foodie friday : shepherd's pie

I have never had shepherd's pie.  I'm not sure why, especially since Kyle is such a meat and potatoes person.  I have had a million versions of it come across my screen lately though, so when I scored 3 pounds of ground beef on clearance for my freezer, I decided it was time to test one of them.

I chose this recipe from myrecipes.com since it seemed straightforward and all I needed was the beef broth.  The only change I made was that I made my own mashed potatoes (a little creamier than normal so that they didn't dry out during the baking step) and I baked at 375F for 30 minutes per other recipes I had seen.  I did this because I had put it together during nap time and put it in the fridge for a bit while we waited on Kyle, so I wanted to make sure it heated all the way through.  

Tips for making it... make sure to have all of your ingredients ready to go before you start throwing things into the hot pan.  I felt like I was scrambling and justcouldnotfindtheteaspoon when it should have been a simple dump and stir.  Also, if you have plenty of potatoes, make more than what you think you will need.  This should have been a really quick recipe to make but took a long time for me because I only used 3 potatoes at first and that barely covered all of the meat in the dish, so I had to boil some more.

Overall, it was good.  I will file it under the occasionally make again tab for those times I need something that will have leftovers when I have a pound of beef to use up.  Next time I will probably throw in some thyme like I saw in a similar recipe just to add a little different dimension to the flavors.  I think maybe I would have enjoyed some roasted or sautéed veggies as a side.  Myles thoroughly enjoyed it, and Kyle ate his whole plate without any complaints.