Friday, February 25, 2011

Happy Feet!

There are days when I am just so full of joy, I feel as if I am going to burst. You know the kind of joy where you just can't contain yourself. Well, here lately I feel this way more often than not. I was recently reminded by Kathy, a most precious friend from High School, that back in the day on occasions I would have happy feet. This is something Comedian Steve Martin used to do a life time ago. Whenever I would see my friends feeling down and frowning I would have happy feet to make them smile and in the process it would make me smile. It is basically dancing around and shuffling your feet with a big old grin on your face with no music necessary. Somewhere along the way I forgot how to have happy feet. It is so easy to express the discomforts and complaints of life. With all that God blesses me with daily there is no reason I shouldn't praise Him everyday with Happy Feet. Ecclesiastes 3:4 says A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance. Well today I have decided that in everyday there should be a time just for praising the Lord through laughing and dancing!! We have a Father in heaven who loves us so deeply to give us salvation through our Lord Jesus, so there really is no reason not to sing and dance our praises to the Lord. Psalm 40:16 says, Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let those who love Your salvation say continually, "The LORD be magnified!" I love that it says continually, not just praising the LORD on one day but everyday, every hour.  As a mom it is so important for my children to feel joy but how more important is it for them to know how to show joy. The only way they will know as if I show them. Who wants a grumpy old mom. My Mom use to dance around with us all of the time, heck she still does, Carole Jean never lost her groove. I love that King David was praising God in the streets by dancing and offering sacrifices to the Lord while the Ark was being brought into Jerusalem. In 2 Samuel 6:14 it says: And David was dancing before the LORD with all his might and David was wearing a linen ephod. He was dancing with all his might! Love this and in my understanding an ephod is like an undergarment. This did not set well with Michal, his wife. 2 Samuel 6:16 Then it happened as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart. I just love David's response in 2 Samuel 6:20-21 But when David returned to bless his household, Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, "How the king of Israel distinguished himself today! He uncovered himself  today in the eyes of his servants' maids as one of the foolish ones shamelessly uncovers himself!" 21So David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel; therefore I will celebrate before the LORD. King David was more interested in pleasing God than man. King David has often been described as a man after God's own heart. He surely knew how to praise the Lord. Oh, LORD give me a heart like David's and a willingness to praise you in my home and in the streets (fully clothed of course) for you are to be glorified in all places and at all times. May I daily praise you with the dance/happy feet!!  

In honor of King David the Shepherd here is:

Big Daddy Love's Sheep Herders Pie
3 lbs. Potatoes (cooked, mashed and seasoned to your liking then cooled)
2 lbs. lean ground beef
1 large celery stalk, very thinly sliced
2 large carrots, grated
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced or 2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups of beef broth
1 egg, beaten


Cook, mash and season your potatoes to your liking and set aside to cool.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a heavy duty,oven safe, deep 12" skillet over medium heat  ground beef and the next six ingredients, mixing each well as you add each of  them into the skillet. Cook until ground beef is brown and veggies are tender.


Stir in your flour one tablespoon at a time making sure to blend well after each one. Pour in your beef broth and stir until broth is well blended. Cook until broth thickens. 
Remove from heat. Add the beaten egg to your cooled potatoes and mix well. Spoon potato mixture evenly over the top of the beef mixture. Place in oven and bake 35 to 40 minutes until the top is slightly brown and bubbly. If you don't have an oven safe skillet, you can coat a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray and pour beef mixture in first then top with potato mixture and it takes about the same amount of time to bake at the same temperature.





The reason we call it Sheep Herder's instead of Shepherd's Pie is because Big Daddy's grandmother made her Shepherd's Pie with the leftover pot roast and veggies, so He says mine is quite excellent and it comes the closest to his Granny's that he has ever eaten, but it is still not quite Granny's Shepherd's pie so he renamed mine to Sheep Herder's Pie. I can live with that.

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