Beef Potpie Wedges

Also could be title "Rachael Ray, I ain't!"

I just love Rachael Ray, (even though she spells her name wrong!) but I can't say I always love her recipes. Most of them just don't interest me. I am a subscriber to her magazine, and have a few of her cook books, but this is actually the first recipe of hers I've ever followed. (The cook books were gifts, and her magazine is full of great restaurant reviews and home entertaining ideas, which is part of the reason I love it!)

This is the recipe, as it appeared in the March 2010 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray. My variations will be in bold!

Ingredients

-2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
-One 2/3-pound piece skirt steak or flat-iron steak, thinly slice on an angle and cut in to pieces
-2 tablespoons butter
-8 white mushroom caps, slice (I bought already sliced mushrooms, so I had to approximate 8 caps)
-1 small onion, finely chopped
-1 clove garlic, finely chopped
-1 tablespoon flour
-1/2 cup beef stock
-1/2 frozen peas (I don't like peas. I used corn.)
-2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
-Salt and pepper
-1 package (2 pieces) prepared piecrust (I had bought pie crust you mix up yourself, because it was cheaper.)
- egg, lightly beaten

THE WEDGES

1. Preheat the oven to 425°. In a medium skillet, heat the EVOO over medium-high heat. Add the steak and cook until browned, 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add the butter to the skillet to melt, then add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in the beef stock, peas and Worcestershire sauce. Return the meat to the pan and cook until the sauce thickens and the peas heat through, 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper; remove from the heat.

2. Unroll the piecrusts and halve them. Divide the cooled meat among the 4 piecrust pieces, placing a mound on 1 side of each piece and leaving a small border. Brush the edges of each piecrust piece with some of the egg. Fold the pastry over to enclose the filling, pressing down on the edges; crimp with a fork. Brush the tops of the dough with more of the egg and transfer the pies to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until golden-brown, about 10 minutes.

YAY OR NAY?

Well. Mine are definitely not magazine-worthy. Instead of making 4 wedges I tried to just make two big ones. That was a great idea until I had to move them to the pan. One of them just became a huge mess...I don't even want to talk about that one. The other one looked okay...

Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I feel I should mention that, although this is a "30 minute meal", I don't have Rach's kitchen or experience, so, from preheating oven to being on the table, it took me about 45 minutes, and I had a helper in the kitchen. She says to cook in the oven for 10 minutes, but mine took . (this may be a high altitude thing...)

My finished product made me very sad. My wedges tasted GREAT, but were heck to put together. My mistake was the pie crust I had to prepare myself. Dough is sticky and messy and hard to move from prep table to pan and I doubt I will ever make them again, but if I do, I will definitely buy ready-to-go crust.