Shep's Pie Kinda Week

I'd like to dedicate the title of this post to Kevin for his creative naming abilities for the recipe of the week, which is dedicated to Melissa and Jodie for sending it from Chow.com - Root Vegetable Shepherd's Pie.  It just seemed wrong to call a vegetarian dish Shepherd's Pie, so after some not so serious brainstorming over dinner, we decided the suggestion of Shep's Pie was the clear winner.  This recipe was surprisingly good and definitely a winner on many levels - one of them being that with some pretty minor modifications it was Blaine friendly!  

• # of non vegetarian meals for the week: 3 (that took a lot of time to remember...I need to start being a bit more diligent with my postings!)...the first was on Super Bowl Sunday - totally worth the beef ribs, if I do say so myself...second was at Kingswood Australian restaurant in the city.  I got Baramundi there, which I never heard of until I went to Australia, so I assumed it was definitely the "flex" part of this diet, however when I went back and looked at my Seafood Watch list I saw that a US caught version is on the safe list. I have to assume it was from the US because it would be crazy for them to import it from AUS!  Regardless, that meal counts cause the Brussels sprouts had bacon in them.  Still good to know about Baramundi. And the third was salmon in VT, and I'm assuming the local store Winhall does not have Alaskan caught salmon.
• Interesting recipe of the week was the Shep's Pie from Chow.com.  Again, it was good, but very time consuming, so I'm not totally sure it was worth the effort.  Regardless, here's the recipe if you want to make it and in parentheses I include the substitutions I made to make it Blaine friendly:

The question wasn't "to hot sauce or not to hot sauce"...it was "which hot sauce to use" as David carefully chooses

TIME/SERVINGS
Total Time: 1 hrActive Time: 45 mins
Makes: 4 to 6 servings

INGREDIENTS
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large dice (used red potatoes and kept the skin on)
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into large dice (added more red potatoes and excluded sweet)
3/4 cup plain yogurt (this was a really nerve racking addition cause Blaine was definitely watching as I added it...he didn't say anything though)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
10 ounces cremini mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed, and quartered (replaced with zucchini)
1/2 medium yellow onion, medium dice
2 medium carrots, medium dice
1/2 medium celery root, medium dice (celery root scared me, so I just used celery...not a Blaine revision, but it worked fine)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups mushroom broth (vegetable broth instead)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (it required a bit more flour than what it called for - you can eye ball it)
1/2 cup frozen peas
INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat the broiler to low and arrange a rack in the upper third of the oven. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil; set aside.
2. Place russet and sweet potatoes in a large pot of heavily salted water and bring to a boil over high heat. Simmer until just tender when pierced with a knife, about 5 minutes. Drain, then return potatoes to the pot. Mash coarsely; add yogurt, salt, and pepper; and stir until just combined. Set aside.
3. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat until shimmering. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring rarely, until browned, about 6 minutes. Add onion, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion just begins to soften, about 3 minutes.
4. Add carrots, celery root, tomato paste, and thyme and stir to coat vegetables. Add mushroom broth and soy sauce and stir until incorporated. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and cook until vegetables are just tender when pierced with a knife, about 10 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, combine water and flour in a small bowl and stir until smooth. When vegetables are ready, add flour mixture, stir to combine, bring to a boil, and cook until sauce has thickened, about 1 minute. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir in frozen peas.
6. Transfer mixture to a 7-by-11-inch baking dish (or a 3-quart baking dish) and spread reserved mashed potato mixture over top. Place on the prepared baking sheet and broil until the top starts to brown, about 5 minutes. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

• Fights with Blaine: luckily he kept his mouth shut about the yogurt in the potatoes, but I was gearing up for one.