Welcome to my Blog

Hi, my name is Suanne and I am writing this blog to share some of the tips and recipes I have learned or created with our backyard garden. The garden itself is actually my husband John's but we have had a garden for over 25 years so I have picked up some garden knowledge along the way. We live in Austin, Texas so we are blessed with a year long growing season. We always have something to eat from the garden and this pretty much dictates what we eat. All of our meals are planned around what happens to be growing at the time. One of the biggest challenges is what I like to call crop maintenance. What to do with all of the vegetables? Beyond sharing with the neighbors and friends I am always trying creative approaches to preparing the bounty. So the blog seemed like a good way to both keep track of and share my recipes.

Monday, March 4, 2013


We roasted a duck which we purchased from Sebastien at the downtown farmer's market a couple of weeks ago.  The duck came out beautiful but we had tons of leftovers since it was just John and I.  We ended up deboning the meat and made duck broth from the bones as giblets.  The bird came with the head attached which isn't something you see every day.  We ended up adding that to the broth as well.

So now what to do with all the leftover duck.  I looked in the refigerator and saw I also had a bunch of leftover mashed potatoes so Shepard's Pie it is.
I went out and picked some carrots, parsnips and a little swiss chard to add to the pie.  I also had some mushrooms so I will add that to the mix as well.  Shepard's pie is great as you can use whatever meat and vegetbles you happen to have on hand.  I save the duck fat so that is what I used to saute the veggies.


Shepard's Pie

2 parsnips peeled and cubed.
2 carrots peeled and cubed
3 tbsp duck fat ( or bacon fat or olive oil or coconut oil)
1 onions chopped
2 bay leaves
1 teasppon fresh thyme
2 cups chopped duck ( or beef or port or chicken)
1/2 red wine,
1 cup stock -  I used half chicken and half beef -  I had already frozen the duck stock o r I would have used that
1/4 cup tomato sauce or 2 tbsp tomato paste.

2 tbsp oil
2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 ups chopped swiss chard
2 cups mashed potatoes

Heat the fat in a medium dutch oven on the stove and saute the parsnips, carrots onion, thyme and bay leaves until tenders about 4 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper. Add the meat, wine and stock simmer for about 45 minutes until sauce us thick and reduced.  











Saute mushrooms and Swiss chard in the oil fir about 10 minutes. (I used duck fat here again as I happened to have some.  If I hadn't I would have used coconut or oil oil.).   Layer on top of the meat and veggie mixture.






Add the mashed potatoes to the top of this and add some grated parmesan on top of the potatoes.  Bake at 350 for about 30-40 minutes until top is golden brown and it is heated through.