Cheddar Topped Shepherd's Pie


Did you celebrate St. Patrick's Day yesterday?  I like any excuse to drink Guinness and wear my favorite color.  But best of all, I am a huge fan of hearty Irish cuisine, like Corned Beef & Cabbage or Shepherd's Pie.  Is Shepherd's Pie actually Irish or British?  No matter, wherever it officially derives from, it's bloody delicious (see what I did there?).  My 5-year-old wouldn't go near it with a 10-foot pole, but he also doesn't like green beer so his taste buds don't matter.   

After a lot of digging around online, I found this recipe that sounded the best to me, although I did still adapt it slightly.  My alterations: the recipe called for 2 pounds of ground beef but I substituted half of that with ground lamb, when the recipe called for 1 cup of water, I used Guinness instead (isn't that Irish for "water" anyway?), I threw in about 1/2 cup of frozen peas to the meat mixture at the very end, as well as some ground nutmeg and Worcestershire Sauce and I generously seasoned everything as I went with salt and pepper.  

This was comfort food at it's best and I can't wait to eat leftovers.  A perfect meal for the remainder of this very looooooooong winter (as in, eat it every night until bikini season seems near).   



Doesn't the Irish flag look something like this?