“The Good Shepherd’s Pasture”
This Week’s Good Shepherd’s Garden Party Menu
Shepherd’s Crooks
God’s Sheep
Graham Cracker Gates
Ewe and Ram Cupcakes
Lamb’s Wool
Wolf Paw Cookies
Decorating Ideas
Lindt Chocolate Lamb Shaped Candies
or any type of Lamb Decoration
Recipes and Suggestions
1. The Good Shepherd
These Mini Shepherd Pies will make a cute main dish for our Garden Party! They can easily be made using a muffin pan and then the children can add little pieces of vegetables to make faces.
Ingredients:
1 pound Ground Beef
1/2 cup Ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1-1/2 cups Frozen Peas and Carrots Mixture
2 cups of Mashed Potatoes
1 tube Refrigerated Buttermilk Biscuits
Misc. Pieces of Vegetables for making a Shepherd’s Face (optional)
Directions:
1. In a large skillet, over medium heat, sauté the ground beef for 6-8 minutes, or until meat is cooked through, stirring frequently to break up the meat. Drain if needed. Add ketchup and Worcestershire sauce and stir well to combine. Add peas and carrots and stir well to combine and defrost. Set aside.
2. Press 1 biscuit dough onto the bottom and up the sides of each of 10 greased muffin cups. Fill with beef mixture. Spread mashed potatoes over beef.
3. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Decorate with vegetables to create a Shepherd’s Face.
2. The Shepherd’s Crook
Shape each section of breadstick dough into Shepherd’s Crooks. Bake as directed on package.
3. The Sheepfold
Popcorn is white and fluffy, like sheep, and when air-popped, sometimes a piece of popcorn comes flying out of the popper and flies across the room, like a lost sheep. Remind the children that, like sheep, we wander astray sometimes. The fence protects the Shepherd’s sheep from straying from him. The bowl is like the fence for the popcorn.
Directions: Air-pop the popcorn and serve it warm, if possible. Butter, if desired, can be melted in a saucepan on the stove.
4. The Gate of the Sheepfold
5. The Ewe and the Ram
1 box white cake mix + ingredients listed on box
1 can fluffy white frosting
48 mini M&M’s
1 piece of bubblegum cut into little triangles (optional)
12 large marshmallows cut into half lengthwise and then again diagonally
1/2 bag miniature marshmallow cut into half
Bake cupcakes according to directions on package, cool and then frost.
For the Lamb: Arrange the halved mini marshmallows around the perimeter of each cupcake, in two circles. Leave room for ears on the edges, and an empty circle in the center for the face. Place halved full-sized marshmallows in reserved spots for the ears. Place two mini chocolate candies in upper half of each empty circle to make the eyes, and a bubble gum triangle or mini M&M for the nose.
For the Ram: Tint some frosting blue or any color of your choice. Pipe on a Ram horn with white frosting or melted white chocolate chips.
6. The Lamb
This beverage, quite common in England from the high Middle Ages, was enjoyed on various festive occasions including the Christmas season. Unlike the wassail, it was a cold drink and it was simpler in contents, consisting of the juice of roasted apples mixed with spiced ale.
Ingredients:
4 cups apple cider
1 stick cinnamon, 3 inches long
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup honey
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 can (18 ounces) pineapple juice
Directions:
Heat cider, cinnamon in a deep saucepan. Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer until heated through. Cool. Pour into punch bowl. Yield, 15 servings.
7. The Wolf
1 package Voortman’s Iced Almonette Cookies
Chocolate Almond Bark or Chocolate Chips, melted for dipping
White Chocolate Chips (or white frosting) to use for claws
Dip one side of each cookie into melted chocolate. Add 4 or 5 white chocolate chips for the claws. (Wolfs have 4 claws on the back paws and 5 on the front.) Let cool.
Note: You may want to place the cookies onto wax or parchment paper to cool, so they don’t stick to your serving platter.
Option: Substitute with Pepperidge Farm Tahiti Cookies and White Chocolate Frosting.
Shopping List
Fresh Produce:
Lemon (3 Tbs juice + 1 tsp rind)
Misc. Small Pieces of Vegetables (Such as: Carrots, Cucumbers, Peas, Red Pepper)
Meat Department:
1-pound ground beef
Dairy & Refrigerated Items:
Butter (for popcorn, optional)
1 tube Buttermilk Biscuits
1 tube Breadstick Dough
1 pkg (24 oz) Mashed Potatoes,
or use leftover Mashed Potatoes
Freezer:
Frozen Peas & Carrots Mixture
Canned & Dry Goods:
Peanut Butter
Spices:
Ground Nutmeg
Cinnamon (1 stick, 3” long)
Condiments:
Ketchup (1/3 cup)
Cider vinegar (1 Tbs)
Worcestershire Sauce
Baking Supplies:
1 box white cake mix + ingredients listed on box
1 can fluffy white frosting
1 bag mini M&M’s
12 large marshmallows
1/2 bag miniature marshmallow
1/2 cup honey
Chocolate Almond Bark or Chocolate Chips
White Chocolate Chips (or white frosting) to use for claws
Snacks:
Popcorn
Graham Crackers
Pretzel Sticks
Cookies & Sweets:
1 pkg Iced Almonette Cookies (Voortman’s )
1 piece of bubblegum (optional)
Lindt Chocolate Lambs (optional)
Beverages:
Apple Cider (4 cups)
1 can (18 ounces) Pineapple Juice
A Mr. Linky will be posted at Catholic Cuisine on Monday April 12th for anyone who would like to share their photos with everyone!
sounds like a yummy menu!
got a good subsitute for the shepherds pie my girls wont eat it and i'm vegetarian?
We're not vegetarians, but I have heard that cooked lentils are a good substitute for ground beef. Maybe even combined with some rice to help soak up the extra moisture.
It really is up to each family to decide what works best for them. Feel free to be as creative with these ideas as you need to be!
I'm loving your organization and pro-activeness.
THANKS!
Pax Christi – Lena
My BIL is vegetarian and they use lentils instead of ground beef.
Jessica and Charlotte ~ you're two amazing women!!!
This is fabulous! Thank you dear ladies for doing all the pre-planning. Charolette and Jessica you two are my angel helpers 🙂 I greatly appreciate it!
thanks for the lentil suggestion can't believe i couldn't think of that 🙂
thanks for all your hard work we are super excited about this! 🙂
This looks great!!
For the Shepherd's Pie recipe… do you combine the potato flakes with leftover mashed potatoes, or do you just use one or the other? I noticed it said "potato mixture" and didn't understand what that meant.
Thanks for planning and sharing this so far in advance!!
Erin, yes, it is just one or the other… We combined a couple recipes to come up with the one in this post (the filling from one recipe and the shell from another) and one of those recipes did have a "potato mixture" which had some crushed potato chips mixed in… We wanted to keep it as simple as possible and so you just need regular mashed potatoes, which ever way you prefer to make them!
Thank you for making this SOOOOO easy for the rest of us!
Thanks everyone! This has been so fun to plan and I've really enjoyed getting to talk to Charlotte often, as we brainstorm ideas! 🙂
I'm still in awe over some of the things she is able to come up with… Aren't the Graham Cracker Gates darling?!
Jessica,
This is wonderful and the girls and I are so excited! I may be having a hysterectomy in the midst of the 50 days of Easter celebrations, but we will do what we can! If not, I plan to print it all out and have it filed away for next year!
Kim
This is amazing ladies. Thank you for extending our Easter activities this year. This week so far we are doing one activity a day. Today we actually are doing two–it's a good day:)
For all of the Cajun families in Louisiana (or any one familiar with our products) for the Shepherds pie–we will be using our Cajun Power Sloppy Boudreaux for our meat mixture. YUMMY!!!! Looking forward to next week!!!! Easter Peace to you all!!!!
Jessica- Your creativity is such a Divine Gift! Thank you for sharing your gifts with us….Everything is beautiful:)