Shepherd's Pie

Two words: Comfort food.

Ryan is in love with the Shepherd's Pie from Whistle Binkies, a pub we like to go to in Rochester. This is not like their pie, which is more like a beef stew with whipped potatoes on top. But damn this is good.

This recipe was adapted from AllRecipes.com.

Shepherd's Pie

1 lb. ground beef (I used pork)
1/2 onion, chopped
2-3 carrots, chopped
1/2 c. frozen peas
1/2 c. frozen corn
3 lg. potatoes
1/3 c. milk or half and half
4 T. butter
1/2 cup beef broth
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel and quarter potatoes, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes). While the potatoes are cooking, melt 2 T butter in large frying pan. Saute onions and carrots in butter until tender over medium heat (10 mins). Add ground beef and saute until no longer pink. Add corn and peas, as well as salt and pepper. Add Worcestershire sauce. Add half a cup of beef broth and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes, adding more beef broth as necessary to keep moist. Mash potatoes in bowl with remainder of butter and milk, season to taste. Place beef and vegetables in baking dish. Distribute mashed potatoes on top. Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. You can use the fork to make some designs in the potatoes as well. Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown. Serves four.

A couple of variations - cheddar cheese in the potatoes or Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top after cooking would be a divine addition. You can also use whatever vegetables you really want with the ground beef. I used peas, carrots and corn because I had them on hand.

Another variation ... this recipe is damn good, but if I was planning to cut carbs, the potatoes would shoot me out of the water right there. In the future, I might try to whip cauliflower in lieu of the mashed potatoes and substitute ground turkey for the ground beef or pork.

Chicken and Orzo Soup

I should have known that this was going to happen - my boss was sick, Ryan was battling a cold, I went home for Christmas and hung out with my germ-monger nephews and sure enough ... I found myself battling a cold and a sore throat over the new year.

I was supposed to pull a 5-hour shift at the cab company on the 1st, but when people started making fun of my squeaky voice, I decided to hang up the phone and head to the grocery store to pick up the fixins for some homemade chicken soup. (And yes, there's nothing wrong with soup from the can, but I was having a hankering for something homemade with lots of carrots.)

So I threw this together and I'm kind of proud of it ... I mean, chicken soup isn't no big trick - get some chicken broth (I'm still trying to perfect a homemade stock recipe), get some noodles, fix some chicken, add veggies and POOF! Chicken noodle soup. But I was happy how this turned out. And when Ryan went back to the stove for seconds, I knew it was something of a winner.

Chicken and Orzo Soup

2 1/2 T. butter
1/4 c. chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp. herbs de Provence **
4 large carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 chicken breast, cut into 1 inch pieces and cooked
6 c. chicken broth
2 c. water
1 c. orzo (or any type of small noodle)
1 bay leaf

Using a heavy-bottomed saucepan, saute the onion, garlic and herbs de Provence in the melted butter for about 2 minutes, or until the onion is beginning to brown. Add carrots and celery - cook for another couple minutes. Add chicken broth, water and bay leaf. Bring vegetables to a simmer for about 10 minutes (or until the carrots are beginning to get tender). In the meantime, if you don't happen to have chicken on hand - this is the perfect opportunity to brown it in a skillet. When that's done (or darn near done), go ahead and throw it into the soup pan. Dump in the orzo and cook until tender. This seemed to take forever (15 minutes). Turn off your stove, discard bay leaf and serve. This would be fabulous with a little shaved Parmesan on top, but it's just as fine without.

**Herbs de Provence - found these bad boys at World Market and feel pretty pleased with myself. Herbs de Provence are good with seafood or ratatouille, according to the package. It is a mix of marjoram, savory, thyme, rosemary, basil, fennel, sage and lavender. It was a perfect compliment to this soup.

Russian Mushroom and Potato Soup

I found this recipe on AllRecipes and the fact that it's Russian in origin (I've been obsessed with that particular country ever since Ryan took me to Eastern Promises. Viggo, I'll make you borscht any old day of the week.) I'm also on a quest to try some different potato soup recipes because it's cold in Minnesota and I really like soup.

Russian Mushroom and Potato Soup
adapted from AllRecipes.com

· 4 tablespoons butter, divided
· 2 leeks, chopped
· 2 large carrots, sliced
· 6 cups chicken broth
· 2 teaspoons dried dill weed
· 2 teaspoons salt
· 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
· 1 bay leaf
· 2 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced
· 1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
· 1 cup half-and-half
· 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
· fresh dill weed, for garnish (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Melt 3 T butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Mix in leeks and carrots, and cook 5 minutes. Pour in broth. Season with dill, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Mix in potatoes, cover, and cook 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender but firm. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Melt the remaining butter in a skillet over medium heat, and saute the mushrooms 5 minutes, until lightly browned. Stir into the soup. In a small bowl, mix the half-and-half and flour until smooth. Stir into the soup to thicken. Garnish each bowl of soup with fresh dill to serve.

Food Review: Mac and Cheese Pizza

Lunchtime found me hungry today and pondering my various options for good eating. I thought about sushi, but decided I didn't want to spend that much money. Then I remembered I would be working at the cab company tonight and since that cuts into time spent with my beloved Ryan, I decided to call him and ask if he wanted to go to Mr. Pizza North for their slice special. The lunch special used to be $5 for two slices and a soda, but according to today's bill, they raised their prices a bit. But that's OK - the pizza is still good, the service is still friendly and it's Mr. Pizza - home of Sharon's Favorite.

On today's menu, MPN featured their pepperoni pizza, the bacon cheeseburger and their new mac 'n cheese pizza. Of course, Ryan and I had to try it.

Verdict: Very interesting - they had some sort of garlic butter on the crust (which was hand-tossed), had cooked elbow macaroni sprinkled on top and then topped with cheddar cheese, butter and bread crumbs ... I think.

I couldn't eat a whole pizza and I found myself wishing for ketchup or tomato sauce to dip it in - the carb on carb action was a wee bit too much, even for me. Ryan liked it, but then he thought he was feeling nauseous. I blamed it on the pepperoni.

One of the things I appreciate about Mr. Pizza is their willingness to try new things - their mashed potato pizza is a particular favorite. This one isn't as good as the potato, but kudos for trying.

No Mo!

I forgot to post a picture of Mo for your viewing pleasure.

Product Review: Mo's Bacon Bar

In all of my years of online shopping, the arrival of this particular package was only overshadowed by one other purchase: The down comforter I scored from Overstock.com five years ago for $40, free shipping.

Mo's Bacon Bar isn't a down comforter, but at $7.50 for a full-size bar, it's definitely a luxury item. And man - it was worth the order and worth the wait.

Mo's Bacon Bar was dreamed up by Katrina Markoff at Chicago's Voseges Haut Chocolat. Markoff, a Le Cordon Bleu graduate, drew from her childhood to combine Mo's Bacon Bar - a sweet and savory concoction featuring milk chocolate, smoked salt and smoked applewood bacon.

I actually purchased two Mo's bars - one was a miniature sized one and the other a full-size bar. Exercising no restraint whatsoever, I tore into the mini one as soon as my package arrived at work on Friday. There would be no sharing with co-workers, only that one singular moment when that first bite of chocolate melted on my tongue, melting away so I could taste the bacon and salt concealed underneath. I immediately regretted not being somewhere cooler when I took my first bite of Mo.

Luckily, my second Mo experience was in a much cooler environment. I broke open the big bar at my friend Paul's house after he noticed the box sticking out of my pocket (Mo was too precious to leave in my car.) I broke off squares for Paul and Erin. Paul had the same reaction I did - absolute bliss. Erin? "Pfllf, pfllf, pflff" and washed his mouth out with some skim milk. Undeterred, I took the rest of the square he had bitten off and polished off his unfinished chocolate. No - Mo is too precious to be wasted by someone else's boy germs. :)

Ryan's email to me upon my announcement of the arrival of Mo? "That sounds nawsty." I brought a piece of Mo to my dispatcher Bill today, a wee precious square of chocolately-bacon goodness wrapped in a piece of foil (it looked like a drug transaction, to be honest) and I await his judgment on Mo.

In the meantime, I highly recommend a trip to Voseges Haut Chocolat. If you can't get there via car, go via Internet: http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/

Diet Commentary

I'm reading a book about the Sonoma diet. I'm not seeing how some of these recipes are fitting into my "easy recipes for lazy people" theorem, but I'm tempted to try some new schtuff.

I'll keep you posted.