Posted on 09.23.11

Lunch-n-Learn 11: Shepherd’s Pie and Web/Mobile Apps

by Jeff Livorsi

Our eleventh Lunch-n-Learn provided comfort food with a productive discussion on potential Mightybytes web/mobile applications.

Every so often here at Mightybytes we brainstorm about new products and ideas that we could potentially create and develop. This time we decided to have the discussion during our weekly Lunch-n-Learn event.

With the weather taking a slight turn towards winter, Kris felt that it was a good idea to prepare something that would warm us up and get us through Fall. She did just that with a Winter-Vegetable Shepherd’s Pie with Red-Leaf and Caprese salads. We finished with Apple Cobbler topped with Vanilla Ice Cream. Once we were all full we began to talk about prospective products that we could develop.

As always, we purchased most of the ingredients from the Andersonville Farmer’s Market.

Learn: Web/Mobile App Discussion

We started off the brainstorming session by listing product ideas from various team members. A few things mentioned were new web and mobile applications. Since we are a web design and development company we constantly get questions and feedback from our friends about websites and mobile phone apps. It turns out that many of our friends were interested in a similar product. Once we figured that out the discussion really took off.

We began by listing who the core audience for the product. At first the product was geared for one specific group of people, but the list of possible consumers kept growing and growing. But as the list grew we quickly realized that the product was most beneficial for only a few specific groups of people. Once we all agreed on the consumers that would receive the most benefits from the product we had a much clearer understanding of how the finished product might be used.

As with any new product we also had to think about how it would be implemented. In this case, the main implementation decision was whether the product should be an online or offline app. Next up we discussed pricing strategies for the product. Should it be completely free? Should we use the freemium model? How much would consumers pay for the additional features we were considering?

As you can imagine we left the brainstorming session with a lot more unanswered questions than we came in with.  We’d love to give you more details, but as of now the project is for Mightybytes’ eyes only. But sure to keep on the lookout for any new applications or websites from us in the upcoming months.

Lunch: Winter-Vegetable Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds baking potatoes (about 4), peeled and cut into large pieces
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 4 cups sliced mixed winter vegetables, such as celery, turnips, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, fennel, cabbage, or celery root
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 3 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable stock

Cooking Instructions:

1. Put the potatoes in a medium saucepan of salted water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes and put them back into the saucepan along with 1 teaspoon of the salt and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper. Mash the potatoes over very low heat, gradually incorporating the cream and 4 tablespoons of the butter. Cover and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter over moderately low heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the sliced mixed vegetables, carrots, thyme, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Mix well.
3. Stir in the broth and bring to a simmer. Cook over moderate heat, covered, until the vegetables start to soften, 5 to 10 minutes. Uncover, increase the heat to moderately high, and cook until the vegetables are tender and almost no liquid remains in the pan, about 10 minutes longer.
4. Heat the broiler. Transfer the vegetables to a 9-inch pie plate, spread the potatoes over the top, and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes.

This recipe came from Food and Wine.

Red-Leaf Salad

• Two heads of red-leaf lettuce
• 2 sweet Hungarian orange peppers
• 2 sweet italian red peppers
• Dried Cranberries
• Toasted Pecans
• Goats Cheese Rolled in Crushed Pistachios

Caprese Salad

Kris also prepared a standard caprese salad with heirloom tomatoes, a 15-year aged balsamic vinegar, fresh mozzarella and chopped basil.

Cobbler with Butter Cookie Dough Topping

Our friend Shannon, Kris’ best friend from childhood who conveniently lives in Andersonville, whipped up the most amazing apple cobbler, the perfect end to lunch.

Fruit Filling:

• 1 ¾ lbs of tart, firm apples (Granny Smith or Honeycrisp)
• Peel, quarter, core and slice into thick slices.
• Add 2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved into ¼ cup of water
• Add 1/3 to ½ cup of brown sugar
• Add flavorings of your choice – I used ½ teaspoon cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
• Added a dollop of Lyle’s Golden Syrup

Cookie Dough Topping:

• ½ cup all purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 large egg yolk (use a whole egg if you double the recipe)
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Pour fruit mixture into a 9-inch deep pie plate and cover with aluminum foil. Place pie plate on a baking sheet and bake until fruit begins to release liquid, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, mix flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and set aside. Beat butter and sugar in medium bowl until light and fluffy, about 1 minute with electric mixer or 3 minutes by hand. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla until smooth.  Stir in dry ingredients until just combined.

After 15 minutes, remove baking sheet with pie plate from oven, uncover pie plate and stir fruit to combine. Drop cookie dough topping by heaping tablespoons evenly over the fruit. Return pie plate on the baking sheet to the oven. Bake until topping is nicely browned and fruit is bubbly, about 40 minutes more. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes in pan before serving. Cobbler can also be kept at room temp for several hours and reheated just before serving.

Recipe adapted from The Best Recipe by Cooks Illustrated

Stay Tuned

Team Mightybytes takes off next week for the California Climate Ride. But not before enjoying another Lunch-n-Learn session. We hope you also stop by again next week for a new learning session and another locally sourced meal.

Lunch-N-Learn 12