Recipe #2

Cooking with Rachael Ray

Yuck - tonight Kate wanted to go to the Olive Garden but the weather was rough out and I wanted to tackle recipe #2 - Smoky Turkey Shepherd's Pie, so we stayed in. What a waste of time, money and ingredients! The spices were disgusting, especially thyme, which in my opinion always over powers everything and never tastes right. The ground turkey didn't have the right consistency. The carrots were hard and crunchy (it's always off putting to have something in a casserole that doesn't have the same consistency as the rest of the ingredients.)

Regarding the 30 minute prep time - the recipe starts out calling for 3 large idaho potatoes "peeled and cubed." Excuse me, but peeling & cubing those potatoes is part of the prep time for making the dinner. So, including the potato peeling and cooking as fast as I could, the dinner took 50 minutes to prepare. I served it alone, but it would have been nice to include rolls and a salad. It said that it served 4, it would have served twice that many, even if we'd liked it and eaten more.

So, three thumbs down and I'll never make it again. Perhaps with some variations - hamburger or stew meat, instead of the turkey ... fewer veggies, no carrots, toss out the spices ... you might have something there.