Shepherd's Pie

I'll post this since we made it for dinner a few weeks ago at Mom & Dad's. Such a good comfort food!

Pre-heat: 350º

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, chopped
1 lb ground beef
2 packets brown gravy
12 oz. mixed vegetables (corn, peas and green beans are good)
2 lbs potatoes

Half fill a large pot with water and set to boil.

On a low to medium heat setting, cook the onions until the onion pieces are soft and translucent. Then brown the ground beef in the same pan at the same heat setting.

While the onions &/or meat are cooking, cut the potatoes into smaller pieces (small enough that they will cook quickly but shouldn't spend a lot of time on this) and dump them in the water.

Make the brown gravy - boil a cup of water and stir in the gravy until it thickens. The ground beef should be done. Pour in the gravy, and add the vegetables. Stir until it's all mixed and the veggies are warm.

Distribute the mixture evenly at the bottom of a casserole dish. Make the mashed potatoes -- drain the potatoes, and mash (with butter and milk, as desired). Layer the potatoes on top of the meat mixture.

Pop uncovered in the oven for about half an hour.

Chicken Divine Alternative Rock #1

For a little while, we had to avoid feeding eggs to Lizzy due to a luckily short-lived allergy. That meant avoiding some salad dressings like Mayonnaise. Oh dear, mayonnaise is in daddy's Chicken Divine! Well, have no fear, we'll just oust from the recipe! I also experimented with a few other changes. We were out of broccoli, the main and really only veggie in the dish. Well have no fear, we'll just use some other veggies like oh, a can of corn and a can of green beans!

2 cups cooked rice
1-2 chicken boobies, cut up and cooked (sorry, old habit from my Aunt Jane)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 large dollops of sour cream (hehe, I love the word 'dollop'!)
A splash or two of milk
Handful or two of cheese
1 can corn
1 can green beans
Curry powder (daddy would be heartbroken if forgotten)
Mrs. dash (addicting stuff)
Lemon pepper (also addictive)
Any other seasonings you see fit to use
More cheese

Layer the cooked rice into a 9x13 pan. Mix together soup, sour cream, milk, cheese, veggies, seasonings, and chicken in a bowl and spread over rice. Sprinkle a little more cheese on top (mustn't forget or else I'll be heartbroken). Warm in oven at 350 degrees until bubbly and cheese is gooey. Now devour the divine stuff!