It’s a pretty versatile recipe – two years ago, Wayne used it to build a scale model of his parents’ farmhouse in Michigan. Last year, we got ambitious and designed modern art interlocking sculpture cookies. In the middle of July this year, I was struck with a vision of Tetris-shaped gingerbread cookies.

Side Note: I was lucky to have this idea in the middle of July because it gave me exactly 5 months to procrastinate, pretending to look for Tetris cookie cutters online and then 1 week to infect my crack cookiecutter engineering and production team with a nasty stomach bug. Fortunately, it was easy enough to lure unsuspecting cookie production staff to the house with promises of homemade chicken stew, apple cider, sugar cookies, SomaFM’s Xmas in Frisko, and Apples to Apples.

Ingredients

• Dough
• 2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
• Glaze
• 3/4 cup half and half
• 1/3 cup (1 ounce) juniper berries, lightly crushed
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• Assorted decorations (colored sugars, nonpareils, and dragées)

Preparation

1. Whisk first 6 ingredients in medium bowl. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in molasses. Beat in dry ingredients. Gather dough; divide into 4 pieces. Shape into disks. Wrap; chill at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Roll out 1 dough disk to 1/8-inch thickness. Using 3 1/2-inch cutter, cut out cookies. Transfer to sheet. Gather scraps; chill.
3. Bake cookies until almost firm in center, 12 minutes. Cool on sheets 2 minutes, then cool on racks. Repeat, using all dough. Store airtight at room temperature up to 3 days or freeze up to 2 weeks.
4. Bring first 2 ingredients to simmer. Cover; chill 5 hours. Strain. Place powdered sugar in bowl. Whisk in half and half by spoonfuls until glaze is spreadable. Frost cookies; decorate. Let stand until glaze sets. Store between sheets of waxed paper in airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

Side note: I never a picky kid. My favorite food as a kid was liver and onions. Seriously.

My grandmother was very picky about what went into her cottage pie – only beef. and only potatoes. and whatever other ingredients were listed in her dogeared copy of Erma Rombauer’s The Joy of Cooking. Never lamb nor rosemary, since that was shepherd’s pie, which is another dish entirely.

In my grandmother’s taxonomy, shepherd’s pie and cottage pie were two complete and distinct species who didn’t intermingle or cross-pollinate. In my taxonomy, they’re just different varieties of the same animal Yummy Potaticus Meation.

What I’ve included here is a basic cottage pie recipe that can be baked either in a 9″ round baking dish or 2 small Smarta dishes from IKEA. Consider it a broad canvas on which to paint your own masterpiece, be it a combination of sweet and regular potatoes for the crust, the addition of paprika for more smoky flavor, carrots or parsnips for sweetness, olives and red wine for a spanish twist, etc.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pd ground beef
• 1/2 good sized onion
• 1 big carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 pd brown mushrooms, chopped coarsely
• 1 pound of potatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, minced or grated
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary or 1/2 tsp dried
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire or soy sauce
• salt and pepper to taste
• optional and completely non-traditional: finely grated cheese of your cheese

Preparations

1. If you don’t like skin in your mashed potatoes, peel ‘em. Boil the potatoes until tender. Mash with a fork and add whatever you like to add to mashed potatoes – butter, milk, mayonnaise, etc. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Preheat the oven to 350°. Chop the onion and saute until semi-translucent. Add ground beef, carrot, rosemary, Worcestershire/soy sauce, salt, pepper, and garlic. Saute until meat is cooked through. If using Smarta dishes, the potatoes will heap quite a bit higher than the edge of the dish itself. You may worry about losing some potato goodness but fret not, it will simply yield a greater surface area for crispy potato goodness.
3. Using a fork, cover the meat with mashed potatoes. For extra fancy, create a hatched pattern on the top of the potatoes with the fork. If you’ve opted for the cheese, sprinkle it on the top of the potatoes.
4. Put the baking dishes on a cookie sheet and place in the oven, not on the topmost rack but the one just beneath it. Bake for 25 minutes, or until potatoes are golden brown and meat nice and bubbly. Serve piping hot on a cold, windy day with a nice green salad, red wine and some kind of spiced apple dessert.

Have a favorite Yummy Potaticus Meation recipe? Do share in the comments!

• 6 bacon strips
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced fine
• 2-3 bunches of kale

Preparation

1. Saute bacon in a frying or saute pan until crispy. Drain well, keeping grease in the pan and set bacon aside. Reheat the grease and add garlic, stirfrying for a minute. Add kale and toss to coat with grease and garlic. Stirfry for about 2 minutes.
2. Mince bacon finely. Transfer kale to a large bowl, add bacon and toss until well mixed. Serve with pretty much anything.

Postprandial Notes: I really enjoy this dish with spicy things like curry and carne adovada.