Donna i usually make one every week, or at least every two weeks, it does us for two meals, we also call it cottage pie here and shepherds pie as well, and we call hamburg, mince, but it is generally the same thing.

I used to make a much more lavish one, but now i am healthy conscience and make it as low fat as possible, which means no cheese on top, i really miss that, only a very small dob of margerine, i used the lowest fat mince, and the best cut premium i can get, and i only put grated carrot ,onion and bisto which is a gravy type powder in it,a dash of tomato sauce and then top with mashed potatoe mixed only with low fat milk, still tastes pretty good, but it all depends on how nice your mince-aka hamburg is really.

Oh i just read the threads, i did not realise shepherds pie is done with lamb and cottage with beef, we use either name here and use beef mince all the time, interesting, also reading the different variations people use to make this recipe tasty.