The last Stand

I always wanted a stand mixer, but if there is one thing to remember it's that I am cheap.  It was hard to justify the expense when there were  other items requiring my attention.  Enter a loving wife a few extra bucks and a birthday.  It was the best present ever.  I can make toll house cookies (double batch) in 5 minutes and a huge batch of icing in about the same time.  In addition to all the mixing and whipping I got every attachment.  Granted the shredder is not a great buy but the pasta attachment and the grinder both rock.

The biggest problem with homemade pasta is the time.  Mix, knead and roll & cut.  It can take hours.  You can cut the time (and cost) of really good pasta by about a third.  I've talked about ground meat before but it is amazing beyond belief to eat a burger of good fresh ground chuck.  The flavor is better and you control exactly how much fat you want in it.  There is a saying with ground meat that fat  = flavor.  This is very true but when you take a piece of meat with good inter-muscular fat you don't need to add additional fat for flavor and you can add moisture in other ways that bring flavor to the party (more later).

When you think about it a good stand mixer (that can take attachments) is pricey but when you add up everything it will replace it is a good deal.  Mine replaces hand grinder (though motorized is much much much more desirable), hand mixer with mixing blades/whipping blades and dough blades, ice cream maker (working on a recipe for that one) and motorized pasta machine it is a good deal overall and what you can do with it will save you a ton of money in the long run plus you don't have to store all those separate pieces in your space limited kitchen (kitchen equipment will always consume 110% of the available space it's a law).

Shepards/Cottage Pie

(the difference is with Shepard's pie you use lamb not beef).
2 lbs ground beef shoulder (or lamb)
1 large carrot
1 medium onion or large shallot
2 cloves of garlic (optional)
1 sprig of time (strip the leaves) optional
2 tsp of Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup of chicken broth (optional used to add moisture if the ground meat gets too dry).
salt to taste.

1 & 1/2 to 2 lbs of mashed potatoes (you can use the potatoes in a tub if you want I often do)
1 egg yolk
4 oz of cheese (your choice) shredded

Mix the egg yolk, cheese & potatoes and set aside.
Pre-heat the oven to 350 and get out a 9x9 baking pan (stone ware is great for this so would enameled cast iron)
Grind your meat on a coarse or fine grind (your preference). Lightly salt the meat and brown the beef in a skillet and drain.  Grate in the carrot (peeled) and the onion/shallot.  Add in the time and grate the garlic into the shallot if you want to use them.  Lastly add in the Worcestershire sauce and stir the meat mixture for 3-5 minutes over heat (taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning if needed).  When done pour all of it into the baking pan.  Gently spoon the potatoes or pipe them over the beef and smooth to an even cover.  You can optionally fluff the potatoes with a fork, but you want a good seal all over the pan with the potatoes so your meat does not dry out. 
Bake for 30 minutes or so or until the potatoes are browning on the top.

Let your pie rest for 10 or so minutes (you can eat immediately but in 10 minutes the pie will set so you can get clean slices out) and enjoy.  The juices of the meat will blend with the vegetables and the Worcestershire sauce and it will taste heavenly.  This simple dish will wow you and is surprisingly light and flavorful.  Try this at home even if you need to buy ground meat (grinding meat takes about 5 minutes per roast that you grind).