Shephardish Pie

I'm having one of those days where I leave my USB drive in the lab that I don't have a key to, my code won't compile for me (but for my friend), I get distracted by shiny things, and look at kittens on the internet (I will cut someone if they adopt my kitty before I get to him). Let's hark back to times of much, much greater success.





This recipe is the result of a fridge cleaning expedition gone right. Mark and I were going to make pizza, then we didn't. Then I decided that I wanted to make pasties. Then I was too lazy to make crusts. Then I decided to make a shepherd's pie. Then I remembered that I don't like shepherd's pie. Then I threw stuff in a pan. It was awesome.

You will need:
3 small leeks, quartered lengthwise and diced
12 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 lb cooked mild Italian sausage, cooked
~1/4 c. roughly chopped sage
~1/2 c. apple cider
3 T butter
salt
pepper
1-2 potatoes, sliced

Heat the oven to ~350 deg. F (or somewhere there about)

Saute the leeks in 2T butter in a pan/skillet until they start smelling really, really good. Throw in the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have given off their liquids and are starting to caramelize. Now add the Italian sausage, sage, and apple cider. Salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer all of this into some sort of casserole/oven-proof dish. Arrange the potato slices so that they cover the filling completely. dot with the remaining 1 T of butter. Bake for ~20 minutes and then move to top rack and broil until the potatoes are starting to brown and crisp up.

This doesn't really bind to itself, so it makes a pile of food on the plate, but it makes up for relatively poor presentation by having a great personality.