Sheppards, um I mean Shepherd's Pie

For some reason, I was craving Shepherd's Pie. I spent last week thinking of it, and broke down to see if anyone I knew had a good recipe. Sadly, no one shared any. But darling hubby replied when I asked friends for a favorite recipe, that his favorite is mine. I don't have a favorite recipe, but it did get me thinking about my yearly journey into meat pie, Guinness Pie, and I opted to take a few ideas from there as well as throwing together a few other recipes. The result was so yummy. 

MARINATING THE MEAT

1. 1 T dried shallots
2. 2 t minced garlic

1. 2/3 c good beer (I used Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Star from Fremont brewing)
2. 1 pound ground beef
3. Mix the meat, beer, garlic, and shallots in a bowl. Place in the fridge overnight.

   FOR THE MEAT FILLING

1. 4 slices applewood smoked bacon
2. 1 cup chopped onion
3. 2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
4. 2 cloves garlic, minced
5. Marinated meat from above
6. 1 teaspoon kosher salt
7. 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
8. 2 teaspoons tomato paste
9. 1 cup chicken broth
10. 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
11. 1/2 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen
12. 1/2 cup English peas, fresh or frozen
13. 
    

Cook the bacon until crispy. Remove from the pan. Add onion, carrots and garlic to the pan. Cook to desired color and tenderness. Add the marinated meat with any of the beer that is in the bowl, salt (and pepper for those who like pepper) to taste. Brown the meat. Sprinkle the flour over the meat and stir. Add 1/2 the bacon crumbled, tomato paste, chicken brother, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir to combine, then cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes.

FOR THE POTATOES

1. 1 1/2 pounds yukon gold potatoes
2. 1/4 cup half-and-half
3. 2 T unsalted butter
4. remainder of bacon from meat filling, crumbled
5. salt to taste

    Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1/2-inch dice. Put them in a medium saucepan and cover with cold water. Place pan over heat and boil until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain potatoes. Mash the potatoes, then add cream & butter. When potatoes are complete, add in the crumbled bacon.

   PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

1. cooked meat
2. mashed potatoes
3. shredded cheese (I used Dubliner)
4. 
   

You can put all the meat into the bottom of a baking dish, then top with potatoes and cheese. Bake about 25 minutes @400. I made individual servings, placing 1/2 c meat into 1 c glass dishes, topping with potatoes and cheese. With the individual servings, I baked for 10 minutes, then turned on the broiler for 2-3 minutes to give the cheese nice color.

1. 
   

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1-1/2 Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup cubed pepperoni
• 1/2 cup store-bought pizza sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, Italian seasoning, garlic powder and salt. Whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella, Parmesan and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.

2. Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

3. Serve the puffs with the pizza sauce for dipping.

Apple Cider Pancakes

Apple Cider Pancakes 

2 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
1-1/4 cup apple cider


Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and brown sugar. Mix well. Next, stir in the egg, melted butter, and apple cider. You can adjust the apple cider to preferred thickness. 

Warm griddle to 325 degrees. Pour 1/4 cup pancake mix onto the skillet for each pancake. Turn over once bubbles begin to show in the center, and cook until golden brown on the other side. Serve immediately with warm maple syrup. The recipe makes 10-12 pancakes. Serve with some hot coffee or apple cider!

Taco Chili

I love Ezra Pound Cake. I adore her humor and way more of her recipes than I care to admit. She posted a recipe for Taco Soup and I immediately upon seeing it renamed it Taco Chili. It looked like chili to my simple brain. It also looked like an opportunity to eat corn chips, sour cream, and cheese.

I should add in this little detail, I am not a fan of chili. It is in the realm of things from my childhood that I've tried to repress. Ham and bean soup, beets, pickled eggs, all in the list of things I am happy to never have again. Ever. But this chili with all the fixings made me think, this could be interesting.

I took the opportunity to make this when I was providing a meal for a new mother. My reasoning was, I can try a small bit and see if I like it, and it fits all the dietary needs of this family. I made up a batch and loved it. I've since tweaked it and now it really is more "chili" like. I usually make half a batch, but lately I've been finding that half a batch isn't enough, so I'm doing a whole batch and watching it quickly disappear.

Orange French Toast... Ooo...La...La...Oof

Somehow it has gotten to be April and I have yet to post anything for the year. First, I'm not sure how it got to be April. Second, it's not like I haven't had a bunch of things I wanted to post, I just haven't done it. I don't know how people keep up with the blogs!

Tonight as I tried to find the recipe I'm about to share, I panicked about what had happened to it. This is a recipe I've been making for just about forever. I lost the original orange bread recipe, and found a comparable one on all recipes. But I have been making this since I worked at LexisNexis in Dayton, Ohio, and I haven't worked there since the mid-90s. The piece of paper with the recipe is so gross and disgusting that calling it that is probably offensive to gross and disgusting things. It is time to bring it to the digital age!

This recipe begins with orange bread made in the bread machine. And let me tell you, this bread is truly orange. The first time I made this (with my original gross, disgusting recipe card, pre-grossness) I was surprised. The recipe I used didn't tell me that. The lovely recipe from AllRecipes is kind enough to mention it. Add in orange zest and fresh juice to the french toast mixture, then more to the syrup, and well, YUM.

The original french toast recipe calls for placing a single layer of bread in a 9x12 inch baking dish, pouring the mixture over the bread, coating evenly, covering and refrigerating over night. I have never been a fan of french toast made this way. I prefer to just dip mine in the mixture and cook immediately. I prefer my toast a bit more dry and less eggy. I recommend you do the way you prefer.

Ah, feel the burn...

There were a number of meals that I grew up with that I really have little love for as an adult. Just mentioning ham and bean soup can trigger a gag reflex. Another of those is Chili. My biggest problem with chili is the beans. Red kidney beans are just wrong! Ok, I know that many people really enjoy them, but I just can't do them. And I luckily married a man that also has little use for them.

One day I stumbled on this recipe from Ezra Pound Cake for Taco Soup. I looked at the picture and thought, that looks like Chili. Part of me thought, bleh, but the other part was curious. I wanted to try it, but I really didn't want a big batch of it hanging around if we didn't like it. Fate stepped in and I was slated to prepare a meal for a family that recently had a baby. I decided, this would be perfect. With the size of this recipe, even pulling out 2 or 3 bowls there would still be plenty for the family in question, and we'd get to give it a shot. I researched Fritos and found that they were nut safe (shocking!) and we were set to go.

I made up the batch and it smelled quite yummy. I didn't add the called for pinto beans before serving up bowls for Sean and myself. Both kids flat out refused to try it. The boy kept saying, you said Tacos! Well, it is tacos, just in a bowl. Nothing would sway him. The girl just looked at my bowl and said, No! Sean and I both dug in and it was Yummy. We were a bit sad to actually give it away. And it still had the black beans, something we both regularly turn our noses up at. Go figure. Enough other good stuff and we can handle the black beans.

This weekend I decided to make a batch as the cafeteria at work is closed and this seemed like a nice thing to have handy. I have made a few tweaks to Ezra's original to make it suit is better (obviously removing most of the beans).

Bad Wife, Bad, Bad Wife

I love potatoes. I don't think I've ever met a potato dish that didn't call out to me. Add in any sort of dairy and I'm in heaven. I grew up adoring potato soup. And the week I had my tonsils removed, all I ate was mashed potatoes. Ok, there's probably some sort of therapy issue there. Oh well.

Somehow I married a man that doesn't like potatoes. And yes, Scotch-Irish boy that doesn't love potatoes, what's up with that! One night about 2 years ago he tried some garlic baby baked potatoes after the house reeked of garlic and he really liked them. He's tried a number of different potato conconctions and finding they aren't all poison. Yea for me!

Leeks are another thing he hates. Potato Leek soup is one of my favorites, but as soon as he smells the leeks cooking, he starts turning up his nose. Yesterday I decided I wanted some potato leek soup, and I had a lovely leek in the fridge. For some reason I got it in my head to add some garlic. Do you sense a theme? I finished the soup and had it on the counter. He walked into the house after being outside with the kids and announced something smelled good. He tried the soup and said it was yummy. I then told him what it was. He hates when I do that. I offered him some for his lunch and he declined. But I am going to work on him. Although I'm not sure why, that would mean I would have to share!