Shepherd's Pie

I've had shepherd's pie a few times now and was never too crazy about it. It's good, but just kinda blah. Well I found this recipe and wanted to try it. It's a good way to use up left over mashed potatoes and the filling comes together really fast. Luke and Nick LOVE this so that's another bonus. It is definitely the best shepherd's pie I've had!This makes about 5 servings.


2-3 cups prepared mashed potatoes

For the meat filling:
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup chicken broth (or 1 cup water with 1tsp bullion)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
2 cups of veggies, (I usually do a bag of corn and peas from the freezer)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Brown the meat with the onion and drain. Sprinkle the meat with the flour and toss to coat. Add the garlic and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper and continue to cook for another minute. Add the tomato paste, chicken broth, Worcestershire, rosemary, thyme, and stir to combine. Add the veggies. (thaw them first if frozen) Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and simmer slowly until the sauce is thickened slightly.
 

Spread evenly into a 9x9 glass baking dish. Top with the mashed potatoes. Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 25 minutes or just until the potatoes begin to brown.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/shepherds-pie-recipe2/index.html?oc=linkback

Raspberry Cream Cheese Brownie Bites

First a warning, do not make these without muffin liners! I didn't have liners and didn't want to wait till I did to try this recipe. The result was a gooey delicious mess that I couldn't extract from the tin without making a mess.

My liner-free brownies...

And what they were supposed to look like...

Moving on...


Prepare your brownie mix as directed on the package.
Pour batter into prepared tin with liners
Do not fill more than halfway, you need to leave room for the cream cheese and raspberry

Cream Cheese Filling
8oz cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extravt

Blend together until smooth. Pour about 1-2 tablespoons on top of each brownie

Then top with raspberry preserves. I didn't measure this, I just used as much as would fit :)

bake at 350 for 25-27 minutes. It's a little hard to tell when these are done. I took mine out at 25 minutes, next time I might go for 27 as mine were pretty gooey! I also had left over cream cheese filling so I poured that into a little dish and baked it with left over raspberry filling :)

I can't wait to make these again, WITH a liner!