Save Your Marriage Shepherd's Pie

For Mashed Potatoes:
2 medium potatoes, washed, peeled and diced
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper for seasoning

For Filling:
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tsp tomato paste
1/2 medium sized onion, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1/2 cup of carrots, diced
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/3 pound ground beef
1 tsp worcheschire sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
salt and pepper to season

Directions:
1. Boil potatoes until tender. Drain, add butter, milk, salt, pepper, and mash. Set aside.

2. Heat 1 tsp of olive oil, add garlic and onions until brown. Add all other ingredients and saute until tender. Add vegetable stock and tomato paste. Mix corstarch with 1/4 cup of water and add to vegetable mixture. Continue cooking until most of liquid is absorbed. Set aside.

3. In a pan, brown and crumble ground beef until fully cooked. Drain excess fat.

4. To assemble, you'll need two small oven safe baking dishes. I use the round, white, Corningware bakeware bowls. Take 3/4 of the vegetable mixture and lay in bottom of one bowl. Mix ground beef and remaining vegetable mixture and lay in bottom of second bowl. Spread mashed potatoes evenly on both bowls. Use a fork to make a criss-cross pattern on the mashed potatoes. Lightly brush with remaining 1 tsp of olive oil.

6. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

When Cuban Pork No Longer Turned Me On

I did not choose vegetarianism. You could say that vegetarianism chose me. There was no grand epiphany. No pop culture book, indy documentary, college professor, or single experience that made me stop eating meat. On the night that vegetarianism came knocking on my door two years ago, I was preparing one of my finest meals - shredded Cuban pork with cilantro rice and slow-cooked black beans. While my dinner party raved about the juiciness of the pork, all I could do was sit there and stare at the few tender shreds on my fork. And no matter how hard I tried, I could not physically bring the fork to my mouth. That was the last time I ate meat. I'm not sure what made me suddenly become a vegetarian after 35 years of being in what I would consider a healthy relationship with meat, a love affair of sorts. You see, I've never been one of those earthy, frou frou girls who shopped at Whole Foods and ordered wilted green salads on dates. To the contrary, I adored grilled Italian sausages (with green peppers and onions of course) at every fair and festival I set my foot on. I ordered smoky barbecue ribs at restaurants and licked each and every bone clean. I loved, loved, loved bacon on and in everything - sandwiches, crumbled up in soups, or wrapped around shrimp. Till this day I haven't really been able to pinpoint my exact reasons for the sudden lifestyle change. What I do know is that, for most of my life I've always had this quiet, nagging feeling that maybe, just maybe, my life wasn't worth more than the life of a cow, a pig, or a chicken - or any other living being for that matter. So you could say it was a total utter shock to my husband when, after two years of knowing the meat-loving me, I decided to stop eating meat. Luckily, I've never had the urge to judge or shove my animal-loving values down the throats of others - not even my husband Adam or our 2 and a half year old son, Jack. That's a good thing because you could say that Adam is the polar opposite of a vegetarian. He's that guy who would order a fried chicken salad, but hold the salad. Honey cured ham sandwhich, but without the bread. Burgers, brats, fried chicken, and his absolute favorite: steak fajitas (hold the tortillas of course). Our son turned out to be the perfect blend of us, devouring everything from tofu, rice soup and veggie burgers to lamb gyros and chicken wings. At the beginning, we all awkwardly tried to navigate our way around each meal, often times eating completely different dishes. I finally got sick of the devisiveness, sought harmony at the dinner table, and slowly experimented with cooking single meals that complimented both the meat and non-meat eaters in the family. I hope to post one new carnivore AND vegetarian friendly recipe each week to share with other carnivore lovers out there. So I married a meat-eating, veggie-fearing carnivore......and yes, I still adore the man.