A Delicious Recipe for a Low Fat Shepherd's Pie from a Shepherd

Here I am, a shepherd(ess) raising lambs, and my husband won't partake of their meat. No mammals. So, here is my recipe for Shepherd's Pie, but made with ground chicken or turkey. (I prefer ground chicken.) The classic version that is made with ground lamb has more fat than this version, but feel free to make it with ground beef or lamb, a mixture of those, or ostrich, or whatever ground meat you like.


(Next time I make it, I'll add pictures. But, here is the recipe anyway.)


2 lbs potatoes (We prefer gold, but whatever kind of potatoes is fine. But no skins is best for this dish.)
1/2 cup milk (We tend to have low fat on hand.)
2-3 Tbsp. of cream cheese (I tend to use the reduce fat version.)
1 lb ground meat of choice 
2 large onions
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
1/2 cup dry cooking sherry to caramelize the onions. (Dry white wine works, too.)
1 1/2-2 tsp fresh thyme (or about a heaping 1/2 tsp of dried.)
1 package frozen petite peas (thawed) (I end of microwaving them to defrost.)
1 package frozen corn (Once tried a package of grilled frozen corn from Trader Joe's. Like it this way, too)


1. Cut potatoes into quarters for making the mashed potatoes. Cover the pieces with cold water and heat to boiling, uncovered. Simmer about 18 minutes or until tender.  (The potatoes can cook while getting the other items ready and cooking.) Once you have drained them well, return to them to the sauce pot and add the milk, cream cheese, and about 1/4 tsp salt and fresh ground pepper.  *Mash those tatties until smooth.
2. While the potatoes are cooking, finely chop the onions, celery, and carrots.
3. Brown the meat with about 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.  Remove the meat with a spoon, slotted preferably, leaving all the juices in the pan.  This adds to the flavor of the onions.
4. Oh, yes, remember to preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
5. In the skillet that you browned the meat in, on medium high, add the onions, carrots, and celery, and once again add 1/4 tsp salt and the same of ground pepper. Cook about 7-8 minutes. Then add the sherry or whatever wine you are using. Cook another couple of minutes to reduce the liquid by half.  Stir in the thyme, and add back the ground meat that was previously cooked in this skillet.
6. (If you have cooking spray, you might want to use it on the dish before you start assembling the pie. It still works if you don't spray.)
In a casserole dish, spread half of the mashed tatties (potatoes) evenly along the bottom. The next layer will be your seasoned meat mixture. Then layer on the thawed peas and corn. Spoon on the last bit of mashers that remain, evenly over the top covering all the filling.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or until you see the top is turning golden brown.


* I learned a fun Scottish (Cape Breton, actually) hard shoe dance called Mashin' Tatties. Had to make a reference here.

Eggactly! Three Edible kinds of Eggs?

The chickens and ducks are laying like crazy!  The peahen, not to be outdone is laying, too.  I wondered...are peacock eggs edible? Why not? They really are big chickens with much prettier feathers.  So, I hard boiled one.  Here comes the classic line, "Tastes like chicken." The peacock egg did taste quite a bit like a chicken egg.  Although, next time I want to fry it.  (Think I'll do it, and then serve it to my hungry teenager, and not tell him what kind of egg he just ate. Hmmmm. Wonder what his reaction will be?)

From top to bottom:
Peacock egg
Duck egg
Chicken egg, chicken egg, chicken egg
Chinese Silkie chicken egg

Peacock eggs are a  shade of creamy pink with undertones of brown. When you pick up a peacock egg it is quite heavy as eggs go.  
The ducks eggs have a thicker shell than the chicken eggs, and many people find them delicious.  They are not my favorite (but, my dog Max is crazy for them.) There are benefits to eating duck eggs. I'll share more about this in a later blog.
We have these two small black chickens we call Ying and Yang. They are Chinese Silkie chickens. Can't tell them apart, but they both lay these tiny white eggs. Then there is Sam. She, of course, she lays the green eggs.  Blue eggs come from a chicken that we haven't named yet. What is a good name for a chicken that lays blue eggs? We haven't named the small red feathered chicken yet either. This chicken lays off- white, very oval shaped eggs, and likes to lay them with the ducks' eggs.  But now that two of the ducks are sitting on a clutch of eggs, she isn't welcome near their nest anymore, and has had to  go back to laying them with the other chickens eggs.
There is nothing like warm farm fresh eggs right from underneath a chicken (or a duck or peacock)  straight to the frying pan served on toasted sour dough English muffins.  Love living on The Derby Farm!

Lamb Update: The Good News and the Bad News

Good news first.

The very next morning after the iffy lamb was born to Jackie, my husband decided to let me sleep in until 7:15 or so.  Just enough sleep in time to have missed Earnestine having her lamb. Oh, well.  I got there shortly after the fact. When I arrived she was vigorously licking him off. Everything went fine, and continues to be fine.  I picked up the little ram, and waved him in front of his mama's nose so that she'd follow me in to the barn.  It was a cold morning.  The lamb needed the protection, plus mama and lamb needed bonding time. In the barn now, I had Earnestine in one jug, and Jackie with her weak, barely able to stand, lamb in the other jug.

Several times a day I would visit Jackie's lamb and try to get it to nurse.  It just couldn't do it.  I eventually gave it some formula, but it still needed to get the colostrum. The farmer in me really came out as I grabbed that little head, pried open the mouth, and stuck a warm sheep tit into its mouth.  But once it got there, the lamb didn't really want to stuck on it.  I tried to shoot the warm liquid into its mouth. I tried to milk Jackie (which she didn't like) thinking I'd put her milk into a bottle and feed the lamb that way.  No way was Jackie going to let me do that.  She would only stop moving after she smelled her lamb making sure it was her lamb at her udder, not my hand.  All the while the lamb's breathing was getting weaker and it had no interest in trying to stand up.
Earnestine's lamb was standing immediately, and nursing fine.  So, most of my attention could be paid to trying to get this weaker one to live.

Jackie and her lamb

Finally by the third day, which was Sunday, the little lamb was beyond saving. I had put as much effort as I could into saving it. It was lying flat on the hay in the jug, but still breathing.  .Not wanting it to be left for dead, I decided I would hold it for a little while.  What followed was a special moment with Jackie, the mama.


Near the aviary was a green plastic deck chair.  I would take the lamb with me and go and sit there while watching the sheep graze in the yard. When I picked up the near dead lamb, I let Jackie out of her jug so that she she could graze with the other sheep, too.  She was penned up for  a few days.  I had been sitting in the chair awhile, holding the lamb in my lap, when Jackie came over to me.  She smelled her lamb.  I looked down at the lamb, and she went head to head with me.  Not in a rough way as sheep are known to do, but a sweet way.  This gesture made me start to cry.  She stayed head to head with me as I cried.  I reached up with my hand, and she let me stroke her cheek.  Then, she took another smell of her lamb, and went back to grazing.  Tears warmed my own cheeks.  


Perhaps, I had better lay down the lamb, and let it die peacefully.  This is what I decided to do.  Back to the jug I went, laid it carefully on the hay, and closed the gate so that it would be alone in the jug. This way, the other lambs won't be able to bother it.  Good night sweet lamb.  

Brownie now looks fatter than she did in this picture.

Out of 8 lambs born alive, 6 have survived.  I am told that is good odds, especially for your first year of lamb farming.  It doesn't make it any easier when you loose one, though.  That one is still precious. (Okay, truthfully, the business side of me also says that it is precious money lost.) Plus, I am not convinced that this is the last of the lambs to be born this year.  Maybe Brownie is pregnant.  But, the former owner has informed me that it was a rough labor for Brownie last year, but she produced a very large lamb.  In the mean time, the 6 lambs that we do have are doing well on The Derby Farm.

Another Lamb, But it looks kind of iffy...

Right out in the field!

I only left for an hour. Do you think she could have waited? No. Jackie decided to have her lambs in the pasture while I was with James at his Highland dance class.  I say lambs, because there were two, but one did not make it. Wish I knew why it wasn't breathing or moving or even warm when I found it lying on the grass.  Jackie was still trying to lick it clean even though there was no life left.  She would go back and forth between licking the alive one and the not alive one. Right away, I knew I had to get mama and baby into the barn, and into the jug that I had just laid fresh hay in earlier.  Even though it was a beautiful, sunny Sonoma County day, a cool breeze was coming up promising to be a lower thirties kind of night.  
I picked up the still wet lamb and walk toward the barn thinking Jackie would follow me.  But, there were two lambs.  So instead of following me, she stayed where she was trying to get the first lamb to move, all the while walking around confused as to where her other lamb had gotten to.  It took me picking up the lifeless lamb and hiding it, before she would head into the barn, following me while I was holding the lamb that still had life. Okay, got them in. Now what?

My helpful husband with his tools.

My supportive husband, Doug, knew his part in this already.  Digging the grave.  We have had to do that several times so far on The Derby Farm.  Without my asking him, he went and got on his boots, grabbed the shovel, the wheel barrow, and the lime, and headed out to the lamb graveyard we have going in the 'oak tree yard' part of our property.  He tended to his work of digging, while I tended to the animals in the barn.
The newest lamb in the barn has shone no interest in getting up.  No interest in nursing. It appears to be very weak.  Jackie is attentive, though, and continues to clean it off.  The best thing is to let them be for awhile, I think. Besides, it is getting very cold outside, and I need more layers as well as dinner.

The heat lamp is on.  We'll see if it helps.

When I am properly layered, I head back outside with a bottle of lamb formula just in case.  My thinking is that if she is too weak to stand, maybe a little warm milk will give her some energy so she'll try to nurse later.  There were sucking sounds and milk disappearing, so she must be getting some sustenance. But it is cold out here.  I can't lock them inside by themselves, then the other lambs will get cold.  There is no way to get the whole rest of the flock locked in the barn either. A heat lamp!  As much as I really don't want to use one, to get this little lambie through the night, I think I had better do it. The scary thing is the chance of fire in the barn with all the dried hay around.
Got the heat lamp plugged in and in a safe spot.  Got her to nurse one little sip before she collapsed back onto the hay.  Not much more that I can do out here tonight.  As I was preparing to leave the barn, really hoping that the heat lamp would (won't) start a fire, I look across in the dark night and see a fire!  On the other side of the trail that runs behind the back of our house, but further up, there is definitely something going up in flames. Not sure if it is a house or trees.  Sirens blare in the cold night, but no sign of any fire trucks yet.  This made me second guess and double check the heat lamp, but I am still worried.  Worried about the lamb surviving the night, and worried that there could be a fire here.  
As I sit writing this blog, they have put out the neighboring fire. The fire in our wood burning stove has gone out, and I need to get to bed.  This lambing thing is tough.  Tough work and tough emotionally.  I have to be tough inside, and yet still compassionate.  Always a balance.  Balance is tough, too.

This is Jackie because she has a 21 on the tag in her ear.

I'll let you know more if the newest little lamb makes it through the night on The Derby Farm. 

In Case You Were Wondering...Looks Like She'll Make it

Sheila, the affectionate sheep

Sheila is out of her solitary confinement now, mostly.  I knew that she was feeling better when I heard all sorts of sounds coming out of the barn. (By the way, our barn is really a converted shed as you can see from the photo.  But, it works as a barn for me!) This friendly sheep has a very raspy, breathy baa.  Also, there was the sound of hooves knocking on wood as she tried to climb her way out of the jug.   From the sounds, movement, and her appetite, I decided to move her  out of the barn, not reintroduced her back into the flock  just yet. Next to the barn pen, there is a small fenced off area with a lean-to and some grass.  So, Sheila is next to the flock, and can see her lambs.  But until her udder heals up a bit more from the mastitis, I think it is a good idea to keep her separate a bit longer.  

The ram and ewe  that are her lambs sometimes hang out next to her on the other side of the fence.  I am still bottle feeding those lambs twice a day, to make sure they don't loose too much weight from being weaned so early.  The ram lamb is getting a bit aggressive about it.  While I am trying to feed his sister, he nibbles at my clothes or nudges the bottle.  When I walk into the pen, he smells me to see if I brought any liquid sustenance for him. So, I have to feed him first.  He really sucks it down.  Sister is still not convinced that she wants this milk that isn't mom, and like to chew on the black rubber nipple with her tiny sharp teeth.  She does get some of it down her if brother leaves her any.

Even though Sheila gets plenty to eat, all day we hear her soft baaa!  Let me out!!! Her lambs will often answer back.  Other times, they are fine grazing in the front pasture. Not sure what would happen to her relationship with the lambs when I do reintroduce her back into the flock.  Better make sure she isn't contagious first, because I don't want to jeopardize the other ewes and lambs.  So, right now, Sheila stays where she is.  Alive and doing better on The Derby Farm.