Saturday, November 12, 2011

Adventures in cooking

Tonight I wanted Shepard's pie for dinner.  I really, really, REALLY wanted Shepard's pie.  So I defrosted the lean beef, chopped up an onion, and got to work.

While browning the beef and sauteing the onions I realized we didn't have beef stock or gravy and so, at Chips recommendation, I tried to make a sauce out of beer and flour.  We've done it before and it was super tasty!

Popped open a bottle of Newcastle and mixed it with whole wheat flour and was working on veggies when I realized it smelled a bit funny.  I tasted it.  It was not a happy taste.  Yeasty and grainy.  It was SO not a go.

I don't remember what beer we used the last time we did this and I think we used white flour instead of wheat but I was shocked that it turned out so badly.  What a waste of food... but I guess every attempt in the kitchen can't be a total success.

After Matt made a quick run to the store for more beef and gravy and I got started from the top.

A pound of beef, a big ol' onion1.33 cups of corn, peas,and  lima beans topped with  mashed potatoes and cheese on top baked to a bubbly warm crisp.

Yum, yum! It was a hit all around the house!

2 comments:

  1. In the past, I have used condensed cream of mushroom soup as the gravy.

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  2. I don't generally use mushroom stuff but I totally could have tried cream of celery or cream of potato! That would have been interesting.

    Thanks for the suggestion!

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