Shepherd's Pie

I made mashed potatoes on Saturday and I always end up with a bunch of leftovers.  I'm not a big fan of leftover mashed potatoes, reheating them in the microwave just seems to ruin them.  I decided to put the leftovers to a good use and try my hand at making Shepherd's Pie. 

The recipe I used is from Rachael Ray and is one of her 30 Minute Meals.  I'm normally not a huge fan of her 30 minute meals, they always seem to lack a depth of flavor.  (Although, her Sloppy Joes are to die for.  I may have to put those on the menu next week...) I decide to give her Shepherd's Pie recipe a try for two reasons.  1. I had all the ingredients on hand and 2. The ingredients looked like flavors we would like.

Here's a link to the original recipe and below is how I made it.  By the way, look at the prep and cook times, 15 + 25 = 40, not 30.  As I've run across in the past, a lot of Rachael's 30 Minutes Meals take at least 40-45 minutes.  I guess they would take 30 if you had a kitchen full of assistants running around!

Shepherd's Pie
Prep time 15 mins
Cook time 25 mins
Serves 4

Leftover mashed potatoes (about 4 cups)

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (only use if you are using a lower fat ground beef)

1 3/4 pounds ground beef

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup beef broth

2 teaspoons Worcestershire

1 cup frozen peas

1 teaspoon sweet paprika

1. Preheat a large skillet over medium high heat.

2. Add oil to hot pan with beef. Season meat with salt and pepper. Brown and crumble meat for 3 or 4 minutes.

3. Add the carrot and onion and cook with meat 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

4. In a second small skillet over medium heat cook butter and flour together 2 minutes.

5. Whisk in broth and Worcestershire sauce. Thicken gravy 1 minute. Add gravy to meat and vegetables.

6. Stir in peas. And cook for 3-4 minutes.

7. Preheat broiler to high.
8. Fill a small rectangular casserole with meat and vegetable mixture. Spoon potatoes over meat evenly. Top potatoes with paprika and broil 6 to 8 inches from the heat until potatoes are evenly browned.

Yum!



I will definitely make this again.  I'm going to tweek some things though, I often do that after making a dish for the first time.  The meat mixture turned out a little sweet so I'm going to add onion and garlic powder to the meat next time.  I'm also going to do some research to see what goes into "real" Shepherd's Pie and may do some additional adjustments.  Overall, this was very good and I liked how quick it came together.  Having the leftover mashed potatoes was a huge bonus because it was one less thing to worry about.

Meatballs

I was going to blog during the boy's nap time today and then I fell asleep, sitting up.  I was paying bills one minute and the next I was startled awake by my own snoring.  I decided I should take nap and not blog. :)

Wednesday night I made spaghetti and meatballs.  This is yet again one of my favorite meals, it's also one of Jon's favorites.  While the boys don't eat the meatballs, they love the sauce and noodles.  Spaghetti night is a good dinner night in our house.

I used my Spaghetti Meat Sauce recipe, minus the meat, for the sauce.  This post is about the meatballs.  I use my Hawaiian Meatball recipe as a guideline.  I just tweek it to make it Italian.

Meatballs
Prep time 25 mins
Cook time 20 mins
Serves 6

Ingredients
2lbs ground beef
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
2/3 cup minced/chopped dried onion
2 eggs
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp garlic powder
1/2 cup milk

1. Mix all items together.  Let sit for at least 20 minutes, or make ahead of time, to help the flavors meld.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium high seat.  Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to the skillet.
3. Form meatballs, using roughly 1 tablespoon of meat.
4. Add meatballs to the skillet and cook for approx 5 minutes, until browned. Turn meatballs and cook for another 5 minutes.  Repeat process until all the meatballs are cooked.  We like our meatballs on the crispy side. :)

Golden brown (well black) and delicious.

5. Serve over your choice of pasta and with your choice of sauce.  I highly recommend this sauce, minus the meat.  Sprinkle with Parmesan.

 

Tater Tot Casserole

The first time I ate Tater Tot Casserole was almost 4 years ago right after Carter was born.  Our wonderful neighbors made us dinner for the first two weeks after Carter was born and on the first night we got Tater Tot Casserole.  You would have thought it was Christmas morning Jon was so excited.  :)

Apparently, Jon had this type of dish while he was growing up.  The only casserole my mom ever made was tuna casserole-- yuck!  I wasn't a big fan of this dish at first but I've grown to love this recipe.  It's one of the those meals that has to sound good to me to make it on our menu.  It also makes great leftovers.  My favorite part is it's quick and easy to throw together and then pop in the oven.

Tater Tot Casserole
Prep time 15 mins
Cook time 1 hour
Serves 8+

Ingredients
2 pounds ground beef
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1lb frozen mixed vegetables
Shredded cheese
1lb tater tots
Johnny's seasoning salt

1  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook the ground beef in a large skillet until browned.  Season the meat with seasoning salt when browned.
3. While the ground beef is cooking, microwave the frozen vegetables until warm, but not hot.  Just enough to unfreeze them and get some of the moisture out.
4. Combine the ground beef, vegetables and cream of mushroom soup in a 13x9 baking dish. Mix together well.

5. Sprinkle the mixture with seasoning salt.

6. Add a layer of cheese.  (I use the Mexican blend of cheese, any cheddar type cheese works fine.)

7. Top with Tater Tots.



8. And more Tater Tots.

9. Bake for 1 hour or until the Tater Tots are slightly brown and crispy.

10. After removing from the oven, sprinkle seasoning salt on the Tater Tots.  Eat and enjoy!

There are tons of versions of this recipe online.  Please just learn two things from me- don't put the ground beef in the dish raw (to bake in the oven) you'll end up with all the fat from the meat still in the pan.  By browning the meat first you can drain off most of the fat.  And don't put the veggies in the dish frozen, you'll end up with a watery mess.

Spaghetti and meatballs are what's cooking tonight.  I've already blogged about my Spaghetti Sauce so tomorrow you'll read about my meatballs.







Cheeseburgers

Any Monday holiday during the summer (oh and the 4th of July) means BBQ time! We still have a horrible BBQ, but not for much longer, and it grills burgers just fine.

To make our burgers, I "make" them and Jon cooks them. Here's how we do burgers in the Cantrell house.

Ingredients

Ground beef, GOOD ground beef, get it from a butcher if you can.  Fresh ground beef is a 1,000 times better than most store bought ground beef.  And ground beef from a tube, I won't even go there.

Johnny's seasoning salt

Dried chopped onions (dried onions are important, fresh onions make the burgers too moist they fall apart)

Worcestershire Sauce

I don't have exact measurements, it's all based on your taste.  Today I used four pounds of ground beef, approximately 2 tablespoons seasoning salt, 1/4 cup dried onions and 3-4 tablespoons worcestershire sauce.

Combine all the ingredients, form patties and grill. We like our burgers well done.  Jon cooks them about 5.5 minutes a side.  If you like your meat "pink" cook for less time.  Add cheese at the last minute, just long enough to melt the cheese.  We use American cheese just because it melts nicely.

I must tell you a couple things about grilling.  Jon wanted to make sure I told you these things, if I didn't tell you these things I would be in trouble.  Here are the things:

1. Only flip the burgers ONCE.

2. Do NOT press the burgers flat.

I hope you follow these rules, if not your burgers will suck and Jon will say, "I told you so."

Okay, now for my soapbox.  I use to form our patties by hand, we end up with baseball burgers.  They would swell and shrink and it was a pain.  I read in Food Network magazine a tip from Bobby Flay, pressure your thumb in the middle of your burger just enough to make an indention and it prevents the burger from swelling.  That tip worked great for swelling, but not for shrinking.  Jon decided we needed a burger press.  I thought he was crazy but I was wrong.  I love our burger press.  I use it every time.  Now our burgers don't swell (the press has a little indention maker) don't shrink and are all a uniform size.

Here's how the press works:

Put a ball of meat in the press.

Apply pressure.

And your patty is formed!

I highly recommend the burger press.  They aren't that expensive, $10.00 or less, and they are easy to use.  Plus your burgers will be the right size, all of them!

I like my burgers simple.  :)

Oops!

Meatloaf is the ultimate comfort food.  How could you not love a loaf made of meat?

I've made many different meatloaves, I've tired them all.  Ones made with all beef, ones with veggies inside, ones made from three different kinds of meat (very common for meatloaves,) glazes on top, etc. I've come to the conclusion, I'm not trying new meatloaf recipes anymore.  I know what my family likes and I'm sticking to what we like.  My meat ratio is 2:1.  Two pounds of beef to one pound of pork.

Below is my basic recipe.  When I make meatloaf I don't measure the ingredients.  I just know what the right amount is and what it's suppose to look like, so be warned all the measurements listed below are guesstimates, but they should be close enough.  :)

The goods:

Abbey's Meatloaf
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 1 Hour
Serves: A lot (6-8?)

2 lbs Ground Beef
1 Package Pork Sausage (12-16oz)
2 eggs
1/2 Cup Breadcrumbs
1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp Garlic powder
1 Tbsp Onion powder
1/4 Cup Dried Chopped onion

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Set a baking rack inside a baking sheet tray.

3.  But first cover the baking rack with foil, then place it inside the sheet tray.

4.  Poke holes through the foil to allow the fat to drain while the meatloaf is cooking.  (I grew up with meatloaves cooked in glass loaf pans.  That method makes for a soggy, fatty, meat loaf.)

5.  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.  Form into a loaf on the foil.

6.  Bake for 1 hour or until the internal temperature is 160 degrees.

7.  Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.  Serve as is or my favorite way, with a side of ketchup

Battlestar Meatloaftica (as Jon calls my meatloaves) is ready to eat.

I served my meatloaf with sauteed green beans and Trader Joe's rice orzo and pilaf mix.  (Basically Rice-A-Roni but with WAY less sodium.)  I really wanted to make mashed potatoes, The Pioneer Woman has the BEST mashed potato recipe, but Trader Joe's was out of Yukon Gold potatoes and I refuse to pay $5.99 for a 5 pound bag at Safeway or QFC.  That recipe will just have to wait for another day.

Mmmm, dinner.

Please make sure you use dried onions, fresh onions have too much moisture in them.  The meatloaf won't stay together as it cooks and the moisture is released from the onions.

So the best part of the meal?  As we were eating dinner I realized that this isn't the recipe I use anymore.  I typically add two envelopes of Lipton French Onion Soup mix.  And don't add the Parmesan cheese.  While this meatloaf was good, the soup mix makes it way better.  I don't think I'll be making that mistake again.  But, hey, we're all human, right?

To make the meatloaf the right way, just add two envelopes of the soup mix to my list of ingredients and omit the Parmesan cheese and then prepare as listed above.  You won't be disappointed!

The correct list of ingredients

2 lbs Ground Beef
1 Package Pork Sausage (12-16oz)
2 eggs
2 Envelops Lipton French Onion soup mix
1/2 Cup Breadcrumbs
1 Tbsp Garlic powder
1 Tbsp Onion powder
1/4 Cup Dried Chopped onion