KJS,
Sounds like a lot of bar/restaurants. Glad you guys got out when you did! Respect for giving it a go and making a nice run at it!
So I made meat pies.
My lady friend has a competitive streak and also thought my idea was dumb so we had a meat pie off.
We both used chuck cooked at 150 for 20ish hours. The meat was super delicious.
We also both used a dense mushroom/beef/red wine gravy I made from the bag juices and red win And ldo mushrooms.
On top of that we both added carmelized onion and roast garlic.
She decided that she wanted lighter fare and that making a pie crust was for "butter loving hippies that try too hard" so she went with packaged crescent roll dough. She also scoffed at potatos and carrots instead adding pickled jalapeño. Her cheese of choice was goat cheese.
I wanted a decadent over the top meatfest that threatened gout. So I embraced my try hard butter loving hippy and made a pie crust (while being taunted and derided) added potato and carrot sparingly and poured on the Brie.
Mine came out a little over the top. Super delicious but an absolute bomb of overwhelming fat.
Hers was slightly better (that's hard to write). But I think somewhere in the middle is optimal. Maybe smaller diced jalapeño with Brie and goat cheese is the ticket. Pie crust>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>stupid crescent rolls.