Cottage Pie

I’m in a cooking club that meets every other month with a different meal theme each time. Our group is called The Mixing Bowls. Isn’t that cute! I told my kids I must be getting older now that I’m in social clubs that have cute names like that. Haha. And I’m totally embracing it!

It’s so much fun getting together with the ladies to eat, talk, and laugh for an entire evening! I love these women and I always come home with a full tummy and lots of great new recipes! We met last night and our theme this month was “Family Favorites”.

I took Cottage Pie because, not only is it a favorite meal at our house, but it represents a favorite destination of ours as well: Disney World! We’ve eaten this delicious dish at Rose and Crown in Epcot, and this is their recipe straight from the Disney cookbook. It’s very much like shepherd’s pie but with a beef gravy base instead of a tomato base. Also, there aren’t any veggies baked in as with shepherd’s pie, so I just serve them separately as sides.

On Saturday, I went ahead and prepared the Cottage Pie for cooking club, and also made an extra one for our family to eat for our Sunday lunch (I placed it in the oven before church and set the oven timer to start cooking while we were gone). I made a doubled recipe for my family and a doubled recipe for the cooking club. Each doubled recipe filled a deep 9×13 pan, so if you’re doing a single recipe (as below), use a smaller casserole dish.

COTTAGE PIE  

1/4 cup butter

1 cup diced onion 

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1/4 tsp savory (I used a mixture of sage and thyme when I don’t have savory)

1 cup brown gravy (homemade or jar—I used a jar of Heinz Homestyle Savory Beef Gravy)

2 (I use more) cups mashed potatoes (I used this recipe )

Additional butter for dotting

Melt the butter in a skillet on medium. Add the onion and cook until lightly browned, stirring constantly. Add the beef, salt and pepper, and savory and cook for about 5 minutes longer until browned. Stir in the gravy and heat until bubbly. 

Spoon meat mixture into a buttered or greased casserole dish (Rose and a Crown uses ramekins, but when making this for a crowd, it’s just more practical to use a casserole dish.). Spread mashed potatoes over the meat mixture. Dot with pieces of butter. I also add a sprinkle of dried parsley for color and some freshly ground pepper on top.

Bake at 400 degrees until bubbly and potatoes are starting to brown. Let it set up just a few minutes before serving.

For Sunday lunch, I served the Cottage Pie with English peas, roasted carrots, and crescent rolls.

When chillier weather arrives (will it ever?) Cottage Pie is the ultimate comfort food! So if you don’t make this recipe anytime soon, at least tuck it away for colder months. You can thank me later.

I also took Butterscotch Pie to the cooking club which I’ll post the recipe for on Thursday. It’s our all-time favorite pie, so come back!