Middlebro Manitoba Shepherd's Pie

Middlebro is a little town in southern Manitoba, not far across the border on hway 12 (312 in the US) from Warroad, Minnesota. To people in southern climates, like Fargo or Minneapolis or Denver, the US/Canada border is something real and political. To natives of Warroad and Middlebro, the border station is an inconvenient annoyance; a place you have to stop on the way to visit relatives because some city yokel in Washington DC (or Ottawa) decreed it. Middlebro has a church, a couple of businesses, and a population of 317 people, some of whom work at Marvin Windows. Residents of Middlebro use the Warroad Library, and one of them donated a brand new copy of the Middlebro community cookbook. Reo was in the Library browsing and knowing tha the had to do dinner that night because the Librarian was working late, idly flipped though the cookbook looking for ideas, and saw this, or its approximation. It quickly became a family favorite.

6 to 20 potatoes
2 to 4 lbs cheap round steak
1 hot pepper
1 to 3 onions
1 or 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 can creamed corn
1 to 2 lbs mild cheddar or colby cheese

Slice the meat into stroganoff strips, and start browning them in a fry pan (like the good Revereware pan Aunt Nancy gave Reo for Christmas) while you dice onions and pepper. Brown everything together (in olive oil) while you peel and cut potatoes. Let the meat and seasons (pepper, onions, and a little something from your spice cupboard) simmer together for as long as you have. The meat could be hamburger if you are in a hurry, or venison if you don't tell Melissa, but it needs to simmer in a covered pan fo ra good half hour if it's cheap round stake, which we buy here for less than hamburger. The number of potatoes depends (notice I spell POTATO like a democrat, which is not capitalized) upon th esize of the pyrex pan and the number of people and the size of the potatoes. Whip or mash the potatoes like you would for mashed potatoes and spread them in the (13x9 or bigger) cake pan. Stire the canned soup into the simmering meat, layer the creamed corn on top of the potatoes and spread the meat and soup on top. Layer the cheese on top and bake for 15 to 20 mins at 300 to melt the cheese. The whole thing can be refridgerated or frozen like lasanga and used the next week or month. Obviously, if it is frozen or refridgerated it would have to bake longer. The hot pepper came from the garden behind the hanger at the airport in Dyersburg, Tennessee.

Oh yeah, the reason the residents of Middlebro come to Warroad to the Library, instead of Roseau, is that they think the assistant librarian in Warroad is so nice and helps them find good things to read.

(as written by Reo Pratt)