French Onion Cottage Pie - with a Cheesy Mashed Potato Topping

The combination of chunks of stewing beef with French onion soup mix, thyme, and apple juice, slow cooked until melt-in-the-mouth tender gives this cottage pie a wonderfully rich flavour with just a hint of sweetness. Topped with cheesy mashed potatoes and baked until golden brown, it's the kind of meal that feels like a warm hug on a chilly day. Red meat isn't something which we eat in this house very often. Not only has it become very expensive as of late, but its not that good for you. They did have stewing beef on special at Sobey's recently, so I stocked up. The other night I made this French Onion Cottage Pie for supper using some of it, and I have to say it was fabulous. I did start it the night before by using my slow cooker to cook the beef overnight so that it was fork tender, and the gravy was absolutely delicious. I just used the method etc. that I normally use to do a pot roast in the slow cooker. It worked out really well.The meat cooks in a mix of dry onion soup mix and…