By Four years without Jess. September 14th is two weeks away and I am already in it, the way you can feel a weather system coming. This week has been heavier than last week in a way I cannot entirely attribute to school starting or the usual August-to-September shift. It is this. It is always this, in late summer.
I am also in the middle of what feels like a genuine change at school. The hybrid announcement came Thursday — we will have some students in person starting in October, with masks and plexiglass dividers and full protocols. My students who most need it. I have complicated feelings about this: relief that they will be in the classroom, anxiety about the safety of everyone involved, a very specific professional discomfort about teaching with a mask to children who read faces for communication cues. I am adapting. I am always adapting. That is the job.
I made slow cooker pot roast this week because it is the start of September and that means the slow cooker comes out and the baking pans go back in the cabinet. Dump it in the pot and walk away — chuck roast, onion, carrots, potatoes, beef broth, a splash of Worcestershire, low for eight hours. I ate it for three days and it was better each day, which is the nature of braises. Ryan came home from a long shift and ate two bowls of it at the table at 11 PM and then went directly to bed. Some days the food is the best part. Some days that is enough to be the best part.
Blog post this week: the slow cooker pot roast with a line at the top that says "Dump it in the pot and walk away. That is the recipe and the life advice." That sentence got shared more than almost anything I have ever written. I guess a lot of people needed the same permission slip this week. I cannot blame them. So did I.
The pot roast carried us through the week — Ryan’s late-night bowls, my leftover lunches, the quiet relief of a meal that asked nothing of me except to start it in the morning. If you need something in the same spirit but with a little more structure, something you can pull out of a pan and eat standing at the counter or pack in a lunchbox, these Muffin-Cup Cheddar Beef Pies are the weeknight answer: ground beef, sharp cheddar, biscuit dough, done. They reheat beautifully, they scale up without thinking, and they feel like the kind of food someone made you on purpose — which, right now, is exactly what most of us need.
Muffin-Cup Cheddar Beef Pies
Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 12 muffin cups (about 4–6 servings)
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef (85/15)
- 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 cup beef broth
- 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
- 1 can (16.3 oz) refrigerated flaky biscuit dough (8 biscuits)
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped (optional, for garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.
- Brown the beef. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook ground beef and diced onion together, breaking meat apart, until beef is no longer pink, about 6–8 minutes. Drain excess fat.
- Season and reduce. Stir in garlic powder, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and beef broth. Cook 2–3 minutes until most of the liquid absorbs. Remove from heat and stir in 3/4 cup of the shredded cheddar.
- Press biscuit cups. Separate biscuit dough into individual biscuits and split each one in half horizontally, giving you 16 rounds (you’ll use 12). Press one round into the bottom and up the sides of each muffin cup to form a small shell.
- Fill and top. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of the beef mixture into each biscuit cup. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup cheddar evenly over the tops.
- Bake. Bake for 14–17 minutes, until biscuit edges are deep golden brown and cheese is melted and lightly bubbled. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing.
- Serve. Remove with a small offset spatula or butter knife. Garnish with parsley if desired. Serve warm. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days; reheat at 325°F for 8–10 minutes.
Nutrition (per serving, based on 2 muffin cups)
Calories: 380 | Protein: 22g | Fat: 19g | Carbs: 29g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 680mg