Snowman’s Shepherd Pie

In my soon to release book, The Snowman’s Sweetheart, the hero has the nickname of Mr. Snowman. I’m pretty sure he’d heartily approve of this filling, wonderful winter meal.

Enjoy!

This spin on shepherd’s pie is fun as well as comforting on a cold winter day.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

3 strips of bacon

1 cup each frozen peas and corn

1 cup each carrots and celery, sliced

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon seasoning (like Mrs. Dash)

1 cup chicken broth

1 4-ounce package mashed potatoes

peppercorns and ketchup for garnish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Make potatoes according to package directions. Set aside.

In a large oven-safe skillet, cook celery and carrots in chicken broth until tender. (If you like onion, you can add sliced onion to the pan and cook with celery and carrots until tender.) Add peas and corn.

While veggies are cooking, in a separate skillet fry bacon strips until crispy. Remove bacon from pan, drain all but a few tablespoons of grease, and add ground beef. Crumble and cook until brown. Stir in flour, mixing well, then add beef to veggies. Crumble bacon and add to skillet, then stir in Worcestershire sauce and remove from heat.

Working quickly, form mashed potatoes into snowman shapes using a tablespoon and teaspoon (or, if you have food-safe gloves, wear a pair and spray with non-stick spray then hand form the snowmen). Layer them around outside edge of pan. Use peppercorns for eyes, the tips of carrot sticks for noses, and frozen peas for buttons.

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven.

Snip a tiny corner from a Ziploc bag, add ketchup, then pipe on a scarf for each snowman.

Serves approximately 8.