I have been making a variant of this recipe for years, eliminating the cream cheese in the crust and using blue cheese instead. In my opinion, the crust is better without the cream cheese. I use about 2/3 cup blue cheese, cream it with the butter, add the flour and stir til it's crumbly, then add the milk. A previous rater said the crust is hard to work with. It is if you're used to bread dough and such but once you've worked with it a couple of times it becomes easier. I also add chopped ripe olives and chopped marinated artichoke hearts and chopped mushrooms to the "fillin'". I have heard some vegetarians omit the beef and use bulgur instead. Oh, and also I use the cream cheese that I didn't use in the crust in the filling. When cooled, the CC also helps the filling bind and makes it easier to shape when adding it to the crust. This dish is a favorite with everyone I've ever made it for. Good to see it made it onto the web. I've searched for it before with no luck. I originally found it in an old cookbook that referred to it as a Mexican dish! Could that be? Never knew Mexican (or even Tex-Mex) to lean towards blue cheese in anything. But you never know.

Reviewed On: May 5, 2004