What I ate: Shepherd's [cottage] Pie

Once the weather outside gets frightful, I get serious. 

I am not a fan of the cold and changing my meals seasonally can help combat this 

(according to them old folks called grandparents). 

Late fall and winter are the perfect time to re-focus on the comfort foods,

root vegetables, mashed potatoes, stews and soups... so many soups. 

Traditionally, Shepherd's pie is made with lamb and cottage pie is made with beef,
however it's pretty much the same general idea so I chose my meat filling 
based on what was on sale at the grocery store this week - beef.

Not only is Shepherd's Pie a great winter meal choice because of its heartiness and 

the veggies involved, it also makes fantastic leftovers to bring to work!

potato toppingINGREDIENTS:	meat fillingINGREDIENTS:
2 medium sweet potatoes, chopped 4 medium potatoes, chopped 1/4cup milk (I used coconut milk) 1 Tablespoon butter 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg pinch of salt and pepper	2 medium onions, diced 2 stalks of celery, diced 2 carrots, peeled & diced 2 cloves of garlic 1/2cup peas 1/2cup corn 1.5 pounds ground beef 1 Tablespoon olive oil 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon thyme pinch of ground cloves 1cup beef stock 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1 Tablespoon Dijon 1/4cup red wine / port

Cover potato and sweet potato chunks in water and bring to a boil. 

Turn down heat to medium and allow to boil for 20 minutes, or until soft enough to mash.

Some crazy person told me to roast them for 50 minutes in the oven... 

if you're crazy you may want to spend time doing this. It likely adds something great to the flavour 
although I am doubtful you'd notice once eating the pie in it's entirety.

Once cooked, drain potatoes and return to pot. 
Add butter, milk, nutmeg, pepper and salt.
Mash and mix and mash and mix.
Lick the spoon.
Do it.
It tastes good.
...unless of course you plan to share with dinner guests.
In which case grab a clean fork and try a bite.

Pour olive oil to a deep frying pan over medium heat. 

Add onions the onions and saute until softened. 

Next add the garlic and continue to saute for 3 minutes.

Add the meat, stirring until browned.

Add celery, carrots, peas, corn, oregano, thyme, cloves and salt and pepper. 

Mix it up.

Continue to cook until the carrots begin to soften, about 7 minutes.

Add red wine, beef stock, Worcestershire sauce and Dijon.

Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, allowing to simmer for 20 minutes.

Put meat filling in a rectangular baking dish. 

Spread mashed potatoes over top and bake for 25 - 30 minutes; until the top is golden

 and the sides are bubbling.

Remove and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Notes:

As you may have noticed from the sexy freezer burn, my corn and peas were from frozen.

Honestly, this did not show through in the final product, if you got 'em, use 'em.

I always forget to do this but,

to get a really nice top layer, run a fork along the potato topping to form ridges.

Then, place some butter melt in between these ridges.

It makes for an awesome and delicious crispy topping, like seen here.