Beef Casserole with Cornmeal Biscuit Topping

What to make today.  I am not always inspired and when can't think of anything I go to my recipe file on the computer.  I am always looking for and copying recipes into my file.  I don't always make them but

I know if I put them into my file that they looked interesting to me.  Once again my file proved to be a source of a new recipe I tried today.  Ground beef is on sale this week.  Wednesdays are usually "beef" night as the girls are not home for dinner.  I found this recipe for ground beef and it looked good
I don't know where it came from originally and of course I made changes.  The result was a good one.  It was yummy.  Once again I thought I would have another meal, Once again Andrew had seconds.  The beef and vegetable mixture would stand on its own served with rice or noodles if you didn't want to make the biscuit topping (which would be a shame because the biscuits were really good!)

Today's Tips:

• You can make the casserole ahead of time, then warm it, make the biscuits drop them on top and bake it
• If you don't have a skillet that can go into a 425 oven remove the casserole to a baking dish, drop them on top and bake.
• When baking with sour cream, if the recipe calls for baking soda the first thing you should do is dissolve the baking soda in the sour cream in a container that can hold double the capacity.  Even if the instructions in the recipe do not tell you to do this step.  Your cake, biscuit or muffin will come out lighter. 

Beef Casserole with Cornmeal Biscuit Topping

                  

Ingredients

Casserole

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 medium red onion, chopped

1 tablespoon Marsha’s Spice Mix

1 package mushrooms (brown or white), trimmed and thinly sliced

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

1/4 cup tomato paste
2 tablespoons flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Biscuits

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup sour cream

½ cup yellow cornmeal

½  cup flour

½ cup chopped Italian parsley

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Marsha's Spice Mix

Equal portions of:

Cumin

Salt

Garlic

Hot Pepper flakes

and half portion of

Thyme

Oregano

Instructions

Mix Sour Cream and baking soda in a 2 cup measuring cup and set aside

Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high.  Add oil. Add peppers, onion, and mushrooms; season with salt and pepper. Cook until tender, 6 to 8 minutes, tossing occasionally.   Add Marsha’s Spice Mix and stir in.Raise heat to high; add beef and tomato paste.  Cook stirring to break up the meat until meat is no longer pink - 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in remaining 2 tablespoons flour  season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 425

In a medium size bowl mix cornmeal, flour and parsley. Add sour cream and egg and season with salt and pepper stir just until moistened. Drop tablespoons of batter over beef mixture in skillet, 1 inch apart. Bake until biscuits are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes.