If You Were A Pie - What Pie Would You Be?

If you were a fan of the sun or leaving your apartment - this weekend wasnt for you. For 3 days straight it rained, it poured, the skies were grey and lucky for me, I had a cold so I enjoyed the solitude and lazy bones weekend.

Sunday, after a venture to the East Bay Ikea I decided we needed a warm and cuddly dinner to top off the day: Shepherd's Pie! So while Shawn framed a poster and installed a kitchen shelve I peeled potatoes and browned meat. (All the while, my favorite episode of Trading Spouses wsa playing on VH1 with Marguerite Perrin the God Warrior!) Thanks to Evie for texting me!

A few years ago I had attempted a Shepherd's pie and failed miserably but that was before I knew the value of thickening agents and flavor profiles. This time, though - I say UBER success!

Kate's Shepherd's Pie
1/2 package of ground beef
4 Potatoes
1/2 onion
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/4 cup red wine
1/4 cup tomato juice
1/4 cup A1 steak sauce
1 teaspoon of flour
1 teaspoon Parsely
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons olive oil

Step One: Preheat oven to 350. Peel and chop potatoes. The smaller the cut, the quicker they will cook! Put them in a pot of water (6 quarts) to boil with some salt. Boil until a fork can pierce all the way through.

Step One: In a medium pan, heat olive oil to medium. Add onions and garlic and saute until soft. Add meat to pan and break it up to start browning. once its starting to lose the pink add the tomato juice, the steak sauce, the wine, spices and flour. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Step Three: Drain the potatoes and with a hand held mixer whip the potatoes with 1/2 stick of butter and milk - until you have mashed potatoes. Add salt to taste.

Step Four: Add beef mixture to a pie pan, and then spread the mashed potatoes on top. Sprinkle parm cheese on top of potatoes mixture. Baked for 20 minutes, then turn the oven to broil if the top is not properly browned.

Other things from this weekend:

Although skeptical of most animated movies (whatever, at least this allows me to be pleasantly surprised often) Shawn and the Ehrigs convinced me to see The Fantastic Mr Fox on Saturday night. It was a pleasure! Spry, witty, smart, old timey, heart warming. I definitely recommend this movie to adults and not children. God damn you, Clooney! You can do no wrong!

Also, we ate at Great India and I was happy. :)

Also, I may have watched Four Christmases when Shawn was out running errands.

meh. not worth it, but I guess you already knew that.