Shepherd's Pie

EDIT 15 Nov, 2015: I think I found a version that the family likes better. Just little things can make a big difference it seems. I tried pork instead of beef, omitted the garlic, celery, and carrots, and substituted regular frozen corn and frozen peas. A bit of beef broth keeps it moist, and maybe a tad less Worcestershire. I added this as version #2 below.

Shepherd's Pie - version 2

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This is probably one of my all-time fav dishes, probably top 3 ever. When you look up "comfort food" in the dictionary, there's a picture of Shepherd's Pie.  There are as many variations as there are people who make this I think. My fav is close to "traditional", except I don't use lamb. This is also one of those dishes that is almost better the next day. Yea, hot lunches for work!

Beef, carrot, onion, & celery mixture.

The one big difference is cream style corn. That is the secret ingredient. Gives it a nice creamy texture, and prevents the dish from being too dry. I'm not one for gravy or stock in the beef layer, and I don't like the potatoes to be too smooth. Normally cheese on anything is awesome, but I don't like cheese in or on this. In my opinion it ruins the rustic and simple nature of the dish So a straight-forward ground-beef layer, a moist corn layer, and a rough-mashed potato layer. Perfect.


Next Time: sometimes SO likes peas mixed in the middle, but I prefer not.

Me: 10/10
SO: 8/10  update: version #2 is 10/10
SSO: 7/10 (with cheese on the side and little to no middle layer)

Asian Noodles with Beef and Snow Peas

Asian Noodles with Beef and Snow Peas

Updated - see below.
Right off the top, I have to say this one is as low-brow as it is tasty. It is about as Asian as chicken balls. We're talking middle of the week comfort food, cooks up in less than 15 minutes start to finish. And the best part is that it makes fantastic left-overs to bring to work the next day (assuming you have a microwave).

This could be made fancier by using "real" noodles and not the instant $0.99 packages, "real" beef slices and not supermarket extra-lean, and fresh ginger instead of powdered. But who is going to do that when you just got home late at 6:45pm, and are starving and grumpy? Not me.

The recipe comes from SO's former co-worker and friend. It got published in one of those small-town raising money for something coil-bound cookbooks you buy for $10. Fantastic deal if you ask me. There are a few questionable things in there, but it is worth the price for this idea alone plus there are lots of other "my momma's recipe" dishes. I mean, even Julia Child's cookbook has a section on Aspics. Yikes. Good luck trying to find a copy of "A Taste From Our Homes" though, from the Goulbourn Jubilee Singers Community Choir. This link (familyoven.com) is almost identical to the one from the book.

Update:
So we needed something for lunch, and I had 10 minutes to make it. I saw a couple of the $0.99 noodle packets in the cupboard, so thought I'd make this again. We always have ground beef in the freezer. No snow peas, but that was my inspiration to do it a bit differently. Not having something is often great for inspiration. The difference? Started with diced onion and garlic, then added green beans, frozen peas, and a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce. Turned out excellent!

Slightly different version, with garlic, onion, gr. beans,
peas, and Worcestershire sauce

Next time: this is so simple, there is nothing to change or do differently. Maybe make a bigger batch.

Me: 9/10
SO: 8.5/10
SSO: n/a, but I would guess 5/10 once he tried it

Open faced ground beef with tomato sauce on spinach

We haven't been cooking much lately - pretty much due to the fact that we have no kitchen. Literally. Kitchen renovations are exciting, expensive, and disruptive. And for us, we have experienced scope creep, so it is encompassing almost the entire first level of our house now. Everything is covered in plastic, and we have no more inner walls in the kitchen area, no dishwasher or stove, very little counter space and a temporary sink. Oh yeah, and no lights, and only a couple working plugs. We did keep our fridge, which rolls around as required plugged in to an extension cord, and we use a construction work light. The microwave works, and is perched on box.  All this to say it is hard to cook anything. We've been BBQ'ing a bit, and we have a university style two burner deal. But we have to unplug the fridge temporarily to use it. But really, it is exciting to know what is coming!

Open-faced ground beef with tomato sauce on spinach

When SO threw this concoction together, it was like decadent heaven!  Objectively, it really was tasty, although that was mostly due to the tomato sauce that was made by our Italian friend (no really). The other part was the bun which is fresh from the Portuguese bakery, sold at our local butcher, along with the ground beef we used. We did this in the slow cooker, but that was just convenience for us. It was not browned, but it was soft and tender. Browning the meat is just too complicated for our current setup, plus not everyone thinks that you have to get that Maillard reaction going every time meat comes out of the fridge. There are also in between views on the topic - see Alton's opinion.  Finally, add some spinach between everything just so there is something green and healthy in the mix.

Next Time:  maybe try Alton's dual method, i.e. brown only part of the meat

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: n/a

Ground Beef Stroganoff

This is definitely a middle of the week sort of meal. We usually have mushrooms in the fridge, onions & garlic - well of course those are always around, plus we try to keep a few bags of ground beef from the butcher in the downstairs freezer. The quality is much higher, although it comes in 2lb bags which means lots of leftovers. Not necessarily a bad thing, at least when things turn out ok.

Ground Beef Stroganoff with mushrooms and egg noodles 

I noticed that most recipes, after googling around for a bit, seem to include either mushroom/chicken soup, beef consomme, or beef stock. We have tons of mushroom soup in the cupboard at any given time, but that is reserved for SO's famous "extravaganza" meals. Usually pork chop extravaganza. I prefer to do things a "fresher" way if I have the time, like I did today on a Sunday.  This recipe is similar to Emeril's, since I made up a batch of his "Emeril's Essence", but I omitted his suggestion of beef broth, parsley, and cheddar, and added instead some red wine, half-and-half cream, and sour cream.

Next Time: more mushrooms, maybe another veg

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: n/a, he had noodles and plain ground beef