St Patty's Day Dinner

 Although I myself am not Irish I did the traditional thing and wore green on Sunday as well as plan an Irish style dinner. GF does not enjoy corned beef and cabbage so instead I made plans to join oldest son and his wife on Monday for that meal and turned to an "Irish" dinner that I knew GF would enjoy. I settled on Shepherd's Pie (although since I used ground beef in place of the lamb that GF also does not like it is technically Cottage Pie) and put one together. I decided on candied carrots for a side and as per GF's request chocolate pudding for dessert. I was first introduced to Shepherd's pie through a high school friend who had immigrated here with her family from Scotland. It was something her mom made all the time. I was hooked when she made it for me and it has become a staple recipe in my home. The amounts in my recipe are really just estimates since I make this the way she showed me how with a bit of a recipe from Great British Cooking thrown in.

Shepherd's Pie
 4 cups mashed potatoes
2 pounds ground lamb or beef
1/2 cup milk
3 tbl. worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbl flour
2 tsp. herbs of your choice ( I like parsley, thyme, and rosemary)
2 tbl. chopped onion
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Prepare mashed potatoes or use leftovers from another meal. Set aside. In a large skillet brown ground meat, add salt and peppers, herbs and worcestershire sauce. Mix well. Sprinkle flour over the top and mix in, add milk and cook until gravy thickens. Pour meat mixture into a casserole dish and stir in frozen peas. Spread mashed potatoes over the top and sprinkle cheese over all. I like to dot a bit of butter on the top of the potatoes before adding the cheese and jazz it up with a little parsley over the cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve hot.

Here is how the pie looked before going in the oven.

I got the carrots started on the stove and once they were cooked drained them, melted a tablespoon of butter with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar then tossed the carrots in the pot with them before serving. I also got out a box of cook and serve chocolate pudding from the cupboard and put that together to enjoy later on while we watched Amazing Race.

 

This is not the greatest picture of my dinner plate but it give you the idea of what it looked like when all served up. Yummy!