Alpaca Chili

This recipe is courtesy of my brother Brenton.

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs ground alpaca
  • 2 tbsp Butter
  • 1 large yellow onion
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 1 tbsp dried oregano
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1 can crush tomato
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 can kidney beans
  • 1 can tomato paste
  • 1 green bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
  • 1 cup sweet white corn
  • 2 clove garlic, crushed
  • 1/4 cup chili powder
  • 1 tsp black pepper

Directions

  • Brown alpaca mean in large skillet with 1 tbsp of the butter
  • In separate skillet saute garlic, onion, cumin, oregano, bay leaf and salt with remaining tbsp of butter.
  • Mix all the ingredients together in a slow cooker.  Heat on low for 6-8hrs.

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Mini Alpaca Meatloaf Bites

I recently used this recipe for a neighborhood “house crawl” we were apart of.  I wanted to offer our guests something fresh from our farm but also made some from beef for those who were a bit squeamish about eating a fluffy.   The end result? I only had beef bites left over and all the alpaca ones were gone!

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 lbs Ground Alpaca
  • 1 finely chopped onion
  • 3 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp “better than bullion” beef
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
  • 1/4 cup Ketchup
  • 1/4 cup your favorite marinara sauce
  • 1/3 cup shredded mexican flavored cheese

Mix the better than bullion, egg and lemon juice together and blend well.  Add onion, cheese and ground alpaca and mix with your hands.  Lastly add in the bread crumbs and mix thoroughly.  Let mixture rest in your refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

Pre-heat oven to 350

Using cooking spray, grease a standard 12 muffin pan

Place round balls of the loaf mixture into each muffin cup and make an indentation with your thumb in the center.  Mix the ketchup and marinara sauce together and place a dollop into the indentation of each loaf.

Bake in oven for 35 minutes

Remove and place shredded cheese on top of each loaf, return to oven and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

 

 

FAF: A Very Fibery Christmas

I think I fell into a 3 week Fiber Arts Friday void.  But I’m back and boy have I been busy while I was gone.

Here’s a whole bunch of finished projects.

1. Red and Green Scarf.  This was made out of our own alpaca, hand spun/dyed into a thick bulky yarn.  I knit it up into this tube scarf and holy cow is it thick and WARM!  I was going to give it away as a gift but ended up getting cold and using it myself.  Yeah, Merry Christmas to me!

 

2. Baby Afghan- DONE!  Not quite meant for a baby any more as the little guy this will be heading off to is a year old now.  Good thing too because this blanket is heavy!   Totally hated the project and I’m glad it’s done.  Lion Bran Homespun yarn SUCKS.  It splits, is hard to see stitches but I must say it is oh so soft and makes for a beautiful project once all the swear words have left my mouth.

3. I had some left over acrylic yarn and started crocheting in a circle to take up time.  Well my circle got pretty big and I like the way the colors turned out.  I think it would make for a nice mat on my dinning room table to set a vase of flowers on.   It’s also thick enough that it could be used as a hot pad too.

 

4. If you haven’t checked out the tutorials I made this week here are the links.

Speed Knitting iCord using an Embellish Knit

Addi Express Tutorials

Well that about sums up the last 3 weeks for me. What have you been up to?

Addi Express Tutorials

I purchased an Addi Express King Size from Paradise Fibers a while back and thought I’d start this page for those looking for more information or tips on how to use their Addi.

What is an Addi Express?  It is a circular knitting machine much like the Innovations knitting machine.  While the Innovations machine was inexpensive and fascinating to watch on QVC the Addi is the lesser known high end model.  The machine is made of very sturdy plastic and doesn’t feel like it will break on you after one project.

I purchased the “King Size” version which has 46 needles and can knit adult hats quickly or panels up to 17″ wide for sweater/blanket projects.   The Addi also makes a smaller model which works well for tube scarfs and infant hats.

Be sure to bookmark this page.  I will be adding more videos along the way.

Speed Knitting iCord Using Embellish Knit

I’ve had time to get some video of how I make iCord.  I love iCord, you can do SO much with it.  But some projects I like to use it for such as ropes or rugs require a LOT of cord.  As in 100’s of feed of it.  I stink at knitting to begin with let alone attempt to knit that much cord.  So, I’ve come up with the ultimate speed cord method.

Tools

– Spool(s) of sock weigh yarn or lighter
Embellish Knit iCord maker
– Cordless drill
– Flat head bit

If you’ve never used an Embellish Knit before they can be a bit tough to start out.  In the video I’ll show you how to start your knit as well as how to speed it up to crazy speed!

My W.I.P. projects are at the end of the video.