Fall into some comfort food: Shepard's Pie

Its been awhile since I have posted. Fall brings on a busy schedule between the return of school and gearing up for the holidays. My schedule went from minimal responsibilities to minimal free time and unfortunately that has impacted my blog and much of my cooking...

Recently, I forced myself to stop and Larry came by again for a modified NB. We had dinner instead and I made Shepard's Pie.

I like to use ground sausage as opposed to hamburger because I like the flavor better. Traditionally, this dish is cooked with ground lamb. Ive never tried it, but I do enjoy lamb, so keep an eye out, I may try that next!

1 lb ground sausage
2 cloves minced garlic
1 small onion diced
1 small green pepper diced
6-8 med potatoes, boiled & mashed
1-2 cups shredded yellow cheese
1 can (10.5oz) cream of mushroom soup
1 can (10.5oz) green beans, drained

Cook sausage, garlic, onion and green pepper until sausage is fully cooked. Drain and cover bottom of pie plate with the mixture. Top meat mixture evenly with green beans and then top evenly with soup. Over the soup spread the mashed potatoes. Cook, covered, in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Uncover pie and top with shredded cheese. Cook 5 more minutes. Serve.

Enjoy!

My tongue hates me right now...

Ive always thought at times my family feels sorry for me. They often send me home with more groceries than I need or bring me things I'll never wear...but now Im convinced that they are trying to kill me.

I just ate one of the worst things I had in YEARS! It was a meal where you 'just add water' and it was given to me by my mother. I didnt really think I was going to use it, but I thought, 'hey, if Im in a pinch, it cant be that bad'...and so today I was trying to make room in the pantry for some home-grown home-canned veggies and I had these two 'just add water' boxes occupying a large amount of space. So I decided it better to use them than throw them away. From time to time, Im wrong. And today was one of those days.

The first was a chicken n biscuit with potato thingy. My 8x8 pan rolled its eyes at me as I put in the potato flakes which, for the record, I have never used in my life! They are quite the science experiment, I felt like I was suddenly in the Jetsons and Rosie was going to pop through the retractable door to finish the job!

I poured over the can of 'gravy', mixed the 'biscuits' and put it in the oven.

It looked ok...not much different then when it went in. I got the distinct impression that the oven was just a formality though. I could have just ate the packaging and had a better dinning experience. Blech!

The second is a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. After my first encounter, Im kinda afraid to eat it...

I feel its rather condescending to give advice after my little diatribe. But I will say, I need to seriously reevaluate my relationship with my mother because Im now convinced I must have made her very angry lately! ;)

Dont Enjoy!

Potato Water & Soup

I love how good food tips come from random conversations...when my older sister was in town, my mom made potato soup for dinner. As mom was working on the soup, Joy & I were watching and catching up. Then I saw my mom do something kinda odd. She poured off the first 1/2 of the water from the boiling potatoes and then poured the rest into a canning jar, put the lid on it and set it aside.

The water was foggy and contained quite a bit of sediment, layering in a heavy pattern in the jar. When I inquired as to what she was doing, mom replied, 'Im saving it for more soup.' Joy and mom proceeded to explain how the 'potato water' was a wonderful substitute for water in soups. Especially, cream based soups! The 'good stuff' left in the water thickens up broth bases and adds another element to cream bases.

Potato water will keep for about a week in the fridge and can be frozen for later use!
Try it and let me know what you think!