Shepherd's Pie -- by Stace

There was no special occasion, holiday or memory attached to this recipe (yet). I just had about 8lbs of potatoes growing impatient in my pantry, so I needed a recipe that would use a lot of potatoes.

I searched the Internet for potatoes and meat and found some great recipes. I took a few and changed them according to the ingredients I had at the house (because I was too lazy to go to the store).

Here is what I came up with:

Pototoes:
I used about 5 lbs of potatoes for this.
Chop potatoes into cubes and boil until tender
Drain potatoes
add 2-4 egg yolks (depending on how many potatoes you use), milk, butter, plain yogurt, salt, pepper and nutmeg to the potatoes and mash.
Some of the recipes called for sour cream or cream cheese or heavy cream -- but I used what I had, and I liked the result.


Meat mixture:
1.5 lbs ground meat
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1 bag frozen peas
1/2 bag mixed veggies (carrots, green beans, peas and corn is what I had)
chicken broth
roux (4 T butter 4T flour)

pour 2 T olive oil into skillet and cook chopped onion and garlic until onion is translucent.
add ground meat and brown
add salt and your preferred seasonings to taste (I used a bit of Tony Chachere's).
add vegetables and 2-3 cups (about) chicken broth
let cook until veggies are somewhat tender
add roux until mixture thickens

Pour meat mixture into a casserole dish
Cover the meat mixture with the potatoes
Place in preheated oven (350 degrees) and bake for 15-20 minutes (until potatoes begin to brown on top).

Everyone loved this dish (except Boddhi who called it yucky). We ate over half the pan, and still put away 4 servings for lunches (which we finished off today).

This is a hearty dish (so filling) that uses meat, potatoes and veggies. This will definitely be a comfort food recipe that I use from now on. I intended to take a picture, but we ate it so quickly that it was not pretty anymore. Here is a picture I found while searching for recipes though (I wanted you to see what it looks like when done).


Enjoy!

-posted by Stace