Shepard's Pie

This morning I was awoken by the wonderful aroma of.....my dogs anxiety caused explosive diarrhea....which I found all over the carpeted landing.  Just to add insult to injury he also walked up and down and all around the mess, as to make sure I had to clean the entire stairway, and not just the landing, where he decided to go.

This is the one thing about my dog I just do not understand.  He was standing right next to the door!  It's also right by our bedroom!  Why in the world would he not bark?  I would very happily get out of bed and let him outside to go potty!  At any hour and in any weather!

The Mister and I got to talking about this a while ago.  There are a lot of people who adopt animals from shelters.  (Good for you!)  There are also a lot of those people who claim that the animal they adopted had to of been abused because of the animals anxiety problems.  If we had adopted Buehrle I would 100% think he had been abused in the worst way.

We did NOT get Buehrle from a shelter.  We picked him out of the litter before he was even old enough to come home with us.  He came from a very kind and loving small scale breeder in Wheaton Illinois.

He has always been a model dog.  He is very sweet, he lets Clara do whatever to him (ex dress-up) and listens to all of our commands.  We have only been loving and sweet to him in return.  Never have he raised a hand to him.  Ever ever ever.  He has never been left outside, chained up, or idle.  Ever ever ever!  He is a part of our family and we treat him as so.

 However, despite only being treated with kindness, this dog refuses to bark.  He will not let us know if he needs anything.  He will not let us know when he is scared!   One time the city was doing work right outside our house.  They had to bust the road open to get to a channel underneath.  The machinery was so loud and the force was so strong it woke me up and was swaying my bed.  At first I thought it was thunder, but soon realized what it was.  The house was quiet so I listened to the noise for about half an hour then got up to check on Clara and Buehrle, (who sleep in the same room) one room over.

I opened the door and Buehrle darted out.  I looked down and saw that he had been in there the entire time, trying to eat his way out through the wall.  He was terrified.  I was ONE ROOM OVER!  Why didn't he just bark?  I would have comforted him!  Oh, and every time he gets anxious or scared he has crazy diarrhea spells that are very intense and NASTY.

  Every. time. he's. scared.  

Which is awesome.

There was a point when he was having episodes like this at least 6 times a day.  I would walk out of the room for two minutes and BOOM!  I would take him out for a good half hour, bring him back, turn around to hang my coat up and ..... BOOM!  But nothing seems to be the cause of his anxiety.  He gets a ton of exercise, is always around people and has never been treated badly.  His diet is consistent as are the times he's fed.  I think I am going to have to make one of those collars like the dog's in Up wear JUST so I can figure out how to make this dog happy and calm!

I know it's probably poor form to talk about your dogs incontinence problems and delicious food in the same post, but here goes anyway.  How about I break it up with a candid picture of my kid?

Aww, that's better.

(She has started dressing herself these days.  I am loving her outfit concoctions.  Such a fashionista.)

Yesterday I went on a bake-capade.  While doing so I made my favorite fall time comfort food, Shepards pie.  I think what I love most about this is how versatile it is.  You can make it vegan, dairy free, gluten free, vegetarian, or meat and cheese filled with only a few extra steps.  I hope you like it too!

Shepard's Pie

Yes, I did put the pi sign on our pie.  

The look on Rhiannon's face when I do things like this is priceless.

I have made this so often I never use measurements, so all of these are just approximates.  I will start with the recipe I used last night, which is gluten and dairy free, and then add the variations after.

• 4-6 potatoes, boiled (I add fresh garlic with them to make them extra tasty, but I like garlic more then most people do, definitely optional.)
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 celery stalk, minced
• 1 M onion, minced
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 head fresh (or frozen) broccoli, chopped
• 1 lb hamburger meat
• Rosemary, oregano, thyme Chipotle chile, salt and peppar to taste
• Olive oil
• Vegetable broth (or chicken or beef or water)
• Rice milk (opt.)

1. Make your mashed potatoes to taste.
2. While your potatoes are cooking fry your hamburger in the oil and chop up your vegetables to your liking.
3. When your hamburger is done, transfer meat to another bowl while keeping the oil in the skillet.  
4. Simmer the vegetables on M to MH heat in the oil and drippings as well as the vegetable broth.  (About 1/2 cup or so), for 5 minutes
5. Mix the vegetables, meat and seasonings to taste.  You can add rice milk if you want your grazy to be more creamy.  You could also add a little bit of cornstarch mixed in with cold water if you want the sauce to be thicker.
6. Put mixture in the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish.  
   
   
   
7. Top with mashed potatoes.  
8. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes

Rhiannon might kill me for posting this.

Variations

• To make this vegan/vegetarian, omit meat.  You can add fake crumbles, if wanted.

• My favorite way to make this is to add a can of cream of mushroom soup to the vegetables.  It makes it so thick,
  creamy and delicious!

• If you like/can eat cheese, pour a handful of cheddar cheese on top of your pie for the last 5 minutes it is in the oven.  My favorite cheese to use was Kraft's Chipotle cheddar shreds.  (I have no idea if they even make that still.)  

• If you want to get super fancy, omit the hamburger and use steak chunks instead.  Replace the vegetable broth with Guinness.

• Your possibilities for this dish are endless.  Have fun and play around with it!

Have a Fantastic Weekend!

Gluten & Dairy free Fried Chicken / Home

Everybody deserves to eat comfort food sometimes.  Whether it's pizza, cheesecake, pie, meatloaf, chicken noodle soup, spaghetti, mac and cheese, cookies, cake, (or salad if you are my beautiful sister in law).  Sometimes it is nice to eat something hot, delicious and glutinous when you have had a shit day.  

However, if you are like my Mister and are allergic to gluten and dairy you can't have ANY of the above plus much much more.  It has been a very hard diagnosis for us to become accustomed to.

Since his diagnosis he has been very good about keeping the grumbling about his new diet to a minimum.  

(At least to me.)  

However, he did tell me the other day about how sad he was that he can never ever have fried chicken anymore. 

Seriously, my Misters new diet sucks.  

(I am on it with him, so I should know.)

  But I can go out with friends and cheat if I want.  I can still eat whatever I want and know it wont make me sick.  

He is not so lucky.  

The man deserves some fried chicken.   

I felt so bad that I did something I never in a million years thought I would do.  

I went to target and bought a Presto deep fryer.  

Deep fried food = gross.  

Deep fried food smell in my house = grosser

The Mister eating a meal that doesn't taste bland, boring or just plain gross = priceless.

Crystal's Gluten & Dairy free Fried Chicken

*It has come to my attention that Bob's red mill gluten free flour actually has gluten in it.  (WTF??)  Please don't use it if you have celiac disease!

I have replaced my flour mixture with Nameste foods perfect flour blend and like it even better.

• 3 lbs drumsticks (They are cheaper and my family likes them more then white meat.)
• 4 C almond milk
• 4 eggs
• 2 T hot sauce (We use Franks)
• 2 C flour* (I use Bob Red mill gluten free all purpose mix)
• 2/3 C Tapioca four/starch (Or some other form, potato starch should work too.)
• 2 tsp salt* (I personally felt like it could use more salt)
• 1 T paprika
• 1 T pepper
• 1 T oregano 
• 1 T onion powder
• 1 T Garlic powder
• Vegetable oil

1. Put your chicken and almond milk in a container.  Let chicken soak for one hour.

2.  In a bowl. beat your hot sauce and eggs together.

3.  In a separate bowl mix your flours and seasonings, (next time I make this I am upping the amount of seasonings I put in.  It was a little more bland then we like in this house.) 

4.  Drain the chicken and pat off well.  You can salt and pepper them if you want at this time.

5.  Take your chicken (one piece at a time) and dip in your egg mixture.  Then put the chicken in the flour       mixture, coating it well.

6.  After coating all pieces let the chicken sit for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes re-coat them with your flour mixture.  (Not the egg mixture, just the flour.)  

{Now I know that frying foods is a weak point for me.  This is why I chose the fryer I did.  1. It was only $30,  2. All I had to do was plug it in for 15 minutes (with the oil poured to the line) and then it magically kept the oil at the correct temperature for as long as I had it plugged in.} 

This next step is for people who have a cheap and magic fryer like I do.

 If you don't, follow this instruction here.

7.  Put four pieces of chicken in your fryer at a time and cook for 13 minutes.

8.  Put your chicken on a rack in the oven (preset to about 275) to keep warm while you finish cooking the rest of the chicken.

Instant Happy Husband!

Instant children who "get along" with each other!

(Don't they look happy?  Two seconds later I think Clara pinched Rhiannon.)

Happy Hump Day!

This is the song the Mister and I walked out of our wedding to.  It's one of my favorites.