• Brown the ground beef with the onion.
• Drain and rinse the meat under hot water.
• Add the thyme, sage, salt and pepper and gravy to the meat.
• Pour into a lightly buttered casserole dish.
• Top with mashed potatoes.
• Dot with butter.
• Bake at 400° for 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are browned a bit.

For homemade mashed potatoes:

• Wash, peel and chop the potatoes. Put them in a pan and shake salt over them. Add a dollop of butter and cover them with water. Bring to a boil and cook until very tender. The butter in the water helps keep them from boiling over on the stove. When they’re poked with a fork and fall apart, they're done and ready to be drained.
• If you have a hand-held mixer, you can mix right in your pan. Otherwise, transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer. Add more butter to the potatoes and some salt. Begin to mix them, adding dribbles of milk as you go. It doesn’t take much milk, so go easy. Taste to be sure you have the right amount of salt. If you like your potatoes lump-free, cook them a long time to be sure they’re tender. Then mash them a bit before mixing.