Cornish Pasty Recipe made with Ground Beef - Step by step picture tutorial

My husband has some British backgrounds in him, so he grew up with a British taste for food. He had been purchasing Cornish pastries from the deli counter at Loblaws for many years, but recently they have stopped carrying them. He of course was very disappointed. When we took our honeymoon to Disney World in December I suggested we stop by The Three Broomsticks in Orlando's Wizarding World of Harry Potter and share some cornish pasties from there. He ordered the fish and chips and I ordered the pasties. We shared them both and they were delicious. Of course I knew eventually he would miss them once more so recently I asked if he'd like me to make him some. 
My husband and I both are not steak fans, so we decided to substitute the steak with ground beef. 

Recipe makes approx. 12 Cornish pasties

What you'll need:

Pastry

• 6 cups All purpose flour
• 2 cups Butter (Cold)
• 1 tsp salt (if butter is not salted)
• 1.5 cups of cold water
• Egg (optional) for egg wash

Filling

• 1 Large onion
• 2 cups of chopped potatoes (approximately 1 cm in size) 
• 2 cups of chopped carrots (also approximately 1 cm in size)
• 1/2 lbs of beef 
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 2 tbs Worcester sauce
• 1 cube or packet of beef broth
• 1/3 cup of water
• 2 tbs flour + some for dusting
• 1tbs butter

Utensils

• pot/pan (to brown beef)
• Pot (to cook veggies and mix everything)
• Baking sheet 
• Parchment Paper
• Measuring cups/spoons
• Mixing bowl
• Plastic wrap
• Rolling pin

Step 1: Make the pastry

Put flower and salt in mixing bowl, cut up your cold butter into tiny pieces in the flour. (use a utensil not your hands)

Start pouring in the water slowly and mixing while you go along. (Mix with a utensil not your hands)

Should look like the above picture when ready. Quickly form dough into a ball. (Working it too much with your hands will melt the butter and cause your dough to become hard and not flaky.) 

Place dough tightly in plastic wrap and put in refrigerator for 30+ minutes. 

Step 2:

Chop up your carrots, potatoes and onions

Step 3: Start browning your beef

Step 4: Heat your pot and add your 1 tbs of butter, 2 tbs olive oil and your onions. Cook on medium for 3-4 minutes stirring occasionally. 

Step 5: Add 2 tbs of flour and fry for 1 minute. 

Step 6: While flour is frying dissolve your packet of beef broth in 1/3 cup of water. Pour in. (If using bouillon cube just add both together in pot)

Step 7: Add 2 tbs Worcester sauce and pour in your vegetables. Cook for 5 minutes then add spices and cook for another 5-10 minutes stirring occasionally.

*If you find you need more water in your mixture use sparingly. (You don't want the mixture to be liquidy)

Step 8: Drain your ground beef and add to your mixture. Cook for another 5-10 minutes stirring occasionally. 

Step 9: Turn off burner and prepare surface for rolling dough. Also prepare baking pan by adding a thin layer of flour to the parchment paper so that it will be easy to remove once baked. 

Step 10: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Take dough (can divide in sections if easier) roll till it is approximately 0.5 cm in thickness. 

Step 11: Take a small plate, or cereal bowl and cut around on dough

If you'd like to make smaller ones, cut around a cup. 

Step 12: Fill each circle with approximately 2-4 tbs of filling (depends on circle size) Fold circle in half like a taco and pinch edges. If desired you can use an egg wash for the edges. 

Step 13: Add all your Cornish pasties to your baking pan and prick side with a sharp knife. 

Step 14: Place in preheated oven and bake for 28-35 minutes. 

This is how it should look once baked

We had a lot of leftover filling (cause I only made half the dough) but I loved the filling on the side too. 

This is how I ate mine

This is how my husband ate his

Tutorial DIY Eco Friendly Recycled Wind Chimes

I've been collecting #6 plastic items ever since I found out you can shrink them to make them into jewelry. Here's the post on the jewelry I made: A bit of recycled fun
When creating the jewelry items I couldn't help but notice the beautiful noise they made when they clanged together. It sounded like small hail pellets hitting a tin roof ; not annoying like a small bell or gaudy like a cow bell. 
So I began making many tiny #6 shrink plastic items. And just tossing them around in my hands to hear the sounds. I could close my eyes and picture a dark cold day in the middle of nowhere. Hail falling gently from the sky and onto the tin roof. Sitting outside cuddled up in a blanket smelling the crisp cool spring air. The hail bouncing off the asphalt. It was truly therapeutic. 
I had collected two black #6 plastic pie containers from lemon meringue pies I had brought to a party. I find the look of silhouettes to be soothing as well. So I decided to create a wind chime to hear the beautiful noise and use the black #6 pie containers as silhouettes. 
I have been watching "The Following" ever since it first started, and honestly cannot get enough of it. I'm nervous of where it's going but hope that it remains as good as it is. Anyways, in "The Following" Edgar Allen Poe's writings are referenced many times. So I thought what better than to create a wind chime of my favorite Edgar Allen Poe poem; 'The Raven'


Here's a tutorial on how to create your own. 

What you'll need:

* An Idea
* Clean #6 Plastic container (Any color)
* Shapes, colors, cut outs, or drawings
* Sharpie permanent markers (optional)
* Fishing Line or Invisible thread
* Baking pan
* Oven 
* Parchment paper or Paper (optional)

Step 1:

Clean your #6 Plastic with soap and water, dry. 

Step 2: 

Draw or trace your images or ideas onto your plastic. For those using clear plastic feel free to color it in with sharpie (as seen in my post A bit of recycled fun) This will cause your plastic to look like a sun catcher.

Step 3:

Cut out your shapes and place them on your pan.

These were my shapes, if you look carefully you can see the #6 sign in the leaf. (Don't worry when it melts it disappears.)
I used the pan I designated for polymer clay, and baked my shapes on parchment paper. It's not necessary but if you have left over oils on your pan they will bake into your plastic. Normal paper works just as well. 

Step 4:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and turn on your oven light. 

Step 5:

Once preheated place baking sheet in the oven, put on your oven mitts and watch your plastic shrink. It should take less than 2 minutes from start to finish. First they should shrivel and curl. When they are done they should be flat again. Do not move from your oven during this time. It happens very quickly and you'll need to be there to remove your pan once they are flat. 

Step 6: 

Let them cool. They should be cooled in only a few minutes. 

Warning: If your plastic is irregularly shaped or way too long it may curl and refuse to uncurl. As you can see. I lost 2 of my branches because they curled and melted together. Sometimes this happens. If it does, it may just be the shape, so try a different shape. 

Step 7: 

Assemble your pieces. Try to hang them so that they will hit each other when the wind blows. 

Step 8: 

Hang your wind chime and relax to the soothing sounds. 

Update:
Made a new one, in color this time. :) Happy summer. 

Jar Lid Shadowboxes

If you are anything like me you keep every jar that you go through. I must have at least 45-75 jars and lids in a huge cupboard. It's hard to find things to do with them, art wise that would actually be useful to me or that I would enjoy making. All the mason jar crafts I've seen just don't attract my attention. However, I thought of a great craft to do with the jar lids that were accumulating. 

I've always been fascinated with shadowboxes. I really have no idea why, I guess the dept of an item is interesting? I really enjoy 3D movies, maybe that has something to do with it. Anyways, here's a shadowbox you can make with polymer. Use it as a wall hanging art, pendant, magnet, brooch or just as a nice piece of art. 

What you need:

• Any size clean jar lid. (I put mine through the dishwasher.) (The smaller the lid the more work it is to create your art)
• Polymer clay
• Bake and Bond Polymer clay glue. (Sculpey is my choice)

Your clean jar lid, dry and ready to be made into art.

Roll out your base color of whatever design you decide you'll be making. Place your lid on top of it and cut around the lid. (Doesn't have to be perfect)

Since polymer clay doesn't stick to metal on it's own, using this bake and bond Sculpey glue will keep your art in it's proper place. Put a thin layer on your lid. 

Lightly place the clay sheet on top of the lid. Using careful pressure begin pushing the middle of the clay down softly and continue to push from the middle to the edges. (Don't push too hard or you'll lose the shape you created)

What I like to do next is create the main focus piece. In this case it was a wolf. (This is not necessary, if you want to wait till the end it doesn't matter, I make it first to judge the size that I'll need to make everything else.)

Make a foundation pop out. In this case it's grass so I rolled out the clay and cut around the lid again. Then I began to roll pieces of grass. 

To do this I just rolled a long piece of polymer and kept cutting it with a toothpick and placing it on the clay in the appropriate places. (this was tedious)

When I felt there was enough grass I placed my wolf. This way I was able to place grass around it's feet as well to make it look like it was standing in the grass. 

Finished piece. The background is supposed to be the moon, and clouds with a bird/bat flying. And the wolf is howling at the moon. 

I wasn't happy with my creation of the wolf... (it's hard to do animals for me.) I decided to make this a magnet. I hot glued magnets onto the back of my art.  

Finished piece as a magnet on my fridge. 

Here's some more I've made:

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Recycled plastic shampoo bottle jewelry tutorial

I recently finished another bottle of shampoo. As I was about to throw it in the garbage I realized how beautiful the sheen and colors were on the bottle and thought... "hmmm I must be able to do something with that!" So of course I made some jewelry. :)

This is a very simple and easy craft for adults or youngsters. 

What you need:

• Pretty looking shampoo bottle (used and empty... it's not eco friendly to waste)
• Scissors
• Patterns of your choice
• Exacto knife (if the top and bottom of the bottle are hard)

This was my shampoo bottle. 

Step 1: Rinse the bottle as well as you can.

Step 2: If the tops and bottoms are harder plastic than the middle area like mine was you will need to cut them off with an exacto knife. Cut just above and below the bottom and top rims to save as much plastic as possible. 

Step 3: Cut a slit all the way down the bottle until you can open it up like a book. 

Step 4: Rinse the bottle again. My bottle had left over suds. Dry it.

Step 5: Shape cutting. I didn't want to ruin any side of the plastic I had so instead of tracing on the bottle I just cut around a paper shape I had made. 

Then assemble your masterpieces!

Here's what I made:

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Pop can jewelry

I recently came into possession of some pretty looking pop cans and couldn't let them go to waste. Pop cans can be recycled into many cool crafts not just jewelry. So go ahead and start recycling :)

This is a great craft to do with your tweens and teens, but it can be dangerous. Using rubber dish gloves, workers gloves or even gardening gloves would be safer. 

I collected some colorful cans, cut them and washed them well with soap and water. 

Draw a pattern on your aluminum with a marker. To reduce waste, try filling up as much space as possible. I chose to draw 3 sizes of flowers. If you'd like, cut out a cardboard or paper piece of the image you'd like to have on the can and trace it. 

Now cut out your shapes. Sharp scissors work best, the smoother the cut the less fraying and rough edges you'll have in the end. 

Carefully feel the edges, if you've cut well enough sanding won't be necessary. If there are rough edges simply sand them down. I like to use a nail file. 

I pierced the centers of each of the flowers and one in the top of a petal in the largest flower. Piercing the metal can be done with a sewing needle or push pin. I placed the flowers onto a cardboard box so that I would not pierce the table. Now you can shape your flowers, I rolled up the edges using a pin. 

I assembled my flowers into earrings.

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If you are lucky enough to possess a Sizzix machine this can be easily accomplished without a lot of effort, and with many different shapes.

Melted Beads

We've seen it all over the internet on many different blogs, for many different purposes. So, I decided why not try it out for myself. Almost every crafter has pony beads or acrylic beads, and unless you want to make jewelry for youngsters there's really not much use for them. Melting them allows for much more possibilities with shape, look and overall use. 
I warn you now, this project is dangerous. I personally would not endorse doing this project with a child anywhere near by. The toxins from melting acrylic beads are toxic. Many people resort to doing this project outdoors in a BBQ or a toaster oven. Personally I would suggest if you ever want to use your toaster oven, oven, or BBQ again you would need to wash it well afterwards then let the heat run for a few minutes at high heat. A lot of people use their old toaster ovens exclusively for the melting of plastics. If you do decide to do this indoors, please keep your windows open, oven fan on and ensure you do not breathe in these chemicals. 

What you need:

*Acrylic Beads (Pony beads are great for this)
*Oven or Toaster oven or BBQ
*Tinfoil
*Mold (I used an old muffin tin) (I would not suggest using this item for food afterwards.)
*Drill (optional)


Step 1:

If your beads are old or reused, Soak in warm water and soap to clean them before beginning the process. (We don't want unnecessary oils)
Preheat the oven

Step 2:

Begin to organize them into your tray.

Placing them and not overlapping in the tray will allow for a flat piece of art. The more beads you put in the tray the longer it will take to melt them. 

Step 3:

Cover molds with tinfoil. 
I used the tinfoil to prevent most toxins from sticking to the walls of my oven. 

I heated mine for 30 minutes, but it really depends on the shapes, sizes and looks that you want. 

Be cautious, when taking off the tinfoil a large cloud (That I could actually see) came out and the smell was unbelievable. Moving into the other room, opening the windows, ventilator fan, Febreze... none of it worked for me. A lot of the toxins stayed inside the tinfoil and made the tinfoil stink as well. Even placing the tinfoil in the garbage was not enough. 
Let the molds cool. 

Step 4:

Pop your new larger beads out of the molds. (Mine popped out very easily)

Step 5:

Drill a hole in them. You can choose to wire wrap them if you do not have a drill. Or perhaps you can make smaller melted molds and create stud earrings. Or glue it to a surface. 


For this project just use your imagination. Muffin tins are only step one, if you have shaped tins you can create many different shapes and sizes. Also if you have more time, you can create thicker creations. 

These can be made into many neat objects, some of which are jewelry or sun catchers. 

Here's what I made:

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