Shepherd's Pie Dumplings

I love pie. There's something truly magical about the unlikely combination of warm fruit and a flaky pastry that just melts my heart...and the ice cream that is invariably served over it. I remember the first time I heard of shepherd's pie, I was intrigued. What could it be? Did shepherds eat some kind of super secret, awesome fruit that only shepherds knew about? Or was it a savory pie made of sheep and/or their herders? Sadly for naive, 7 year old Marcus it turned out to be none of the above but rather an unconventional pie made of meat and potatoes. Of course, it really grew on me and has since helped in the broadening of my pie-horizons (pirizons?).

We've gone off on some culinary tangents over the past few months, but this week we're back to what we know - our meat and potatoes. So to speak. We made shepherd's pie dumplings using regular shepherd's pie ingredients, but stuffing them into a doughy pocket thing. You'll need ground beef, potatoes, peas/carrots/corn/onion and pizza dough.




1. Make mashed potatoes. Yup. That's step one.







2. Make ground beef mixture. We made ours with onions, garlic and some spices, then added corn, peas and carrots.






3. Roll small balls of pizza dough out into small circles. Fill with meat mixture and potatoes. Fold over and seal with a fork.





4. Bake at 400F until dough is cooked through and browned slightly. Serve with dipping gravy.





Q: What did the guy shepherd say to the girl shepherd? A: Wanna get the flock out of here?

Jalapeno Poppers

I have had many a deep-fry party in my day, and for some reason they always seem to turn out the same. Deep-fry parties are like pancakes - the greatest thing ever at first, but by the end you're sick of them and vow to never have one ever again. And also, you can smother everything with butter and syrup. But just like pancakes, the DFP always manages to find a way to creep back into your life to pull your life expectancy down just a touch. And that's why I love them so darn much.

This is a deep fried classic and we didn't do much to mess with it except wrap it with bacon. You will need jalapeno peppers, cream cheese, gouda, bacon, flour and breadcrumbs.



1. Cut the tops off the peppers and scoop out the seeds. Use a piping bag to fill them with cream cheese or any filling of choice. We used a smoked salmon flavored cream cheese mixed with shredded gouda.




2. Wrap the peppers with bacon. Cut each slice in half, drape one half over the open end of the pepper, and wrap the other half around.





3. Dip the bacon-wrapped peppers in a batter made of flour, water and salt. Cover with breadcrumbs and deep fry at 375F until bacon is cooked through.



The poppers were pretty effing delicious, but very spicy. If you don't like spicy food, you're just gonna have to man up.

Poppers with loaded potatoes