In Search of Comfort Food

It’s been a week. Got busy with house/farm stuff, work work stuff, dealing with a bigger predator load, and the weather went to crap again. It is the perfect week for some comfort food.

Ah, comfort food, the stuff that feeds you soul as well as your stomach. Feel good, dopamine inducing, love fest on a plate!

I picked two of my favorites to whip up this week. My own version of shepherd’s pie, and chicken pot pie.

Judy’s Mock Shepherd’s Pie

I grew up eating lamb on special occasions, and always enjoyed it. This is until I started raising sheep and watching lambs being born and growing up. Now, I just cant do it. I substitute ground beef in this concoction.

1 recipe of your favorite baking powder biscuits

1lb ground beef

2C of your favorite beef gravy

1 can whole corn

1C shredded cheese

A mess of mashed potato’s

Make your biscuit recipe but instead of cutting it up, mash it into the bottom of a deep-dish pie plate. Pop that into a 450-degree oven for about 12 minutes, take it out and with the back of a spoon, mush the bottom down. Bake it for an additional 10 mins. You don’t want it baked completely thru as you will be baking it later some more.

Before and after the pre bake

Brown your ground beef and season it to your desired taste. I like some onion, garlic, season salt and a touch of cayenne. When cooked, add your gravy to the meat, and then pour it into your partially baked biscuit crust.

Top the meat with the cheese and then your can of drained corn.

Start plopping your mashed tatties on top and make a nice thick layer all the way to the edges.

Put the whole thing back into a 350-degree oven for 30-40 mins. Your tatties will start to make pretty brown tips and it should be heated all the way thru. Bonus points if you put it all together while the meat and tatties are hot to start with. My schedule doesn’t always allow that, and I end up making it in stages thru the day.

Carve out a slice and enjoy!!

So yummy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chicken Pot Pie

Who doesn’t love a good pot pie? Crust, gravy, yumminess. Are you sensing a theme here?

This is a great way to use up left over chicken or turkey. I did not have any left over’s so I ended up cooking some for this

1 package Pepperidge Farms puff pastry sheets

2C cooked diced up chicken

4C chicken or turkey stock

1 can peas, drained

1 can sliced carrots, drained

A couple of tablespoons of corn starch to make a slurry with.

Since I did not have any left over chicken, I took two boneless skinless chicken boobs and poached them in the stock with onion, garlic, rosemary and sage.

Once cooked and cooled enough to deal with, I diced/shredded it up and added it back to the stock with the veggies.

Bring it back up to just a boil and add your corn starch slurry to it to thicken up your stock. I like a fairly tight gravy for this.

Take one sheet of the pastry and let it thaw enough to roll out and fit into the bottom of a deep-dish pie plate. Bake at 400 for 25 mins. Take it out and mash the center down to make it all nice and flat. Leave your sides fluffy.

Puff crust in the making

While this is baking, take out your second sheet and let it thaw out also.

Pour your chicken mixture into your crust and top with your thawed out, rolled out second sheet. You can also cut the second sheet into strips and make a pretty lattice top if you are feeling creative.

Back into your 400-degree oven for an additional 45 mins.

All done!!!

I like to scoop out a chunk and put it on top of some nice hot rice. But you do you and eat it how you like!

Yup, we have been eating good this week, and the leftovers just get better and better!

I hope you enjoyed this post! And that it made you hungry!!!

Blessed Be!