tonight's dinner

Tonight I made Shepherd's Pie.  This isn't the ground beef, creamed corn, and mashed potato concoction of your youth, though.  This is so much better!I don't remember where I got the recipe, but I've had it for a few years.  (See recipe below.) I probably got it from Epicurious.com.

After trying this recipe, I will never go back to using creamed corn and plain ground beef.  It's a mixture of peas, carrots, onions and ground beef simmered with tomato paste, beef broth and Worcestershire sauce. Then  it's topped with cheesy mashed potatoes.  Although, I usually make regular mashed potatoes and add the cheese on top when I bake it.  If you don't feel like making a batch of mashed potatoes you can use the flavored instant potatoes.  They work well, too.

The finished product.

My portion.  I wasn't able to finish it.

Shepherd’s Pie

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced (I omitted this)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 pounds lean ground beef or lamb (I used beef)
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup beef stock
1 1/2 cups peas
Cheesy Mashed Potatoes, recipe follows

Preheat oven at 400 degrees F.

Add butter and oil to a large skillet on medium heat. Saute onions, carrots, celery and garlic until tender for about 7 to 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Once the vegetables have softened and start to brown a little add the tomato paste and mix evenly. Add the ground beef and cook until beef is no longer pink about 10 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce and beef stock. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook and simmer for another 10 minutes. Mix in peas. Transfer mixture to an oven-proof baking dish and spread evenly. Place potato on top of ground beef mixture and spread out evenly, once the top surface has been covered, rake through with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. Place the dish into the preheated oven and cook until browned about 20 minutes. Spoon out the shepherd's pie and serve.

Mashed Potatoes
4 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, quartered
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup heavy cream (I used 2% milk)
1 cup grated mature white Cheddar (I used shredded cheddar and didn't mix it in)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Fill a large saucepan with cold water and a tablespoon of salt. Add potatoes to the water and bring to a boil. Let potatoes cook until soft about 20 minutes. Once the potatoes are at a desired density, drain the potatoes and place them back into the saucepan for mashing. Add butter and cream and begin to mash potatoes into a semi smooth consistency. Once at desired texture add cheese and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.