With autumn chill suddenly hitting this morning, my thoughts on dinner took a sudden swing from grilled chicken into hearty red meat territory. The cold weather always makes a long for foods that are high in calories, I think it’s the bodies way of making sure we have a healthy layer to keep the cold at bay. Evolution has not yet caught up to central heating and thermal underwear it seems.
One of my go to recipes for the cooler months is Cottage Pie. Often confused with Shepherd’s Pie, they are two similar but different recipes. Cottage Pie is made with beef, Shepherd’s Pie differs only in the herbs used and the fact that it is made with lamb.
Ingredients
- 1lb Ground Beef
- 1/2c chopped onion
- 1/2c chopped celery
- 2tbs all purpose flour
- 1-2 c water (use the water you boiled the potatoes in)
- ½ tsp thyme
- Peas, Beans and chopped carrots if desired.
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 cups mashed potato
- 1 cup shredded cheese
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 2 quart baking dish.
Peel and chop enough potatoes to make the mashed potato and set them to cook.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat stir and cook ground beef, onion and celery until the juices run clear. Reserve 2-3 TBS of the beef drippings and drain the rest.
Pour mixture into baking dish, add thyme and stir well.
Return reserved drippings to pan and bring to a slow boil. Add flour and stir constantly while it cooks to a paste.
Add potato water a bit at a time to make a thick but still pourable gravy. Pour this over the beef mixture and stir well.
Add in the peas, beans and carrots if you decide to use them, add salt and pepper.
Top the beef mixture with mashed potato
Bake 20 mins
Sprinkle with grated cheese (I prefer a sharp white cheddar) bake another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.
Magickal energies
This is a hearty, warming and comforting dish for a cold night that carries a powerful punch of both prosperity and protection magic. It will leave your family well fed and feeling content and ready to face anything. Exactly the kind of energy you want to face a cold winter!
To enhance these energies stir everything clockwise as this will help to ‘wind up’ the energy. While you are assembling the ingredients and cooking, think of your loved ones and how much they will enjoy the resulting dish. Let your love for them flow through your hands into the food. If you are Reiki attuned then you can also add Reiki energy along the way which will enhance the natural energies of the food more.
Beef is a fire element food, it adds energy, excitement and strength to any dish that it is used in. This is the hearty feeling of being able to face anything that we all crave in the winter.
Celery adds the peaceful, soothing, grounding and relaxing feeling of being cocooned safely in front of a warm fire on a cold night. It also helps boost desire and sexual lust.
Onion is potency, and promises, it boosts the health and has the strong protective energies that we resonate with at this time of year.
Potato has the same potency and protection energies as the onion, and adds a dose of compassion to the mixture.
Thyme is a restful nights sleep, it is also healing and protection, love and purification.
Beans have always been a prosperity food, there is a reason accountants are often called ‘Bean Counters’. The humble bean also carries powerful protection energies.
Carrots are fertility, which means more than just babies. Fertility energy gives a boost to prosperity. Carrots also offer clarity and clear vision, as well as helping to banishing baneful influences.
Peas are sacred to the Mother Goddess and packed full of that mother love energy.
Cheese is an energy enhancer, boosting the energies of any food it is added to.
Flour binds this whole dish together and contains the prosperity energies of the wheat from which it was milled. Stacks sheaves of wheat have long been a symbol of prosperity.
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