Recipe: Shepherd's Pie

Some of my fondest memories as a child, are in the warmth and comfort of my step-mom's kitchen. Being with my single-father for so many years, it was not lost on me how blessed I was to have a Momma that was such a wonderful cook. She could make anything and that anything always tasted or felt special, even if it was just sweet cornbread on Sunday mornings with honey and butter. After all the years of Dad's PB&J's, Campbell's soup, and crock-pot chickens, Momma's food was like heaven! As a teenager, I was blessed to be a student under her tutelage and some of my best meals are because of things I learned from her.

I was browsing through Recipezaar on Monday night after dinner and just happened to bump into this recipe, which brought up a load of memories of a meal my Momma cooked on a regular basis! Since I have this knack for cooking waaay too much of something, I decided I wanted to give this a try. A nice way to use up the 10 gazillion pounds of leftover mashed potatoes I'd made just that night. I've tweaked it some (per usual), but the end result was really, really wonderful! This is definitely one of those meals you can call comfort foods.

Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
1 medium sweet onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can Italian style tomatoes
1 can green beans
2 to 3 cups cooked mashed potatoes

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350.
Brown ground beef, drain fat, and pat dry with paper towels.
Salt and pepper to taste and mix.
Layer on the bottom of a loaf pan.
Brown onions and garlic in butter and olive oil, until golden and tender.
Layer on top of the ground beef.
Drain can of Italian style tomatoes VERY WELL and layer on top of onions.*
Drain can of green beans VERY WELL and layer on top of canned tomatoes.*
Layer mashed potatoes thickly on top of green beans.
Cook in oven for 30 minutes.
Broil on high for 2 minutes or until mashed potatoes are golden brown.

*It's important to drain the canned vegetables really well or the "pie" is runny. A mistake I will not make again. While this tasted wonderful, it was not pretty. Next time I know what to do.

This is one of those recipes that's fast and a good use of "pantry" items or leftovers. You could use corn, mixed frozen veggies, sauteed peppers, ground turkey, whatever you have on hand. N and I enjoyed this, but Monkey did not. Lately, he has this Thing for not liking his food being mixed up. (Shelia, I think just talking about your kids being like this, jinxed me. LOL!)

*kicking myself for not taking a picture of the meal, yet again*