Shepherd's Pie

So somehow I had made it through all of my thirty something years without ever having the deliciousness that is Shepherd's Pie. Today I was looking for a recipe to use up instant mashed potatoes (because somehow, even though I never buy these, we ended up with 3 boxes). And I came across the idea of Shepherd's pie. Of course I am not one to follow a recipe, so instead I read the general description on Wikipedia and decided to create my own version. This is what I came up with. (Bare in mind that my version feeds a small army, so feel free to half it.)

2 lbs ground meat (I used venison)

2 chopped onions

1-2 TBS Minced Garlic

Evoo

Salt and pepper

2 cups (or 1 can) of sliced carrots

2 cups (or 1 can) of peas

2 small cans of tomato sauce

10-12 cups of Mashed potatoes

Cheese

So first I just browned up the ground meat. As it was browning, I chopped up a couple of onions and threw them in with the meat. I added some evoo since venison can tend to be pretty dry. I also added the garlic, salt and pepper. 

(If I had used a different ground meat, I would have drained it at this point. Because it was deer, I didn't really have anything to drain off of the meat/onion/garlic mixture.)

When that was all browned, I added in the peas, carrots, and the 2 cans of tomato sauce.

Then I split the meat and veggie mixture between two silicone cake pans. 

I set those to the side and made up 2 batches of mashed potatoes, using buttermilk instead of milk (because it's yummy and because we were running low on milk). 

When the mashed potatoes were finished, I split them evenly over the two cake pans and mushed them down (loving my technicality, right) over the meat and veggie mixture. 

On top of that I crumbled slices of still kind of frozen cheese. (Because I'm a last minute planner and that's how I roll.) Turns out slightly frozen cheese slices crumble pretty easy so it worked out just fine. 

Then I put the pans on cookie sheets and popped them in the oven on broil. Just until the cheese was nice and melty and kind of browned on top. 

And here's what it looked like once it was cut in to.

It was super filling and the kids all went wild for it. We will definitely be making this again!