Cottage Pie

AKA Comfort Food 101!

I had actually never had this, and when I made it, I will say that I used the recipe more like a starting point. I altered it drastically!

I did not use instant potatoes. I love my red potatoes mashed way too much to trade in for instant.

As for the meat, I did brown the ground beef BUT I put some garlic powder and worcestershire sauce in with the meat and onions. I had 2.25 lb. ground beef bc it was just what I could find when I went shopping, and a medium-sized onion. Next time I plan on adding a little jar of sliced mushrooms in there too. And I didn't drain my meat. That would have washed away all my yummy garlic and worcestershire!

And the gravy, I have no idea where in the store jars of gravy are supposed to be, so I made my own with the brown gravy packet. I used one, but I think next time I will make two and probably use about a packet and a half overall.

Then I assembled ground beef/ gravy mix on the bottom and mashed potatoes on top and dotted with butter. Yumm-o for reals. And I'm making some crescent rolls to go with it because what comfort food isn't even better with those things? Seriously.

Cottage Pie starting point via EatatHomeCooks.com

I'll be back tonight to add my pic since it looks nothing like the other! (Ok, it's similar, but not the same. Heh.

Panko Mozzarella Sticks

Well, I should know better than to try to fry something. If it's not veggies, I can't fry it. So these cheese sticks I made last night were good, but they were definitely not my specialty.

My advice would be make sure your grease is *really* hot (I had mine on medium-high, medium heat was WAY too low) and don't buy cheap cheese like I did. I figured the marinara sauce and bread crumb edging would hide the fact that I bought cheap cheese, but it didn't. It still tasted like cheap cheese.

Panko Mozzarella Sticks via Pioneer Woman

Extra Special Banana Bread

This stuff is SO good. Seriously. And I didn't even have one of the ingredients - nutmeg. I could have sworn there was some in my kitchen at some point, but I don't know where it went, and I keep forgetting to restock it. So I just left it out and who knew? I made 2 loaves on Thursday night and the bigger one was gone by midday Friday. My non-sweet-eating husband loved it, and of course my banana fiend toddler gobbled it down as well.

And the topping? Oh gosh. I had to stop myself from eating it out of the bowl! But really, I have to stop myself from eating anything with a good concentration of brown sugar straight from a bowl.

I love brown sugar. If I was stranded on an island with milk, brown sugar, and fruit, I would be a happy woman. And my kid, of course. I can't live without him either.

Mine was much darker than this by the way, and I'm not really sure why. Maybe I overdid the cinnamon or something. Who knows. But it is so good and moist that I don't even care what color it is. It doesn't matter anyway - it's all gone now!

Extra Special Banana Bread via Tasty Kitchen

Spicy Orange Garlic Shrimp

These are so good. I had to make my husband a second batch because I ate all of the first batch while waiting on my potatoes to boil. You know, because boiling water takes SO long. Yeah. That's my excuse!

Now of course mine didn't look like this. I used minced garlic from the fridge instead of cloves. And because I am an enormous slacker I somehow forgot to restock the Old Bay I took to the in-laws a while back, so I substituted Lawry's seasoning salt because, well, it was the closest thing I had to Old Bay. It was gooood. And I only used a pinch of the pepper because neither of us is into spicy foods.

I never gave any to the kiddo. He's been a little under the weather all weekend and I didn't want to subject him to cayenne pepper too. It's just wrong.

Spicy Orange Garlic Shrimp via Pioneer Woman via Pastor Ryan (whew)

Italian Beef Sandwiches

I've been meaning to cook this for, well, like 2 weeks or more. Thank goodness for the freezer where this big piece of meat has just been waiting on me to get ready to cook it! I can't say how good it tastes since it's only been in the crock pot about 3 hours so far and the meat's got a ways to go still, but it sure smells good!

Ok, actually, it just smells a lot like the pepperoncinis that I put in. And I'm not exactly sure what those even are, but I figured the recipe calls for them so I used them. I added an onion too because everything that has a bell pepper should have an onion too!

Italian Beef Sandwiches in the Slow Cooker via EatatHomeCooks.com

Uh once again, not my photo since mine are still cooking :P


Ok, it's now 10:15 and dinner is over and banana bread is in the oven! I'll be posting that recipe soon enough :) It smells divine. The sandwiches were pretty good. My crockpot is on steroids so even though I told it to go to the 10 hr (lowest) setting, the meat was falling apart from being so tender by about 5 hours. So just know your crockpot. It was far from all the liquid evaporating though so don't worry about that.

The meat was a little spicy when I tasted it out of the crockpot, but once it got on the rolls (I used plain sandwich buns and put mayo on mine) you couldn't tell it was spicy. Neither my husband or I dipped it in anything, but you certainly could, especially if you want more of the Italian taste.

Oven Ham Sandwiches

I'm sorry, but I just can't bring myself to use the word "sammies." It makes me think of my friend's dog Sammy. But these little sandwiches are to die for, and they're so easy. I made a couple without the topping in case my husband or son didn't like it, but they both ate them either way so next time, I may just make them all with the topping. Here's the recipe and :gasp: a few of my own photos!

Oven Ham Sandwiches via Dine & Dish

This is a before shot so you can see what the sauce will look like before you cook it. When it comes out of the oven, it will be more liquid and just soak into the bread.


And here's an inside shot for good measure. I used two pieces of deli ham on each sandwich and a little square of Swiss cheese in between each piece of meat. I was a little worried after I made them that the square wouldn't be enough, but it was just right! This would make a great little party food as well as an easy weeknight dinner.

Lemony Goodness

Ok, I won't lie. The photo on her website is what peaked my interest in this. Plus, well, it has cream and what can't be good when it has so much cream? Now, I'll just make a note here about this. There definitely IS a lot of tasting and tweaking at the end of this sauce, but it is so worth it. I could have done a little less tweaking because when you put the sauce over the chicken and the pasta, it mellows it out more than I thought it would.

And, well, we were in a hurry and too hungry to get a good photo so I'll use hers. I foresee this becoming a bad trend.

My Chicken Piccata via Pioneer Woman