Dinner Fiasco aka My New Recipe for Shepards Pie

I'm going to tell you a story about my dinner fiasco on April 2nd.  As with most of you, we are trying to make the most of what we have in the fridge. Sometimes that means being inventive with leftovers. Mike has been trying to use the airpot and the instantpot for different things. We had some uncooked pinto beans (I'm not sure how long we've had them but a long time.) When he made a pot of beans recently they were not soaked or perhaps cooked long enough and they were a touch too hard. So this week he soaked the same bag of beans longer and added too much water while cooking. So he mashed the hell out of them to absorb some of the liquid. The beans were more of the texture of a thickened soup. We had a clear container of the leftover smooth mashed beans next to the gravy I had made the other night. So yesterday I saw on facebook that my friend Amy was asking for suggestions for her leftover mash potatoes and steak. Someone suggested shepards pie. Oooh that gave me an idea for our leftover mash potatoes and grilled meat. First I placed the potatoes in the casserole then I sauteed mushrooms and placed them with the meat on top. I thought well maybe I could just take the gravy from the other night and put it on top and cover with foil and bake. So I did. When I served the casserole I thought the gravy looked odd then Mike took a bite and said, "Did you put beans in here?" I took a sip of wine and said "No why?' He said this is "The oddest Shepard's pie but it's still good." Oh my! guess what I mistook for gravy? Ai yi yiii. Hours later we lay in bed laughing over my new recipe for Shepards pie. He said we'll be talking about this for a long time.