes.....gives you time to put together a salad, veggies and dip, bag of Old Dutch crinkle chips.....whatever kind of side you and yours fancy. 

This is awesome the next day either at home or work. 

If you don't do crust then you can always do a mashed potato or squash topping with grated cheese.  

Chow down and enjoy........

Shine ON

What is it with family?  What makes a family? Is it that first moment when you hold a living being in your hands.....feel the warmth.....feel the heartbeat.....smell the smell that belongs somehow to you and all the ancestors before you?

I've got family I've given birth to, family I've married, family I've married into, family I've just adopted as my own though no blood is shared between  us.  Family is first....family is what leads us home whether that home is our place of infancy or our exit from the family of origin.

My family is my husband, my son, my wee son, my little daughter, my darling behemoth dog, my two pathetically spoiled cats and my over indulged trip of goats. All of us live....contentedly so it would seem......within just under four acres in a wee spot of paradise on Vancouver Island. 

I think of the family I came from and the words and emotion only arrive now.....in the wee hours of a Saturday night merging into a Sunday morning......after I've had a few cocktails and watched 'Skyfall' on PPV and my mind is finally at some type of ease.  What a pity that peace of mind is met at 2:35 am.  What a pity it takes such a lead up to find myself settling into.....ME. 

Babies mean family.  Surely they do.  My babies have made me part of a family starting with my first when I was 26 and on my own.....no daddy to-be rubbing my belly at pre-natal classes....no excited Grandma knitting booties and shopping for strollers.  My first baby completed my family of two.....a 'just-me-and- you' kinda gig.  My parents didn't really groove on the no husband thing.....and rightfully so who the hell could blame them for their worry......and so I felt truly alone.  Alone with my belly, my pregnancy books, my lower back ache, my sore feet, my cravings for bananas. 

My friends surrounded me. My friends that formed what would become my new family enveloped me then......reached out their hands.....opened their arms......welcomed me into their respective folds.  And my baby son was born and I was overwhelmed at how I felt....how the world all of a sudden made sense where before it just....had not.

Critters show up on this property we call home for our herd, our family, our trip, our gaggle, our flock.  The deer come right up to the deer fence and nibble politely and delicately on the tips of my forsythia.  They look at me intently after our eyes meet on a May afternoon.  A doe looks at me, pausing from her grazing of my back four, her huge mousy ears pricked forward, every muscle on her fawn-coloured body holding still......staring at me as though daring me to question why I'm even here at all.

My three goats 'maaa-aaaaa' to this doe and her buck that follows silently behind and the dynamic between domesticated and wild hooved mammal is tested and tried.  The wild buck curls his top lip back in the universal language of hooved-folk dominance. 

My deer are dear to me.  They are my family.  Family.  Family made from scratch.

Just around the bend shines a light.....the light around the corner waiting for me.  Waiting for me and mine to warm our faces in the warmth.  The light of a family garden, a family gathering, a family Christmas tree.....the light of more than one generation gathering together to raise one another, to carry one another, to support one another, through the dark spots on the track.....the old guiding the young to the light. 

We are the old....my husband and I.....we are the old guiding the young.  Forsaking our families of origin....his through death and mine through estrangement......yet forging ahead anyway to ensure our children carry on and around that corner to stand in the light.....and SHINE. 

Shine it all around my children......xo

Pals together

Pals Together.......

The billy goat on the right is either Daniel or Henrik....or how they're  known from their winter digs, Cheech or Chong.....but I have to look them straight on face to face to really be sure. I think this is Henrik/Cheech...but probably not.  They ARE twins so I guess that's the point.

Perfectly reasonable that three goats - three brothers goat - would enjoy a storybook read to them by a two year old. The really great thing is the two year old considers it a fine idea. That's the magic....the absurdity of it alone makes it magical.  I mean....maybe a toddler knows something we don't know. Maybe goats can read.

 

And then what happened? 

Anyway....Willie is on the left - known to his peeps as Willie No-Willie because he's  what's called a whether and well.....guess the rest.  He's the largest of this triplet trip and without the presence of a female anymore falls into the drag queen title of Herd Queen. Lucky Willie.

  A trip.....what's that you say?

Didn't y'all know that's what we're called?

 Trip Out.....

One of author Elizabeth Pepper's books references a five hundred year old volume of books listing names of designated groups of animals. A bevy of swans. A shrewdness of apes. An unkindness of ravens. a clowder of cats and....a trip of goats.

It's a sweet list. Great at parties.....kids and adults alike.

My little girl is reading a storybook to a trip of goats and they're fighting over who gets the best seat.When they begin head buttin' each other - and that's what goats do it's a herd thing don't sweat it - my wee lass tells 'em "Stop it you two...."  which they eventually do.

They gather round her.....to be honest probably hoping for a nibble of that cardboard book she's holding.....and she reads a story to them all.  About shapes and squares and triangles and after they stop bangin' heads and settle down they actually seemed to enjoy themselves.

 Maybe just the sound of a storyteller's voice is all it takes to keep the trip settled and calm. 

Wait a minute are we a brood or a troop of chickens?
....anyone?.....anyone?