Archive for December, 2009
Baby Baby Shepherd’s Pie
December 11th, 2009 Posted 7:07 pm
Right before Thanksgiving, Matt and I had some extra pie crust on hand, so we indulged ourselves and had some shepherd’s pie. Baby Baby Shepherd’s Pie, in fact. You could also call it Double Baby Shepherd’s pie. Baby Squared Shepherd’s pie….etc. Why are we calling it this? It is deliciously filled with both lamb and veal! So so delicious. Whole Foods had gorgeous looking ground lamb and veal, so we bypassed the ground chuck and used 1/4 pound of each. Along with some frozen and fresh veggies, tomatoes, some yummy seasoning, it all came together for a really tasty meal that we got a lot of comfort out of. Don’t forget the mashed potatoes on top. Pretty, huh?? To get it all nice and brown, I used our spray butter (when did we get this???) that was in the back of the fridge. Love it.
Shepherd’s pie is one of my favorites. One of the first real dishes I made from a recipe and figured out how to just make it work on my own. So this was just a hodge podge of what we had and a sauce made around that, and thus I have no actual recipe to give you. It’s pretty easy…some semblance of a meaty, vegetable-filled stew type deliciousness, in a crust (or not), topped with mashed potatoes. If you don’t have the patience to pipe steaming hot potatoes on top (I was impatient, and really wanting browned peaks and thus burnt my hands in the process of this whole thing), you can just spread them on in a flat layer. It will still be tasty. Really, when you call something “Baby Baby Shepherd’s Pie,†people aren’t so concerned with whether you have browned peaks of potato on top.
Yes, we are absurd. Yes, if you love adorable baby animals and don’t appreciate the meat-eating-ness of some people, it might be slightly offensive to reference the babies in the title of the meal. I apologize. For real.
Also, we served it with a salad….that makes up for some of the absurdity, right?
Leftovers, and a look at frozen fish
December 6th, 2009 Posted 5:00 pm
First up, I have to point out that Santana is loving her new comforter (passed down from our bed after we upgrade for my birthday) now that the cold weather is settling in. She leads a rough life, as you can tell…
Second, a quick look at what happened to some of our Thanksgiving leftovers last week…
Our mini turkey cutlets on a warm roll, with a smear of cranberry sauce on either side. YUM! These turkey cutlets were really delicious and actually pretty easy…I may start doing this kind of thing on a more regular basis. 2 turkey tenderloins made a huge amount of turkey bites…spectacular 🙂
This slightly strange picture is a view of the inside of a sweet potato ravioli that was pretty tasty and a big step outside of the box. We took our leftover sweet potato casserole (minus pecans), seasoned it up a bit, and turned some gyoza wrappers into ravioli. Boiled them and then tossed in a pan of cranberry glaze made with a bit of leftover cranberry sauce all spiced up. Strange? Yes, very. But the tangy sweetness of the cranberry sauce went really well with the smooth creamy flavor of the sweet potato. And it used up our leftovers pretty wonderfully.
We also whipped up an apple pie at the end of Thanksgiving weekend. I think we loved it so much I failed to get a picture. It was huge. I used my grandma’s recipe, substituting the Pillsbury dough I had in the fridge for her homemade crust and crumb topping, but the filling was all her. yummm….we ate this with vanilla ice cream for a few days and now we are pie-less. It was a good couple of weeks full of pie and it will be missed.
—
A couple weeks ago we tried two different types of halibut. There was a buy-one-get-one-free sale on the frozen packs of halibut at our grocery. They’re pretty decent quality, frozen pretty quickly after being caught, and simple to prepare.
The first preparation was a spicy seasoning on a simply grilled filet, served with my carrot perfection (a little too much honey on this batch) and some creamy parmesan risotto. 
Because we didn’t give the fish enough time to defrost in the fridge (8 hours, as noted on the package, was NOT enough), the fish stuck a little to the grill. Also, because the fish was thick on one edge and thin along the other, not all was as moist as it should have been. However, pretty tasty, and ridiculously easy on our stovetop grill pan.
.
.
.
The second was an almost-easier foil packet of halibut, zucchini, yellow pepper, onion, leftover kale pesto that had been hanging out in the freezer, seasoning and white wine baked in the oven. Served with a boxed mix of lentil something or other that made a pretty tasty side. Again the first fell apart a little bit, but it was SO moist and the sauce formed by the wine, veggies and pesto was unbelievable. I can’t remember if we had bread to soak up this sauce, but if I made this again I would be sure to include it. 
I would definitely recommend these frozen fish packs. These particular packages were each individually vacuum-sealed, with two coming to a pack. They’re really easy to work with and relatively affordable. With just a little seasoning and some veggies, they make for a light and filling meal.
