Wild Ink Press

You all may remember, once upon a time, long ago, when your children all were young and cute (which now they’ve grown to be corporate executives and such)… well, anyway, WAY back then… I posted the first part of this Shepherd’s Pie series.  Which aforementioned series is not REALLY “Shepherd’s Pie” to begin with, because Shepherds Pie involves lamb and these are both beef versions, but I digress again.

The simple sentence is: here is part two. Finally.

This version is your basic, comfort food, stick-to-your-ribs, dinner-on-a-dime Shepherd’s Pie.  We’ll be keeping it simple, throwing it together fairly fast, and using basic ingredients we definitely have on hand already.  The main inspiration of the recipe is from Joy of Cooking, that admirable tome of a cookbook, but I made a couple of time saving adjustments (shortcuts).

We start with potatoes:

Rinsed and sliced in half to cook a bit quicker – and notice I didn’t bother to peel them.

Then we chop our veggies.  It was what we have, so there’s baby carrots and mommy carrots all being chopped into the same pan.  Butter, celery and onion too:

Once the onions are a bit translucent, we add in some ground beef and brown it:

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the potatoes are boiling madly in their little pot:

… and there’s nothing more fun than a rousing rolling boil (pasta, anyone?) to get you in the mood for dinner.

Add some flour to the meat mixture…

And then some broth and some dried herbs and spices (rosemary, thyme, nutmeg):

Now our potatoes are soft, so drain all but a little of the water from the pot:

And you’ll find most of the peel will come off with an easy rubbing motion.  Much faster than peeling with a peeler, plus no extra dirty dish. Oh, and call me a slob, but I don’t bother to get ALL of the peel off.

Smash it up with a spoon directly in its pot (takes two seconds):

Then layer the meat mixture:

And the mashed potatoes:

..forked and dotted with butter.

Put it in the oven at 400 degrees:

And if it’s OUR oven, pray that the temperature holds correctly (lately we’ve been suffering from wild fluctuations of 30 plus degrees either way).  Oh, and you can disregard the scandalous time at which we make dinner every night.

20 to 30 minutes later, this succulent comfort food will await you:

Ah. Mighty tasty.  Have a bite?

Or two.  Oh so warm and comforting (like food that gives you a hug).

But let’s do a little review, what did our dinner cost us?

Potatoes 1.5 lbs – $.82 ($2.49 for a 5 lb bag)
Carrots 1-2 large – $.50 ($1.09 per lb)
Celery 2 stalks – $.75 ($1.89 per lb)
Onion 1 large – $.30 ($.87 per lb)
Ground Beef 1 lb – $1.99
Beef Broth, 1/2 cup – $.37 ($2.99 for 32 oz)
Flour, dried herbs and spices (you have on hand already, I’m sure)
Butter, 2 Tbsp.  $.12 ($1.99 per lb)

Grand total: $4.85

Not bad, huh?  Dinner for 3-4 people (or two hungry ones) for under $5!  It’s not haute cuisine, it’s not even something particularly healthy, but it is filling and comforting and tasty.  Perfect for a stormy winter day such as this.

Happy Eating!!