Where's the beef?

So my awesome friend Jen who grew up on a cattle farm was all excited to come over and cook a recipe with me and then "blog" about it. We were all set to make Shepard's Pie with ground beef. But guess who forgot the beef!?? Fresh beef from the farm at that!

Anyway, we debated using chicken but it really called for beef. So, we ran to the store grabbed some beef and we were good to go.

For the filling:
1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 pound ground beef

1/2 pound ground sausage

1 sweet onion, chopped

3 carrots, peeled and chopped very small

1/2 pound mushrooms

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 cup red wine

1 1/2 cups veggie or beef stock

Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the crust: (This is where we get a little lazy.)1 package ready-made potatoes (like Bob Evans)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup scallions, cleaned and chopped

1 cup Cheddar
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a Dutch oven and brown meat – should be about 80% cooked . Remove the meat from the pan. Add the onion to the pan and saute until the onion are translucent - about 5 minutes. Add the chopped carrots and cook for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, tomato paste, thyme, parsley and cinnamon. Stir and saute for 2 minutes. Next, stir in the flour then the wine and stock. Taste and add salt and pepper, as needed. Return the meat to the pan and bring to a boil. Cover, turn down the heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Cook the potatoes according to the package.
Season with salt and pepper. When the meat is ready, spoon it into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish and level it out with the back of the spoon. After that, spread the mashed potato evenly all over. Sprinkle the scallions on top of the potato, scatter the cheese over the scallions and bake the pie until the top is crusty and golden, about 25 minutes.