Homemaking Tip—September is National Potato Month

I’m not bloviating when I say that I could (and often do) eat potatoes daily. Whether mashed, tater-ed, frenched, hashed, scalloped, fried, boiled, or baked, it does not really matter. I will eat them plain, buttered, gravied, dipped, or onioned. I will eat them here or there. I will eat them anywhere. I do like them Sam-I-Am.

One night last week we had hamburger gravy and mashed potatoes for supper. And since many recipes are just a rearranging of ingredients, I made another meal while I was making it: sheepherder’s pie.

First I browned the hamburger. Then I put half of the browned hamburger in the bottom of a casserole dish. I continued making the hamburger gravy to the hamburger in the frying pan by adding flour to the hamburger. After the flour was well incorporated with the meat and slightly browning, I added milk, salt, and peppe. While the gravy was bubbling in the frying pan, I added tomato sauce and spices to the hamburger set aside in the casserole dish then layered green beans on top of the hamburger.

Next I mashed the potatoes. I spread a thick layer of potatoes on top of the mixture in the casserole dish and put the rest in a bowl on the supper table to eat with hamburger gravy.

Finally I added some grated cheese to the top of the hamburger, green beans, and mashed potatoes and called it sheepherder’s pie. (Do you call it shepherd’s pie or sheepherder’s pie?) I covered it with a lid and put it in the fridge for supper a night or two later.

I will eat potatoes then or now. I will eat them with some cow. I will eat them here or there. I will eat them e.v.e.r.y.where . . . because I like them Sam-I-Am.