As a flower of the South, I never dreamed I’d end up living in the Midwest. We’ve been here for almost seven years now, and I’m really love it here.
Something I had never heard of before moving: non-farmer people can buy a cow. Not to keep as a pet, but to have processed so you get all the meat. You skip the middleman (supermarkets) and have a freezer full of beef to enjoy at your leisure.
We first tried this during the COVID pandemic. We split a 1/4 beef (cow) with my in-laws. It was a good way to test the process and see how we liked both the experience and the meat itself.
You’d think 1/8 of a cow isn’t much. I don’t know exactly how many pounds it was, but I had never bought that much meat at one time before. I was nervous, especially since I hadn’t been a huge beef eater in the past.
Well, I think part of my problem was grocery store beef. I had no idea beef could taste so good. Getting the meat fresh from the farm, right after processing, tastes so much better than the stuff under the cellophane.
This spring, I decided I wanted to buy directly from the farm again. Like everything else, prices have gone up. Price per pound, though, it was a much better deal to buy a 1/2 beef versus a 1/4 or 1/8.
In January, I started cleaning out our freezer… so I could refill it!
If I did the math right, I brought home around 270 pounds of meat. This includes all kinds of cuts, from soup bones to filet. About 170 pounds of it is ground beef, so I’ve been exploring different recipes and ideas. You can see my Pinterest saves here.
The two favorites so far are:
- Philly cheesesteak-stuffed mushrooms By Alex Snodgrass. I checked out this book from the library. I really liked her recipes. Mine wasn’t as pretty as hers, but oh so delicious. The boys had theirs on bread, the grownups enjoyed the mushrooms! (I’m not saying buy it, but the kindle version was only $1.99 today! I got my own copy with my no-rush rewards.)
- Another Alex Snodgrass recipe, Cheeseburger meatballs. Different book, but check it out from the library! She has a section of kids’ inspired recipes. This one was another hit with kids and grownups.
This is the Philly Cheesesteak. So good!
Stay tuned for more hits and misses! (Always remember, You’re going to be ok!)
