A Little Bit Southern, Shepherds Pie November 10, 2009

This past weekend we had my brother-in-law in town, visiting from Cape Cod, MA, so I made sure I cooked him up a lot of yummy meals.  One of them was pot roast, Big Martha’s Mashed Potatoes with Cream Cheese, and spinach.  But now that he’s gone we’ve got to figure out what to do with all the leftovers.  What to do, what to do….

This is when Phil suggested to me, ‘make Shepherd’s Pie.’  Hmmm…I’ve never made a Shepherd’s Pie in my life.  I googled ‘shepherds pie’ and every recipe that came up was pretty much identical.  It basically just involves layering all the items in a baking dish and heat.  How hard could that be?

This recipe ended up being so easy I’ll probably be adding it to my ‘What to Make in a Pinch’ list.  It’s typically made with ground beef, but I substituted pot roast for the beef.  You could probably do chicken, turkey or whatever you happen to have in the fridge too.  This might be the perfect recipe when deciding what to do with our Thanksgiving leftovers.

Ingredients:

Leftover pot roast (or use ground beef)
Leftover mashed potatoes
1 Can of Mexican style niblets corn
1 handful of shredded, Mexican flavor cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Layer pot roast into bottom of casserole dish
3. Add veggie layer (mine was corn)
4. Add potato layer
5. Sprinkle with cheese
6. Cover and bake 25 minutes
7. Remove cover and cook an additional 5-10 minutes, until cheese is starting to brown.

Serve and eat!

Potato Gratin “Boome-style” February 17, 2009

I was flipping channels a few days ago and I came across Danny Boome (“The Rescue Chef“) making this recipe.  It looked so good, and so easy, so I decided to give it a shot.  It definitely was easy, and you could change this up in so many different ways.  It’s a great alternative to the plain old baked or mashed potatoes.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb baby new potatoes (I used Yukon Gold cuz that’s what I had on hand)
• 2 Cups grated Gruyere cheese (I used a mixture of Parmesan & Asiago because I always have those in my fridge)
• 1 Cup heavy cream (all I had was half & half)
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter (I happened to have some of this, but next time I’d use regular ol’ salted butter)
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Boil potatoes, with skins on, roughly 15 minutes, until a knife can easily be inserted, but potatoes are not falling apart.

Drain potatoes and place them back into the pan. Using a fork, roughly mash up leaving nice big potato chunks.  Mix in the grated cheese, heavy cream, butter and black pepper.

Take a foil lined baking sheet and place 4 rings (2″ wide) on top.  (Note: On the show he used emptied niblet cans with the tops and bottoms removed).  Fill each ring with potato mixture and place in oven for 20 minutes until the top is nice and golden brown.  (Note: I didn’t have any empty niblet cans so I used ramekins sprayed lightly with Pam).

Using a wide spatula, transfer the ring of potatoes to each plate. Holding the edge of the hot ring with a kitchen towel, cut around the potatoes to loosen them.  Remove the ring and serve hot.  (Note: I just placed the hot ramekin right on the plate).

Totally yummy.  Next time I’m adding crumbled bacon.  I don’t know why I didn’t think of it this time…

Sweet Potato French Fries February 1, 2009

These were a particular favorite of Finn’s when he was a little smaller.  When he was first learning to feed himself they were the perfect size for him to pick up and, at the time, he loved sweet potatoes.  Since he’s gotten a bit older he seems to have sworn off vegetables for the time being but hopefully someday he’ll like them again.  If and when he does, I’ll be sure to make these again since they’re so easy, and nutritious.

 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cut up 2 or 3 sweet potatoes into quarters, eighths, or French fry shapes.  You can peel them if you wish, but peels have lots of nutrients – so if your kid will eat the peels, then definitely leave them on.
Put the cut up potatoes in a bowl and toss with melted butter.  Use only about 1 tsp. of melted butter for each potato.
Spread potatoes on a cookie sheet sprayed with no-stick cooking spray.

Bake for 20 minutes or until browned.

Variations:  Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese and/or parsley on the fries before they go into the oven.