What to do with leftovers: Shepherd's Pie

We’ve been hosting the Holiday’s ever since we moved into our house in 2012. This is mostly because we’ve got the little ones and it’s easier for us not to have to load everyone (and all of the stuff - diapers, wipes, changes of clothes, sippy cups etc.) into the car and try to figure out naps at someone else’s house.  I love having everyone over and the rest of the family does too.  I’m sure I make a better host than a guest, because I’m incapable of sitting down for very long and enjoy being busy in the kitchen, content just listening to the happy squeals of the children playing with our family and friends.

Although I try to send people home with leftovers, hosting means that we end up with most of them.  While I could fix myself the exact same plate over and over again and be in heaven, Paul gets tired of leftovers after about one meal. This presents a problem, since I am the self-proclaimed the food waste police.

Fortunately, probably in anticipation of me forcing the entire family to eat nothing but leftovers for a week, Paul solved this little problem by picking up a packet of Shepherd’s pie mix when we were at Paddy’s the day before Christmas. I had actually never made a Shepherd’s pie before, but sure enough, after a lunch of leftovers, Paul mentioned that we might want to use the rest of the leftover mashed potatoes to make one that night. At first I resisted, feeling like it was too early not to eat another few plates of Christmas dinner.  But, after realizing what short work the kids had already made of the leftover Irish bacon, I acquiesced.  Marriage is, after all, about compromise (and Paul was at least willing to eat the leftover potatoes again).

I thought there was a pound of ground beef in the freezer but we only had half a pound. This actually worked out perfectly because we were working with a limited amount of leftover mashed potatoes anyway. I added a bit of volume to the filling but throwing in some celery, garlic, carrots and peas to supplement the meager about of beef we had.

I’ve never made Shepherd’s pie before.  Granted, this one was made with leftovers and a mix, but boy was it simple. Here’s how we did it: 

• First we preheated the oven to 400F.
• Then we sauteed garlic, an onion, carrots and celery in a pan until they were soft but not browned.  

• Then we added the ground beef, breaking it up into small bits until the meat was cooked through.
• To this we added some frozen peas, tossing them with the meat and other vegetables until they just warmed through.
• Because we were using a small amount of meat, we added approximately half of the Shepherd’s pie packet to about ⅔ cup of water and stirred.
• We then added the water and seasoning mix to our meat mixture and brought the whole thing to a simmer before turning the heat off.  
• We poured the mixture to an oven proof dish and covered it with a layer of our leftover mashed potatoes.

• I decorated the top with the tines of a fork, per Paul’s instructions, dotted the top with some butter and put into the oven for 30 minutes.
• By then it was all bubbly and starting to make the house smell delicious.

The only thing I would do over again is broil the top for a few minutes to brown it a bit more.

I’m already thinking about how to make an another version of this with leftover turkey, green beans, carrots and bechamel.

 Who knew compromise, and leftovers, could taste so good?

Back in the Saddle: Apple Crumble

Despite the balmy weather, we’ve been doing a lot of fall activities lately, including a trip to the pumpkin patch and driving around the neighborhood to see which houses have their Halloween decorations up.  Emmett LOVES the latter, and memorizes which houses have which decorations.  He remembers them all from last year too, so he knows which streets to check for his favorites.  “Scary kitty cat with head that moves” is his #1.  

I left September to making sauce from the last of the good tomatoes but now that it’s October, I think I’m ready for some baking.  Apples. Pumpkin. Warm spices.  All that stuff. What better way to get back in the saddle after a failure then to have a little help? My brother-in-law gave me this fruit crumble mix the other day and it was the perfect re-introduction.  Fail-proof. Fast. And a good excuse to get out the old apple peeler-slicer-corer that the kids love to use so much. The concept is: mix the crumble topping from the box with a splash of milk and cover your fruit filling with it.  Pop it in the oven until it’s all bubbly and golden and eat.  With ice cream, of course.

It turned out to be a good project for baking with little ones. They were able to peel, core and slice the apples (with the help of our little gadget), toss them with a little lemon juice, cinnamon and sugar, and mix the crumble topping with the milk.  As a loss reduction strategy (and to avoid a crazy mess), I was in charge of putting the filling in the baking pan, topping it with the crumble mix and putting the whole thing in the oven. About 50 minutes later the whole thing was bubbly, the topping browned and the house smelled like fall.

Crumble, like pie, really benefits from a chance to rest and cool before digging in - so the juices are absorbed back into the filling instead of seeping out all over the bottom of your pan. For this reason, I try to bake these types of desserts when I’m actually hungry for real food and prepared to wait awhile before sampling. This crumble stayed warm for hours.   We hung out, ate dinner, then played monopoly before tucking into it a few hours later and it was still slightly warm. Perfect with a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream.  

Eve probably enjoyed it the most. She and I shared some for breakfast the next day topped with plain greek yogurt and salted almonds.  Notice I took no photos of the actual eating part. I guess we were all just focused on the food.

Oven ready.  At this point I had probably invested about 15 minutes in the entire dish (including supervision of little helpers). 

Apple Crumble

• 1 box of Green’s crumble mix, available at Paddy’s on the Square in Long Grove
• 20 ml milk (which roughly equals a splash, I was surprised at how little you need, so start small)
• ⅓ cup almonds, roughly chopped (optional)
• 5 medium apples, peeled and sliced, I used a mix of Gala and Golden Delicious
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon or apple pie spice
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350F.

1. Mix apple slices with lemon juice, spices, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Mix crumble mix with chopped almonds and milk.  
3. Place apple mixture in a baking dish and top with crumble mixture.
4. Bake for 50 minutes or until apple juices are bubbling and crumble topping is nicely browned.
5. Allow to rest for 2-3 hours.

Serve.

Browned beauty. 

A couple of notes on using the mix.  I didn’t follow the directions on the box which called for a higher cooking temp and shorter cooking time. I did this for a couple of reasons.  First, since I added almonds to the crumble part, I was afraid that they would start to burn at the 400F directed so I lowered it to 350.  Second, I cooked the whole crumble for about 50 minutes which was significantly longer than the 20-25 prescribed on the box.  This was because I used apples, which take longer to cook than some fruits, like berries or peaches. If, for example, I were to use this mix to make cherry crumble with cherry pie filling and no nuts in the topping, I would probably do it exactly as directed.

This crumble mix will go in my pantry from now on. It wasn’t too sweet and came together in seconds with just a splash of milk.  I can already think of a million other ways to use it - on top of coffee cake, banana bread or muffins, in lieu of a top-crust for a pie, on baked oatmeal or even donuts.

And just like that, I’m excited about baking again. What a difference a week makes.

End of Summer Salad: Heirloom Tomato Salad with Yellow Pepper, Basil, Feta and Dijon Vinaigrette

Thank you to everyone who came out for Long Grove Irish Days and made the festival a huge success! It amazes me that the stores have been part of the Long Grove community for almost 40 years.  It means so much to us to see so many people come out and support Long Grove and participate in the festival. I finally made it to Galena Canning Company and I am so excited to try the fancy mustard, apricot-peach and fig preserves I bought. I’m still looking forward to checking out the new spot in town,  Buffalo Creek Brewery.  I’ve heard it’s fantastic.

Isla taking in an Irish dance lesson on the stage at Irish Days. 

How can it be that summer has already come and gone? As much as I love fall, summer is always over too soon.  How I’m going to miss the warm, long days and all of the produce that makes dinner effortless.  All of the outdoor cooking. Taking walks to the park or out for ice cream.  All the things we only do during the summer in Chicago. There’s a part of me that enjoys sweater weather, apples and pumpkins, getting cozy when it’s dark out at 5:00 pm and perhaps most of all, the kids going to bed a little earlier (because I want to go to bed earlier too). Still, for the most part, I don’t get very excited in anticipation of fall, I’m too busy trying to soak up the last of the summer.

Last weekend was a good example of this. We had some friends over, hung out outside, went out for ice cream and mostly just tooled around the neighborhood. Sunday night my brother and father-in-law came over for dinner.  Because Paul and I had both fallen asleep on the couch and didn’t wake up in time to get to the store before dinner, we cooked up whatever was left in the fridge. Which ended up being corn, sweet potatoes and chicken.  Fortunately, my father-in-law arrived with some beautiful heirloom tomatoes from the Farmers Market.  He knows the way to my heart.

Heirloom tomatoes are easily in my top ten favorite foods on earth. They taste just like summer and are guaranteed to be delicious even if you don’t do a thing to them.  I will happily eat one over the sink with juice running down my chin just like a fresh peach. In this case, that might have been rude. I decided instead to make a salad.

I clipped some basil from the yard, found some feta cheese in the fridge and rooted around in my vegetable drawer until I came up with a single yellow bell pepper.  This would be enough. I decided on a mustardy-lemony vinaigrette and got to work. This dish came together in less than five minutes and was such a beauty. I think it would have been equally good with blue cheese and chives in place of the feta and basil.  It would have been good with anything because the heirlooms carried the day. I have one tomato left.  I saved it to eat over the sink all by myself.

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Yellow Pepper,  Basil, Feta and Dijon Vinaigrette

For salad:

3 large heirloom tomatoes

About a fistful of fresh basil

1 large yellow pepper

3 ounces of feta cheese

For dressing:

½ shallot, minced

Juice from ½ of a lemon

3 tablespoons olive oil

1-2 teaspoons honey

1 ½ tablespoons of dijon mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

 Mix shallot with lemon juice and allow to sit about 20 minutes to take some of the raw edge off the shallot. Whisk in dijon, honey, and olive oil until emulsified.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cut the tomatoes into rounds and plate on a large platter. Cut yellow pepper into small squares and roughly chop basil.  Top tomato rounds with yellow pepper and basil and crumble feta over the top.  Spoon dressing over topped tomatoes. Serve.