my st. patrick's day meal

yesterday was st. patrick's day, and i was totally going to talk about delicious irish food. sadly i didn't have this post ready to go yesterday, so i figured i'd just save it for today. i'd like to blame it on all the whiskey and guinness i drank, but with kids like mine, i find it best to remain as sober as possible when dealing with them, so no alcohol passed these lips.

anyway, growing up we had a tradition of eating corned beef and cabbage and dyed green mashed potatoes on st. patrick's day. unfortunately, my hubby and kids don't really like corned beef. also, i made pork and sauerkraut on monday, so i think i've already eaten my weekly allotment of cabbage product this week.

so, instead of making corned beef and cabbage, i was going to make a shepherd's pie. now for those that don't know, a shepherd's pie is a thick stew of meat and vegetables and gravy, with the whole mess covered in mashed potatoes. it's then baked until the potatoes get all nice and crispy on top, staying creamy in the middle. it's hearty and satisfying, and i personally really enjoy it.

one very important fact about shepherd's pie is that it is made with lamb or mutton. it makes sense that shepherds would eat the kind of meat most readily available to them, and being that they were raising and tending sheep, sheep meat is the answer.

now, i have nothing against eating mutton or lamb, though for me it's a bit expensive. so when making shepherd's pie, i substitute beef for the lamb, which then technically makes it a cottage pie and not a shepherd's pie. to me, it's still quite delicious.

so i had settled on making a cottage pie yesterday, but when it came time to make dinner, i just wasn't in the mood. see, though i love cottage pie, my dear bumble does not. he's not a big fan of ground meat, though we're working on that, and he's not a fan of mashed potatoes or gravy at all. so i knew if i had gone ahead and made cottage pie, i would have had a fight on my hands, and like i said, i just wasn't in the mood.

i decided to change it up a bit, and instead of using mashed potatoes, i made a biscuit topping for it. i've always been a huge fan of bisquick, and this was just another good excuse to pull it out of my pantry. i also decided to switch out the gravy for low-fat cream of mushroom soup, a trick i use when making other kinds of casseroles. and instead of using a mix of vegetables, i just used corn, though that's because my hubby doesn't really like cooked carrots or peas.

now, after all the exchanges i made, i know it's not a cottage pie anymore, it was more of a hamburger pie. it was still good, and a hit with everybody except lumpy, who realized i had thrown some onions in with the meat when i fried it up, and he hates onions. though by the time he realized there were onions in it, he had eaten half his food.

in the end, our st. patrick's day dinner last night wasn't really irish food, though it was still good and super easy to throw together. maybe next time i'll add green food coloring to the biscuit part to make it more festive.