10 lbs Of Hamburger, Ground Beef

[hounddoghowlie]

If it were me, shepherd's pie all day.  It's not hard to make, and you'll use a bunch of ground beef.  I hope I don't get tarred and feathered by our UK rogues, I forget which is cottage pie and which is shepherd's pie 

I love shepherd's pie ! But never made it, always at a restaurant or frozen.

i got one for that to, even come up with a couple of short cuts, as schmoe said not hard to make just a little time consuming.
want to hear it?

Yes, absolutely .

Ok first off let me say i know lots of folks don't like them, and i don't use them all the time. but one night i didn't want to peel potatoes so i went to the Piggly Wiggly and got a big box of Hungry Jack Instant potatoes, and while there thought damn i don't want to make the gravy either so i got two jars of Heinz Brown Garvey, and damn if it didn't turn out to be the best i ever made.

so here it is,
1 1/2 lbs ground beef 70/30, again cause fat where it's at
1 27 oz box Hungry Jack Instant Potatoes, I use the whole box because I make 2 layers one on bottom one on top
1 12 oz bag frozen mixed vegetables not the ones for soup with tomatoes that will just mess it up, or another short cut use 16 oz cans.
1 jar heinz brown gravy, might want to get 2 so you can add a little at a time in case it's not enough gravy for you, i like the filling to be kinda thick and not real runny. if you wanted you could use packaged brown gravey but that doesn't taste quite as good as homemade or the jar short cut.
1 med sweet onion
1 lb mild cheddar cheese
salt
pepper
garlic powder, I love it, and cook just everything with that shit.

vegetables, cook per package or until desired tenderness, if caned wait until time to combine filling mixture

filling,
chop up the whole onion, lightly salt and pepper, statue in butter until about half cooked, then add ground beef again lightly salt and pepper brown it and drain.
if you make homemade gravy do so now or package.

now with gravy to the thickness you like and vegetable of choice combine with  the cooked ground beef and let simmer about 5 mins.

for the potatoes, as i said i do two layers so i use the whole box, but instead of following the package instructions i cut the water and milk just a tad so the potatoes are stiffer easier to work with later. if you don't want one on the bottom, i'd do 1 and a half of the 12 serving and
instructions. and cut the milk and water


for a whole box it says 11 and1/2 cups water, i use 10 and 1/2, milk it says 5 2/3, i use 4 and 1/2, use the same amount of salt and butter
i also add garlic powder here, if i had to guess amount i'd say about 2 1/2 tbsp, like i said i eyeball when i cook and can tell when it's on top of the water if i've got enough or to much. bring to a boil, now here it says to add milk and potato flakes, i found out if your milk is cold your taters will be to. that's not good for the next step. so what i do if i forget to pour it up before i start cooking is pour in the milk and let it heat up until just before a boil. then i add flakes and 1/3 to 1/2 of the cheese most time it's in between that stir real well until cheese has melted.

now in my same 3 qt casserole dish i do the stuffed peppers in, i take half of the potatoes and make a even layer on the bottom, then pour in the filling then i put on the top layer, for this i take 2 pieces of parchment paper cut to just past the edges of the dish the other half of potatoes and use a roller to roll out till it is just past where the edges of the dish are, sometimes this is tricky cause the potatoes want to stick to the paper. if you did it right layers will be about 1/2 inch thick if that much. then pinch the edges of the potatoes over so that form a seal around the edges of the dish, then cover with the top with the amount of cheese you want. then in a preheated 400 degrees oven bake for 20 to 30 mins, watch so the cheese doesn't burn.  let stand for about ten minutes.