Shepherd's Pie my way

As you can see in a post prior to this, I had recently made a large amount of mashed potatoes & cauliflower. I had quite a bit left over, so I was browsing some of my favorite recipe web sites for ideas. I wanted to make pierogi (I am slovak & polish you know) but I was out of eggs (used my last one in my breakfast BELT recipe!) so I couldn't make the dough. Then I stumbled across this recipe for "Italian Irishman's pie" on Allrecipes.com. It used sausage instead of beef in shepherd's pie. Since I had a pack of Johnsonville Cheddarwurst Brats in the freezer, I figured this could work. So with what I had on hand, I pared it down to serve two (since a large amount of food almost always goes to waste) and gave it a try. It came out pretty tasty!

Ingredients:

2 brats, sliced thin (reserve the drippings)

2 tbsp flour

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup cream or milk

Salt & pepper

1/2 zucchini, diced

1/2 yellow squash, diced

1/2 onion, diced

1 - 2 cups mashed potatoes

Optional: 2 slices cheese, or 1/2 cup shredded cheese

Step 1: Cook the brats until they're done, put into a loaf pan. 

Step 2: To drippings, add flour & brown for 2 minutes. Add water, cream, salt & pepper to taste, whisk until smooth. Bring to a boil, cook until thickened. Pour the gravy over the brats.

Step 3: In the same pan, add diced vegetable. Cook until tender, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Add the zucchini, squash and onion to the loaf pan.

 Step 4: Layer the mashed potatoes on top of everything. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

 Now you have layered your sausage, gravy, veggies and potatoes. You can brush the top with some melted butter or margarine if you like.

 Step 5: Bake in the oven set to 350 for 20 minutes.

 Step 6: The gravy and potatoes should be bubbly. I added 2 slices of colby cheese on top and put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes to melt.

 Step 7: Spoon a big helping onto a plate and enjoy! You can top with extra shredded cheese and salt/pepper if you like. Delicious, filling and not as bad for you as you might think, assuming you used the potatoes/cauliflower!