Rancher's Pie

Like Shepherd's Pie, but with beef instead of lamb!

2 1/2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cubed for boiling
1 stick butter (yeah, 1 stick)
1/2 cup whole milk

Boil the potatoes in well-salted water for about 15 - 20 minutes. They should be fork tender. The time varies a lot depending on how small you cut the potatoes. Drain and mash with the milk and butter. Or you can use instant if you want to make the baby Jesus cry.

1T olive oil
1T butter
1/2 bag frozen pearl onions, thawed
5 peeled, chopped carrots
4 ribs celery, chopped
1 pkg whole button mushrooms
3 cloves minced garlic
1 1/2 lbs beef stew meat
1 package beef gravy mix
1/2 cup red wine
1 drained can diced tomatoes
1 cup frozen peas


In the Olive Oil and butter with a ginormous pan, sautee the onions, carrots, and celery for a few minutes, maybe 7? The carrots will be pretty firm still, but add the mushrooms. Quite a bit of water will come out of the vegetables. At this point, I pretty much dumped in everything else and about 1/2 cup water. I simmered it for about 15 -20 minutes. Once the meat was cooked through, I turned off the heat and let it stop bubbling. Then I MEANT to stir the peas in. But I forgot. I slid the potatoes on top but couldn't really spread it around because there was a lot of liquid still. I think at this point if I had dotted a bit more butter on top of the potatoes and broiled it all, that would have been delicious. We were not that patient.

I ended up sprinkling a few peas in the bottom of each bowl as I served it. And then in the bottoms of the plastic leftover containers as I put that away.