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Shepherd's Pie

Note: The amt. of the ingredients are up to you and the type of oven dish you use may vary cooking times.

Ingredients:
Ground Beef
Mashed Potatoes (the box kind works best)
Bell Peppers (optional)
Sweet Peas
Corn
Tomatoes (optional)
Any other vegetables you want

Utensils:
Knife
Chopping board
Pots
Oven dish (the kind shown below is fine)


What to do:
Before you start: Preheat your oven to 350°F
1. Chop up all the vegies
2. Cook the ground beef
3. Make the mashed potatoes
4. Place a layer of ground beef on the bottom of the oven dish.
4. Put a layer of mashed potatoes on top of the ground beef.
5. Layer the vegetables on top.
6. Repeat steps 4-6 until your dish is full (in the end you should have multiple layers of the ingredients)
Ex. Bottom/1st layer = ground beef
2nd layer = mashed potatoes
3rd layer = bell peppers/tomatoes/corn/other veggies
4th layer = ground beef
5th layer = mashed potatoes
Note: You can change the order of the layers instead of making it a pattern like in the example above.
7. Place the filled oven dish into the preheated oven and bake to your liking.

The best thing about making Beef Stew is you can be so so creative.....Here is how I make mine....

1 1/2lbs stew meat
1 cup beef broth
4 med carrots peeled and sliced
1med-large onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced
4-6 med potatoes peeled and cubed
3-4 celery stalks sliced
1 bay leaf
bag if frozen mixed veggies
2 cup of water
1 can of stewed tomatoes

Brown the meat, add fresh garlic and onion cook till onion is tender. add beef broth and all the vegetables add can of stewed tomatoes and 1 cup of water and the bay leaf... Cook until veggies are are fork tender... if not thick enough you can add a little bit of flour to thicken...

Thanks, I'll be sure to use it

*hungry*

Fancy Cheesy Potatoes (adapted from a recipe for gratin dauphinois, which is pretty much the same thing)

About 4-6 potatoes - depends on size
2 cups milk
seasonings (recipe called for salt, ground black pepper, and some nutmeg; I use seasoning salt, pepper, nutmeg, a little Italian herb seasoning, and lots of garlic)
a good deal of grated cheese (about 2 handfuls worth...ends up being about 1.5 cups, I think - enough to cover the baking dish) - I use Colby Jack, but you can probably use whatever type of cheese you want, or a mix, or whatever your tastebuds desire ^.^

You'll also need a skillet (I use a family-sized electric skillet, works pretty well), something to stir/serve the taters (I use a spatula), a baking dish (Mine is something like 13"x10"x2"), and an oven to cook/bake the taters ^.^

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. While it's preheating, thin-slice the potatoes (I use a cheese grater; mine has a side which creates slices. Knives always work, too ^.^).
3. Once the taters are sliced, put them in the skillet and cover them with the milk.
4. Season the potato-milk mix and let them simmer (low heat) until the potatoes are mostly cooked but still firm (I think it takes about 15 minutes, but it depends on skillet size, how thick the slices of potato are, cooking heat, etc).
5. While the taters are cooking, grease up your baking dish.
6. When the potatoes are done, put them in the baking dish along with the milk in which they were cooking. Try to make the potatoes as even as possible in the dish (so like, don't have a bunch of "hills and valleys" in your potato landscape xD).
7. Cover them in cheese.
8. Bake for 35-45 mins.

The only difference between my recipe and the "official" gratin dauphinois recipe is at step 6. Instead of putting the cooked milk in with the potatoes in the dish, it says to strain the potatoes and place the milk aside. Once you've arranged your potatoes in the dish, you're supposed to add some cream to the milk and let it simmer some more, check the seasonings (like, add more if necessary), and then put the milk/cream in with the potatoes.

I omit this step for several reasons. For one, cream is expensive and not extremely healthy, and I can't tell the difference taste-wise between taters with cream and taters with milk. Secondly, there's always too much liquid left when I add any more to it after cooking the potatoes. Thirdly, I've gotten to where I add enough seasonings the first time, so there's no need for me to strain out the milk just to check the seasonings ^.^

Not-So-Fancy Cheesy Potatoes

4-6 potatoes
cooking oil, margarine, butter, spread...something to fry the taters in and keep them from sticking to the pan
cheese

1. Decide if you want your potatoes to be hashbrowns, pan-fries, wedges, or cubes.
1A. If hashbrowns, then grate the potatoes.
1B. If pan-fries, then thin-slice them.
1C. If wedges or cubes, then cut the potatoes into the appropriate shapes.
2. Cook the potatoes.
2A. If hashbrowns or pan-fries, then fry them in a skillet with some cooking oil (my preferred choice, anyway), being sure to flip them every now and again to get lots of crunchies (because I like the crunchies ^.^). I usually add salt and pepper, too.
2B. If wedges or cubes, then lay them out in a baking sheet with lots of margarine/butter/spread (to keep them from sticking), season them (I prefer seasoning salt, pepper, and lots of garlic) and bake them for 30 minutes at 400F or an hour at 350F.
3. Shortly before serving, sprinkle cheese on the potatoes.
3A. If hashbrowns or pan-fries, you can probably do this right in the pan, or after dishing them out on a plate.
3B. If wedges or cubes, then I'd put on the cheese after dishing the taters out on a plate.

Hmm.. Oh I know! My favorite =D Meatball-Mozerella Sandwich XD

Well.. Let's see. You need leftover meatballs, mozerella cheese, bread, butter, and er a pan XD
Warm up the meatballs in the microwave for a minute or so. Spread butter on one side of both bread slices. Place one piece of bread (Butter side down) on the pan, place a good amount of cut-up meatball on the piece of bread, along with a good amount of mozerella cheese, and then place the other slice of bread (butter side up) on top. Turn the stove on low and proceed to cook like you would with a grilled cheese (Wait for one side to brown, flip it, and wait for the other side to brown). Then it's good to serve! =D

Haha it's really good ^^

Yum....everything sounds SOOOOO good!!!!!

*starts copying the best recipies*