Vegetable and Lentil Cottage pie

Vegetable and Lentil Cottage Pie

Ingredients:

8 oz Brown Lentils

2 Bay leaves

2 tsp sunflower oil

1 onion finely chopped

4 oz carrots finely chopped

3 sticks of celery diced

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp chopped fresh marjoram (I use dried 1 ¼ tsp)

1 tsp chopped fresh sage (I use dried 1 ¼ tsp)

1 ½ tsp yeast extract

1tbsp tomatoe puree

½ pint lentil stock or water

1 1b potatoes – if they are old or fluffy peel and boil more as they tend to boil away

½ oz Margarine

2 tbsp skimmed milk

Soak lentils for 3 hours minimum

Drain and wash and then cover with water in a large sauce pan. Add Bay leaves and bring to the boil – then cover pan and simmer for 25 minutes. Leave to cool in there own stock water.

Heat oil in a large sauce pan and add carrots, celery and onion and fry gently for about 5 minutes.

Add the cooked lentils and stock, the paprika, yeast extract, marjoram, sage and tomatoe puree and then cover and simmer for 15 – 20 minutes or until stock is nice and thick. Taste and if necessary add more yeast extract although not to make it too strong or salty.  When cooked poor into a large casserole dish

Cook enough potatoes to mash with milk and margarine and cover the lentil mixture in the large casserole dish.

Some people like to sprinkle the top of the mash with sesame seeds – I leave them

This dish takes about 20 mins on a high oven setting and is ready when potatoes are brown and crispy.

Beautiful Things

Most people appreciate beautiful things. But as they say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." If you appreciate beautiful things and want to grab this award for your blog, you need to copy and past the award below, link your post header to the last blog you looked at (KCAA has linked to Paulashomemadelife) and then name 5 beautiful yet natural (not man made) things.

1: The moon
2: The stars
3: Gentle rain
4: Bird song
5: Grasses swaying in the breeze

KOOL Crafts

Christmas Cards Link Party

Hi everyone,

As promised we're starting a series of posts dedicated to all things Christmassy, just to get you inspired and in the mood for this festive season.

From today and until the end of the month we're collecting links to all the fantastic handmade Christmas cards out there. So if you make your own Christmas cards or know someone who does all you need to do to take part is to add the link to the relevant blog post, web site, Flickr pool, etc.

There will be more Christmas related link parties so watch this space :-)

Zentangle challenge

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had a fun Halloween, we certainly did over at KCAA swapping all manner of things "scary".

Also, we have a winner for the Zentangle Challenge and that's Lisa. Congratulations!

We had 5 entries, 4 from Lisa and 1 from Jen and they are all amazing as you can see below.

Entry 1 from Lisa and the one most voted for.

Entry 2 from Lisa.

Entry 3 from Lisa.

Entry 4 from Lisa.

Jen's entry and the second most voted.

If you've never heard of Zentangles and would like to know more there's plenty of information on the Web starting with the Zentangle Home Page.

Now about Christmas. It is fast approaching so the next few posts will be about all things Christmasy to get you in the mood for the season. Don't forget to drop by :-)

It's scary times at KCAA

It's that time of the year again when KCAA members go crazy making all sorts of scary crafts for Halloween.

There's a Halloween card swap going on and Lisa has made this funtastic Halloween plaque. Notice how some of the elements are 3D.

Below are some of the cards made and swapped last year at KCAA in case you're looking for inspiration.

Cows in bed

Sometime ago Jen set us a challenge, to post a recipe that we had either invented or given our very own personal twist to and Lisa presented us with this great recipe because as she said:

"I needed something for supper but was tired of all the usual prospects, While this is just a “hamburger” the taste is changed so it does not taste like the “typical hamburger/cheeseburger”. It is completely an original!".

If you'd like to give this recipe a go just follow Lisa's instructions and pictures below to make your own Cows in Bed.


What you will need


1 ½ lb hamburger

1 medium onion peeled and minced

1 pkg of premade biscuits

1-2 slices of Cheese quartered (optional)

hot sauce (optional)

1 knife, 1 cutting board

1 medium sized bowl

1 fry pan and 1 flipper

1 cookie sheet and 1 cooling rack

~mustard and ketchup

Preparation

take 1 ½ pounds of hamburger place in bowl take your minced onions in with the hamburger and with your hands blend well...

then roll into 10 roughly the same size balls, once you have the balls you will need to flatten them slightly (but not too thin) place in your frying pan.



 Fry your hamburger for 8-10 minutes flipping once (DO NOT FLATTEN as they are cooking). Once they are done remove from pan and place on the cooling rack that is sitting inside your cookie sheet- this will allow the burgers to cool and drain DO NOT touch them.

Once they are completely cooled about an hour. Then take the biscuits out of the refrigerator and open them as package discribes remove buscuits from its container and seperate them, then take them ONE at a time and flatten them within your hands at the same time you are flattening them you should be also making them bigger once you have done this look at your burgers and find one that looks like it will fit within your buscuit.

Now if you want cheese on them place chees on buscuit then hamburger on top now pull the buscuit around your burger completely covering the burger and cheese. Place on the baking sheet you had them draining on (but first wipe the tray off to remove fat DO NOT wash it).

Once you have done this to ALL your burgers place a tooth pick in all the ones with cheese (I do this step as I am placing them on the cookie sheet so I do not forget.) bake as per directions for the buscuits. Dont worry the time is plenty of time to make the burger hot again.

When they are done remove them from the oven and let cool for a few minutes then place them on a serving platter. I take mustard and ketchup and mix them together (¼ c catsup to 1/3 cup of mustard mixed well) place a dollup of the mixture on your plate and enjoy. You can serve this with what ever side dishes you enjoy- but since this is a “finger”meal I usually serve with chips and carrot and celery sticks or what ever is available.

To reheat do not reheat in your microwave as it makes the buscuit moist again and too chewy I recommend they be placed in your toaster oven or back in your oven. For 10-12 minutes


You do not have to use cheese, if you prefer not too. careful tho as to which cheese you use,because some are wetter then others and this will alter the buscuit, I use what is considered yellow american cheese.



This makes an AWESOME on-the-go food

I wait til the are cooled to place inside the buscuit because I do not want it too cook the inside of the buscuit too much to make mushy,which is also why I drain them. Also,these tend to be filling.

Enjoy :-)

Be inspired: Cross stitching

Hi, I hope you're all having a great Summer.

Today's "Be inspired" is all about the art of cross stitching and at KCAA we're lucky to have some very talented people who often share with us their cross stitch projects as you can see below.

The 1st set of pictures shows some of Pam's work and the 2nd a sample of Mrs Dag's embroidery. Aren't they just beautiful?

Some of these projects have taken a long time to finish but are so well worth the effort when they're finally done and ready to be shown off.

If you're new to cross stitching and would like to give it a go, have a look at the useful links below.

Learn to cross stitch in 5 minutes

How to cross stitch in 5 steps (with video)

How to cross stitch

How to do cross stitch

And here's a list of places on the Web where you'll find plenty of free patterns.

Cross Stitch Centre

Free Cross Stitch Patterns

Ellen Maurer-Stroh

Cross Stitching

Happy crafting :-)