Fall special-occasion Meat Pie Recipe

I haven't posted a decent menu in quite a while.
Yes, I'm still cooking, and there's been a great variety of fall produce in our CSA box. Tonight we had a very special dinner guest: the prodigal daughter Kitchensister has returned!
(disclaimer: the photo is from last T-giving: no snow yet!!!)

Special-Occasion Cajun Meat-n-veggie Pie
Roasted baby taters w/ herbs du Provence
Roasted yams
Kale with proscuitto and honey
German Carrot salad

The RECIPE
The pie is my variation on Paul Prudhomme's "Paulette's Wonderful Meat Pie" -- it's an unusual recipe in that it calls for grated potatoes in the meat filling, and is topped by a white (dairy) topping. I use less meat & more veggies, but it still feels rich & tasty! It's about the yummiest dish I know that uses ground meat.
This is not a dinner you can throw together in a hurry. Although it's not complicated, there are LOTS of ingredients, and you gotta start early in the day.
I make the pie crust and filling well ahead of dinner (maybe even right after breakfast) -- then all I have to do later is assemble and bake.

Pie crust
1.3 c flour
3 T sugar
3/4 t salt
1/4 c butter
1 egg, beaten
3 T milk
Refrigerate dough, then roll out and freeze in pie tin.

Meat and Veggie filling
1 # ground beef, buffalo, moose, wallaby or whatever
(original recipe called for more meat, combo of beef and pork)
tons of veggies:
onions
garlic
celery
green or red bell pepper
several potatoes, carrots, turnips or other root crops, grated finely
spice mix: salt, pepper, paprika, thyme, basil (make it spicy, if desired, by adding cayenne?)
liquid as needed (water or stock)

Cook the ground meat. Drain if too fatty. Set aside.
Saute onion, celery and peppers, in batches, in a little olive oil. Add spices and meat.
Add grated root crops, together with enough (but not too much!) liquid to allow them to cook, simmering on low heat. Make sure liquid is mostly evaporated/absorbed by the potatoes before removing from stove. Let this mixture cool down completely.
Hint: might want to drain the filling, using a sieve. This is the only "tricky" part of this recipe -- watch out or the pie will be "soggy".

Topping:
Combination of cream cheese and plain (greek) yoghurt
Warm cream cheese slightly until you can stir this into a smooth paste --thin w/ milk if needed.
Add spices: salt, pepper, thyme (thanks, Susitna Cafe!)

Preheat oven. About 1 hour before planning to serve dinner, take out frozen pie crust, add filling and spread the topping. Bake 45-55 min, checking after about 30 min and protecting pie crust edges with shield or alu foil.

Roasted baby potatoes
Just toss them w/ oil, salt and herbs. It's so easy!!!!

Kale with proscuitto and honey
variation from a recipe in Glacier Grist

big bunch of kale, tough stems removed, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
proscuitto ham, chopped
2 T honey
1 T vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Parboil kale for a few minutes (approx.5) -that helps take the bitterness out of them, which kale can have late in the growing season. In the spring, I might just saute them right with the onions.
Other than the parboiling, this saute goes together real quick!