A Meat Schedule

I am back from an amazing girls weekend away. It started with lunch and pedicures on Friday, ended with a trip to Penzeys and had a  big dose of Wicked in the middle.

On Friday before I left, I picked up our cow, Bessie.

Yes, her name really was Bessie. I am okay knowing her name, but had it been Daisy or Lulu, I would have probably turned vegetarian on the spot - which would have really sucked, because meat is one of the few things I can still eat. :-/

Anyway...

We ended up with 150 lbs of certified hormone free, grass fed lean Mississippi Heritage Beef for $320. Unfortunately, that was the end of the season, rock bottom price so when we get our next half a cow it will cost more - but I am ok with that. I have already put us down for at least a half, possibly a whole. What we have almost didn't fit in to our freezer, but since I am now on a mission to find local lamb and pork, we need a bigger freezer anyway.

I left for my weekend of being awesome almost as soon as the freezer door was closed and I was pretty sure that I was going to come home to a house full of boys in a meat coma and nothing but offals and bones, so I gave a stern warning that no meat was to be touched. I also left them with so much cooked food that there was no way they would get through it all and need to eat Bessie. My plan worked - we will be trying it for the first time tonight.

For no particular reason we decided that we wanted the meat to last us four months, so I made a spreadsheet scheduling what would be eaten each month. I got the idea from The Tightwad Gazette (Use It Or Lose It pg 441 of The Complete Tightwad Gazette) and pretty much copied her idea, except that I used circles to be colored in when we pull something from the freezer.

All in all, it took me about 10 minutes to make. Apparently when you buy meat from a farmer, they give you a receipt that certifies that they are the breeder and farmer, that it is hormone free, grass fed etc, etc, and it included a very detailed list of what we were getting. Without the list it would have taken a bit more time, but would have still been worth it.

Ethan was a little disappointed to see the chart - I think he had visions of beef at every meal. Ah well... maybe when he is footing the bill. Until then, we will have a meat schedule.