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Shepherds Pie for Lazy Cooks
You can make this a hearty meat celebration, heavy with vegetables or just a cleansing of the pantry dish. All measurements are “ish” meaning they are close to what is listed but nothing is critical so you can cut back on what you don’t like and add more of what you do like.
You can replace all the vegetables or most of them with frozen mixed vegetables.
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground meat (preferably beef)
- 1/2 cup Tomatoes – chopped fine (optional)
- 1/2 cup Celery – chopped fine (optional)
- 1/2 cup Carrots – chopped
- 1/2 cup Onion – chopped fine (optional)
- 1/2 cup Corn
- 1/2 cup Bell Peppers – chopped, choice of colors (optional)
- 4 slices Bacon – fried and chopped (optional)
- 2 tbs Garlic powder or one clove
- 2 cups Cheese (preferably shredded chedar)
- 2 tbs Worchestershire Sauce
- 2-4 cups Potatoes, mashed
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions
- Heat oven to 350°
- Combine celery, onion, pepper and carrots (if raw) with ground meat and bacon then cook on medium heat until meat changes color.
- Drain off grease.
- Add carrots (if frozen), corn, garlic, worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, mix thoroughly and set aside.
- Make mashed potatoes and set aside.
- Spray a glass casserole or oblong cake pan (or whatever you have that will not melt in the oven) with cooking spray.
- Spoon in the meat mix and level out.
- Cover with cheese “to taste.”
- Cover with mashed potatoes and sprinkle cheese on top.
- Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until potato peaks or edges turn brown.
How to formally set a table
Generally, the more formal the occasion, the more courses are served,
which of course means more flatware. There should be a different set of
utensils for each course: salad fork, dinner fork; dinner knife,
bread knife; and so on.
Building from the basic set-up (dinner fork on the left of the plate;
knife to the right of the plate, dinner spoon to the right of the knife):
On the left side of the plate put the salad fork to the left of the
dinner fork. On the right add a soup spoon to the outside of the dinner
spoon if soup will be served. Place the soup bowl above the soup spoon
and to the right. The bread plate goes to the left, about two inches
above the fork. Place the butter knife across the bread plate at a
diagonal, upper left to lower right. Small salad plates go to the
left and a little below the bread plate. Dessert spoons, or in some
cases knife and fork, are placed about an inch above the top of the
plate with the handle(s) on the right side.
The largest glass on the table is the water glass which goes on the
right side above the dinner knife. It may be filled and iced when
guests arrive or left empty to be filled at each diner’s request.
If wine or some other beverage is served, set the appropriate glass
to the right and a little down from the water glass.
