Hi Everybody,
In keeping with the diner in New Zealand this month, last night I made shepherd's pie. No, I'm not a good cook. This was pre-frozen ground beef, frozen peas, a little dehydrated oinon, powder package brown gravy, and pre-made mashed potatoes from the grocery store. I just nuked the beef and peas long enough to thaw, nuked the mashed potatoes long enough to loosen upand stir, add the gravy, nuke the whole thing for twelve minutes and Voila! Shepherd's pie! I usually like to say viola, but it's really voila, French.
Shepherd’s pie by Jim S, on Flickr" alt="shepherd's pie" width="768" height="102" />
If I look at pictures of alligators or crocs, I can generally tell the difference. The alligators have a rounded nose and crocs have a triangular shaped or pointed nose, but that's pictures. I've not seen one in the wild nor am I in any hurry to. Animal identification at that point would be pretty much out the window as I would be making a hasty exit from the scene.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Ah, Shepherd's Pie, one of my favourites. My wife doesn't appreciate it like I do so rarely on the menu, if ever. We used to have a Marks & Spencers outlet here that sold a great one, they called Cumberland Pie. It had cheese on top. My mother used to make a good one with the potato just slightly crusty. The only premade ones I can find here have corn in them and I can't have any corn now. Diverticulitis rules out corn.
They are pile driving somewhere not too far away and it is getting annoying. The sound sure travels in cold air.
My track bits just arrived. It took a week for a parcel that normally would arrive in 3-4 days.
Time for lunch I think. Got some nice shaved roast beef the other day so that in a sandwich with a Strub's pickle on the side would be good.
CN Charlie
The oak trees all decided to drop half their leaves this afternoon. Basically, you can't see any lawn at all. It's a sea of reddish brown oak leaves.
I thought about trying to get to them, but it's been raining -- sleeting.
A long day with very little accomplished. My hardest part of the day was dragging Daisy the Dachshund outside in the rain. I've never seen a dog hate water as much as she does.
York1 John
Eveing Diners!
Flo, give the gang and I a and Dirk a cake, he turned 9 today and Robbie a dog treat!
Every sing Happy Birthday to a dog? Nope, I have not gone off my rocker that far, well as far as you know!
Work Front was slow. But it did make a extra $48.00 so that was good.
I am beat so later folks.
Ken and Dirk says "Whats a Birthday Daddy? Woof, Woof!"
I hate Rust
Good evening ...
Our Thanksgiving company is already arriving, and I'm still trying to catch up on all the sleep I lost while sick. Not much computer time for me.
Everybody .... Thanks for all of the interesting posts, comments, pictures, etc. ... Keep up with the great stuff.
Cheers !
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Rich and Mark Pruitt,
I sent you both PMs.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Hi all,
Work front, after almost 3-weeks without a real day off, part of that being asleep overnight shifts, I had off Saturday and Sunday, and today I only went in for 3-hours to help with some things. I have off the next two days too and that has meant a lot more time for model railroading stuff. On that front, I got my Paasche Talon out of storage to give it a go. I painted two Funaro Reading gondolas and a Laserkit crankshaft. My painting skills can use some work, but I had a lot of fun working on things. I also sprayed primer on a few other resin models, and before adding color coats, the gondolas and crank shaft loads. The gondolas I painted with Tru-Color black and the crankshaft, PollyScale Zinc Chromate Primer. I have a small hoard of both PollyScale and Model Master I use sparingly. I do like Tru-Color paints as they dry glossy but find them a bit more finicky to use. The finish on the gondolas was not as smooth as I'd like, but I'll manage. Their fate is to be heavily weathered and loaded with "scrap" which will consist of numerous sprues, and HO scale junk pieces from my scrap bins.
Alvie
Hi Ed and Antonio,
I sent you each a PM about the missing RDC.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Good Tuesday Morning.
Tired this morning, got called out in the wee hours of the morning to fix broken computer on the "cootie ward" Luckilly I did not have to go on that floor, we have protocols in place to keep us off as much as possible.
Been cool weather here but not too bad, Got to have my fireplace the other nite.
I need to drag some more wood up. It might snow come Monday, but that keeps being wishy washy.
I did get one side of my house painted this past Saturday.
Garry , keep mending and be careful around others.
I may sleep in my chair for a bit at work, ha!
Shepard’s Pie, now that’s what I call a great Winter comfort food, though if I maybe pedantic, as the meat base was beef, what you cooked Jim, would be Charlies Cumberland Pie, whereas the Shepard’s Pie is made from lamb/mutton. Anyhow, bon appetit!
Shepard's pie, no matter how it is made, is always good.
I have never had it with lamb. I will need to keep my eye out for something a bit more authentic.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Good morning
I gathered up what I thought would be some appropriate Christmas lyrics for this morning
TF
The Brian Setzer Orchestra did an incredible version:
For a cute version, we go to Sixpence None The Richer:
SeeYou190 Shepard’s Pie, now that’s what I call a great Winter comfort food, though if I maybe pedantic, as the meat base was beef, what you cooked Jim, would be Charlies Cumberland Pie, whereas the Shepard’s Pie is made from lamb/mutton. Anyhow, bon appetit! Shepard's pie, no matter how it is made, is always good. I have never had it with lamb. I will need to keep my eye out for something a bit more authentic. -Kevin
You need not keep your eyes open too long Kevin, ...Here it is.
It's the Finlander version.
Lihaperunososelaatikko Cottage Pie from Finland
Trust me, I had to look up the word again for spelling. Best I ever had was made by my Finlander friend Mark's Mom when I was quite Young. The recipe is on the internet.
I would have to agree shepherd's pie always turns out good just like tater tot hotdish my quicker lazy man's version.
Post Hog!
I never heard those two versions before, ... Enjoyed
My two daughters as I have always enjoyed that Doctor Seuss original since they were very little. I will be sharing those two versions with them
Fried ice cream, please. And a coffee after. Thanks!
Not much progress here. Need to get past a current bad fatigue cycle. Resting a fair bit is the order of the day.
Hope everyone is doing great. Healing thoughts to those in need.
Cheers! Rob
Track fiddlerI never heard those two versions before, ... Enjoyed
Glad you like them. I have a couple hundred Christmas music CDs. I love Christmas music CDs because you can really compare one band to another. These are generally not made for mass pop music sales, so production is kept basic, and the band's style really comes through.
But, the real top page poster was stingy, so coffee is on my tab this morning for everyone.
Good afternoon all. When Dawn took a tumble at the weekend she didn't feel too bad. Now she is feeling 'rough' with bruises all over. Therefore plans have taken a turnaround.
Hopefully I might get an hour in the train room.
It is Italian style tonite. Spicy pork ragu with pappadelle and Italian cheese. Bring the Italian wine.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
I have Christmas 78's 45's and LP's
Even an acoustic recorded 78 for my acoustic phonograph.
and the wife has cds
Good morning, everyone. Bacon, eggs, and coffee.
It's a dark, dreary, rainy, sleety day. My wife hates these kind of days, and I love them. I have always liked rainy days.
LastspikemikeAn alligator bite mark will show an arc across the nose teeth whereas the crocodile bite will be more pointy. When you go to identify the body, I mean. The bits that are left that is.
When we lived in Louisiana, our daughters had some pet rabbits. We couldn't keep them anymore, so we gave them to our cousins who lived in a swampy area out west of New Orleans. They had outdoor cages for their animals. When we went to visit some weeks later, they apologized and showed us the cage. An alligator had come along and gotten the rabbits. My daughters took it better than I thought they would.
Garry, hope you continue to mend.
Rob, I hope your treatments continue to make things better for you. You are in my prayers.
Alvie, it sounds like you're keeping busy painting. That is not one of my favorite things to do. I know you are better at it than I am.
For everyone, I hope you have a great U.S. Thanksgiving week. Even with the virus, health issues, etc., most of us still have much to be thankful for.
My taste in Christmas music is real Christmas music, all but absent from our anti-religion airwaves for many years now. So, I was quite unhappy when I turned on my car radio yesterday to hear a formerly-good station playing nothing but Holiday Pop. We're going to be stuck with that for a month, which I suppose is better than having it start the day after Halloween.
Time to dig out some CDs so I'll have a choice of music in the car for December.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasleyMy taste in Christmas music is real Christmas music, all but absent from our anti-religion airwaves for many years now. So, I was quite unhappy when I turned on my car radio yesterday to hear a formerly-good station playing nothing but Holiday Pop.
Our local "Christmas Station" switched to holiday music a month ago. They play all the traditional songs, but they play Last Christmas by George Michael once every hour. That is too much for me.
This is a fun non-traditional holiday song:
I hate that Last Christmas song. I of course make up alternate lyrics to it.
SeeYou190and the band's style really comes through.
Mike
moelarrycurly4I hate that Last Christmas song.
I don't know anybody that likes that song.
When I hear Last Christmas come on the radio, I cannot reach to switch the channel fast enough.
Water Level Route the Brian Setzer Christmas music is FANTASTIC!
A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to go to a Brian Setzer Chistmas Concert in Saint Petersburg. It was a great show.
Hi Everyone,
Bear: Thank you for the clarification. I didn't know; however, I did doa little (very little) research on the differences and found that Cumberland pie is also called cottage pie. Now, the differences between those two are a little vague. It seems one has cheese sprinkled on top and one does not. But then, the definitions cited were also a bit unsure about the differences. So, the only concrete thing I got out of the whole thing is Shepard's pie IS made with lamb. Fortunately, none of this "much ado about nothingness" affects the taste of a mighty fine meal.
The Christmas song I hate the most is that high-speed Barbra Streisand Jingle Bells one. It's extremely irritating to me and I cannot change the channel quick enough.
My favorite Christmas song is Mannheim Steamroller, Stille Nacht (Silent Night). I can't remember any time I've listened to it that I didn't get some sort of Misty thing going on in my eye.
Wish I could post it for you but I still don't know how to do that
Track fiddlerMy favorite Christmas song is Mannheim Steamroller, Silent Night.
I don't know why, but this is my all time favorite Christmas song, and my favorite version is this one by Sister Hazel. It just sends shivers down my spine and a tear to my eye.
It is not great, barely even good, but it has a touching honesty to it that really gets to me.
Good Afternoon,
A day of cloud and freezing drizzle here.
I don't care for most Christmas music but I do like Guardian Angel sung by Mario Lanza. Guess I've become a bit of a Scrooge. The last Christmas I enjoyed was 2008 when we went to Paris. We went there to get away as my wife couldn't face being here since her father passed away that Aug. Then my mother passed away just before Christmas in 2010.
Today is trackwork day as that pesky turnout will be replaced. I will have to add a 4 " short extensuon to the tabletop so I can re-route the harbour siding but that is for another day.
MisterBeasleyMy taste in Christmas music is real Christmas music
I'll agree with that. My wife has the Family Radio App, which is playing 24 hours a day of religious Christmas songs.
My favorite religious Christmas song is "Birthday of the King".
Favorite secular Christmas song: Bing Crosby sings, "I'll Be Home for Christmas",
Christmas Eve will find meWhere the lovelight gleamsI'll be home for ChristmasIf only in my dreams
My most unfavorite Christmas song: Paul McCartney's "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time".
I really dislike that song and the sound of it. That's the one for me that when it hits the radio, I switch stations. (You may love it, so I don't want to insult anyone -- there's just something about it that I don't like.)