Allison: Trying To Find My Olympic Spirit

Hello, hello!  I try every week to come up with a greeting more creative than that, but I never can.  Oh well... I'll go with it.

This week has been all about the Olympics at my house.  As I have mentioned before, I am a VERY patriotic person.  I LOVE MY COUNTRY, and would defend it to the end.  But...  I have never been a huge fan of the Olympic Games.  There!  I said it!  I know... strip me of my patriotic title.  Something about sports taking over the television for multiples days just doesn't sound all that appealing to me.  That being said, I will always tear up every time the National Anthem is played with an American standing on the podium.  Go figure.

With as much passion as I DON'T enjoy the Olympics, my good husband DOES.  Of course.  So, I try not to whine too much while the t.v. is on and give him these few days to watch all the "sports" (ping pong... really?) he can handle.

Today I thought I'd try to support my husband and his love of the games, by making something "British" for dinner.  He might pass out at the thought of me even making dinner, let alone something to celebrate the Olympics, but that's okay.  I like to shock him every now and then.  For my British dish, I thought I'd make shepherd's pie.  I've made it before, and it really is the perfect dish.  Anything that is topped with mashed potatoes and cheese has to be amazing, right?  But I thought I'd try an idea I saw on Pinterest, and make mini-pies.  I had some pie crust in my freezer, so it was really a no-brainer.  I mostly followed the recipe found here.  I did make a few changes.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup (Regular or 98% Fat Free)
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 cup frozen peas and carrots  (I left carrots out this time, but did add corn that was already in the fridge.)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/3 cups instant mashed potato flakes or buds (I used about 5 small-medium potatoes that I had in my pantry.  No fake potatoes in this house!  I probably should have used a couple more.)

No judging my stained muffin tins.  :)

Start by peeling, cutting and boiling your potatoes.  While the potatoes were boiling, I took my pie crust and cut out circles using a cookie cutter.  I probably should have used 2, because 1 crust only filled 9 muffin tins.  But, I figured I'd go with it and just add any left over filling to a normal dish.  I baked the crust for 7 minutes at 400 degrees in the oven.  

While the crust cooled, I sauteed some onions, and then cooked up the ground beef in the same pan.  I then added the soup, ketchup (which I couldn't even taste later), pepper, peas and corn.  

While that simmered, I took the potatoes, mashed them (adding the milk, butter, salt and pepper), and put them to the side.

I then spooned the beef mixture on top of the pie crust, followed by a topping of mashed potatoes and a sprinkle of cheese.  

Finally, stick the tin in a 400 degree oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the cheese is sufficiently melted and gooey looking.  Yum!

**I did end up having enough filling to make a separate "pie" in a glass pan, and topped it with the remaining potatoes and cheese.  Obviously this was my first time trying this recipe with pie crust.  :)

Can you really argue with these results?  :)  He said they were very good, and I have to agree.  Totally worth the heartburn that I'm sure will hit soon.  I may always add a crust to my shepherd's pie dishes in the future.  The flaky crust was the perfect compliment to the meat and potatoes.

I hope you're all enjoying the Olympics and feeling your American pride swell just a little for our amazing American athletes.  Have a great week!!

Allison