Vegetarian Pot Pie, Shephard's pie and Baked Apples

Dear Anais,
This first recipe is one that I have stolen out-right from your Pepe. I imagine when Meme was sick with the cancer he got real good at making fast and tasty meals to serve them when he came home from working hard all day. This was one that he shared with me. Now this recipe calls for a premade pastry pie shell. If you purchase one from your usual grocer in the freezer section it is generally made with lard and tastes terrible. If you can purchase one from a health food store, or make one yourself it is always going to taste better. If you are in a hurry, don't beat yourself up, sometimes convenience wins. I know daddy got you that new mixer for xmas, so maybe you could look up a quick pie crust recipe and make one from scratch.

Vegetarian Pot Pie

2 premade pastry pie shells
1 can cream of mushroom soup (cream of celery or cream of chicken work well also)
1 can vegall, drained
1 can chicken for a meat variation-optional
pepper

Poke holes in one of the pastry shells with a fork and bake according to directions (or bake if from scratch) leave other pie shell out up-side down over a sheet of waxed paper to thaw. While shell is cooking combine all other ingredients on a bowl. After shell is cooked fill with ingredients, sprinkle with pepper. Carefully remove thawed pie shell from tin and place over filled pie and seal. Cover the edges of the pie with aluminum foil so they won't burn. Bake according to instructions on shell package and serve.

Shepherd's Pie

1 pastry pie shell
1/2 package morning star farms beef crumbles (or 1 lb ground sirloin for a meat variation)
2Tb beer
1 package brown gravy mix
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 small can chopped peas and carrots,drained
1 small can corn,drained
4 servings instant mashed potatoes

As above, precook the pie shell according to the pie instructions. I know that a lot of Shepherd's pie recipes do not call for crusts at all (like the one served at the Abbey pub-YUM!), but it is so much easier to serve people when the beef isn't flying out of the bottom and I have already told you how I feel about taking hot crocks out of the oven. Heat up the beef crumbles and follow the instructions for the brown gravy. Usually something like stir it up and ad 1/3 c water. You can make your own gravy with a tsp of Better than bullion or soy sauce and some cornstarch, but I am LAZY! Add in the beer ,black pepper, peas and carrots. Once that is all Incorporated and slightly thickened place it in the shell. Top with the can of corn. Top all of this with some instant mashed potatoes and cover the edges with foil so they wont burn. I don't think I need to go into the details of doing that when it should say so on the package,and the ease of the meal is ruined if you make them from scratch. But if you really wanted to you could make it all from scratch from the ground up, put the potatoes on with a frosting tip, brown them with egg whites and make it look fit for long-shanks himself. Even then I don't think the taste would be too much improved, AND it would still hop off the table to be eaten in about 20 minutes tops! I digress, bake the darned thing according to the shell or roughly 375 for 20 min or until heated thru and serve.

Baked Apples (or dinner with Henry Miller)

1.5 apples per guest (any kind will do, but baking apples-you want them to soften)
roughly 4 veggie or pork sausages per guest (I prefer johnsonville maple or brown sugar flavored)
cinnamon
1 bag of cholesterol free egg noodles
margarine or butter
dry dill

Core apples. I make a square incision on the top and then a smaller square on the bottom and push through to the other side. Place apples in a lipped cookie sheet or casserole dish. Put a sausage in every apple, sprinkle the top with cinnamon. Place the leftover sausages on the side of the pan next to the apples. Bake at 375 for 30-40 min or until the apples have split and are soft. While apples are baking boil noodles, drain cover with margarine or butter and sprinkle with dill. When serving apples, slice them in half and cover with margarine or butter-eat with noodles and fight over sausages-YUM!