Easy Shepherd's Pie for Quick Comfort

**Picture to follow**

It doesn't get better than Shepherd's Pie, except for EASY Shepherd's Pie. My favorite, mostly from scratch recipe is as follows:

• Preheat Oven 350 degrees
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 baking potatoes worth of your favorite mashed potatoes
• Make it even quicker option: use the pre-made mashed potatoes
  
• 3 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon AP flour
• 1/2 c. frozen peas and carrots (I really like the frozen variety, but these can be fresh, too)
• 1/2 c. shredded mozzarella

Cook onion and ground beef together till ground beef browned in a medium sized skillet. Add flour and let it cook for another 4 minutes. Add Worcestershire Sauce and make sure all the ground beef is coated with the sauce. Add peas and carrots. Move mixture to a small casserole dish. Top with mashed potatoes then mozzarella cheese. Put in oven until cheese browned. Tada!

Other variations:

• Use another type of cheese
• Replace ground beef with diced beef
• Use mixed veggies instead of peas and carrots
• Don't use any veggies in the beef mix, but put creamed corn over the beef
• Top the beef mix with Parmesan cheese before adding the potatoes
• Don't add cheese at all
  

Three sites worth viewing

These three sites are obsessive worthy. They each hold a special place in my google reader, and I encourage everyone to take a look and add it to your daily list.

• Cupcake Blog: She will turn anything dessert-worthy into a beautiful mini-masterpiece. I haven't sampled the recipes yet, but I have made it a January '08 resolution to try this recipe first. By the way, this was the very first foodie blog I ever subscribed to. It has NEVER disappointed.
• Burnt Lumpia serves flavorful filipino dishes. What I enjoy most is Mr. Lumpia's love of food and honest look into his culture, which just so happens to be my own. Other than lumpia, adobo and sub-par pancit, I've never ventured into authentic food from the homeland, but his posts make me want to. What I love most on this site, though, is his relationship with "kal", a sweet (and tart) kalamansi tree that I am willing to babysit if ever given a chance. Here's a link to Kamansi Granata, which I will try the next time I get a hold of that precious citrus. In the meantime, I'll stock up on Kalamansi soda at the local Asian market - yum!
• Steamy Kitchen: After maybe 2-3 years of reading food blogs, it wasn't until July of 2007 till I cracked and HAD to try a recipe. It was the already mentioned german pancakes over at the steamy kitchen and let me tell you, it is m FAVORITE breakfast item of all time. I did more than just try the recipe, I also adopted her tradition of making it on Sunday mornings. I took a break when school got out of hand, but I'm making it up already by having it twice in the past week. This chicken is next.
  

Happy New Years!

I hope everyone had a great night. I relaxed at home and made a bunch of apps that required the KA mixer. I made:

• The KA recipe for cheeseballs
• An altered version of the KA recipe for Meatballs
• After making the meatballs, I made a meatball sauce using about two spoonfuls of strawberry jam, the same amount of ketchup and then about a half a cup of BBQ sauce. Then kept it warm in my new crock pot. Not too bad.
• Eagle Brand Magic Bars
• I did something wrong when I made these bars. Not sure what, but I will have to try it again sometime.
  
• Deviled Eggs
• My own recipe of mayo and yellow mustard until it was the right shade of yellow and creamy enough.
  

So, that's how I stuffed my face. One of my new years resolutions was to eat healthier, so I decided to let 2007 end with a bang. Happy 2008!

German Oven Pancakes

So for breakfast this morning I made German Oven Pancakes. I got the recipe over at Jaden's Steamy Kitchen. I forgot to take a picture, but I do cook this quite often, so a picture will come up again soon. I adjust the recipe by either adding vanilla extract or german vanilla sugar. So good. This morning I made it with a mixture of apricots, asian pears, peaches and bananas. It's a good combination that I will definitely try again.

I also made homemade whipped cream. I used to make it with one of those handheld mixers which was good because I can sense when it was good and whipped. It's too hard to tell when you don't control it and I was so scared it was going to turn to butter. It didn't, but I can't wait till I get to know the mixer a little better.

Nestle Toll House Cookies

I got a Kitchen Aid Mixer for Christmas and I decided to christen it by making "Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies"Soooo good...
Here's the recipe:

*I made some alterations, I used less salt and less chocolate chips. I don't like them too chocolaty.

Rating: 10

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 1 cup chopped nuts

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

PAN COOKIE VARIATION: Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Prepare dough as above. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack. Makes 4 dozen bars.

SLICE AND BAKE COOKIE VARIATION:
PREPARE dough as above. Divide in half; wrap in waxed paper. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. Shape each half into 15-inch log; wrap in waxed paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.* Preheat oven to 375° F. Cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices; place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

* May be stored in refrigerator for up to 1 week or in freezer for up to 8 weeks.

FOR HIGH ALTITUDE BAKING (5,200 feet): Increase flour to 2 1/2 cups. Add 2 teaspoons water with flour and reduce both granulated sugar and brown sugar to 2/3 cup each. Bake drop cookies for 8 to 10 minutes and pan cookie for 17 to 19 minutes.