Herdin' Up Some Shepherd's Pie

Today I'm making Shepherd's Pie.  Now there's a lot of family controversy surrounding this "one dish" meal.  My sister makes it a certain way, I make it a certain way and as usual, the one who taught us to make it, actually makes it completely different.

Today,  it's more about what I had in the cabinet and refrigerator than how I usually make it.  For us, a couple of things have evolved over the year and the biggest thing for me and my family is FLAVOR.   When I have this entree at my mother's house a generation later, a staple of my childhood seems bland and flavorless.  So, in respect to my mother, as usual, I will give you the "family" recipe and then I'll give you my family's recipe.

So, here's to mom:

1 lb of ground beef
some dehydrated onions
some garlic powder
salt
pepper
instant mashed potatoes
frozen peas

brown the ground beef, put the dehydrated onions, garlic powder, salt and pepper in "to taste".  "To taste" means  there's no real measurement, just sprinkle until it looks good to you.

Make the mashed potatoes per the box or bag instructions

Take an apropriately sized casserole dish and put the meat in the bottom, layer the peas on next and last, the mashed potatoes.  Put the whole thing in the oven long enough to cook the peas which is about 20  - 30 minutes.

So here is where I deviate from the plan a little.  I don't always use beef.  If I'm feeling healthy, I use ground turkey or chicken, both are equally delicious and much better for us than the beef.  But it often depends on what's in the freezer.

Idahoan instant potatoes are about a $1.5 0 a bag.
I keep about a half dozen of these little bags in the
cabinet at all times--usually.  They are easy to
open up and add to the side of just about any entree.
Today, I only had one.  Plain.

I didn'tknow this picture was so blurry.
 I'm too lazy to take another picture.

Birds Eye Vegetables are the only ones I buy.
 I'm sure the house brands are just as good, it's just what I buy.

4 Cheese Mexican is just waht happened to be in
the refrigerator, so that's what I'm using.  You can
use whatever.

I use fresh everything, so I use freshly diced onions and garlic and of course I grind the pepper and salt over it.  Not a big difference, but it does improve the taste a little.  For added flavor, I add a can of Hormel Chili with beans to the meat.

I don't always use peas.  Today I'm using mixed vegetable because--again--that's what I had.  I don't recommend broccoli or carrots unless they're canned.  It takes too long to cook those particular vegetables in that way.

Now today I am using a bag of grated Mexican cheeses and I've chosen to layer them on top of the veggies and under the mashed potatoes.  I have also been know to layer the chees on the top and brown it a little, but if the cheese gets too hard, it clumps and you don't get cheese in every bite.

If I'm feeling it on that particule day--not today.  I will make the mashed potatoes from scratch and leave the skins on.  This is not that big of a deal when using red potatoes because the skins are so thin.  Some of the thicker skinned potatoes, it might be a good idea to peel them first.

Today, I am opening up a bag of instant potatoes.  These particular ones come in all flavors, but what happens to be in the cabinet is the plain.  I wish they were flavored, but I think it will be OK.

Put the whole thing in the oven.  I'm going to take some extra time with this to be sure the mixed vegetable cook through, but if I was using peas, it would only be about 20 - 30 minutes.

My sister uses biscuit mix on top of hers instead of mashed potatoes