Food Revival

Two months or so ago, my mom was in town visiting and helping me with all things wedding-related. Luckily, my Mama is so cool that she didn't blink an eye when I asked her to drop all things wedding and head with me to Cullman, Alabama to pick up 1/4 of a cow. A grass-fed, humanely-raised, and frozen 1/4 of a cow. In addition to reading all of my Food Revival posts and supporting me throughout all of my local food endeavors, my Mom also watched Food, Inc with me. As we drove down a long stretch of road  lined with cattle farms and chicken farms, my Mom gasped in amazement at all of the "Tyson" branded farms. All of a sudden she started quoting from the movie and snapping her fingers in z-like formation. Lawsy mercy, I was proud.

So, as we drove up Birdsong Community Farm's drive – I knew I had an ideal partner in crime (my Mama rocks the microphone). Okay, so out walks Joshua with bags of beef. Lots of it. My mom is still probably (deep down) wondering how in the heck we got here when we had hotel rooms to book, bags to stuff, and wedding details to finalize. Nonetheless, we spent some time with Josh as he walked us around some of their property and we talked about how to make availability a bit easier for us Birmingham city folks. Then we packed up our cooler(s) and headed an hour back to Birmingham to drop off equal parts to my split partners. I must admit, it was hard to figure out who gets what based on all of the different cuts, but it was all of our first time and we just figured it out as we went. 

Once home with my share, I immediately started mapping out the ways I would use it. Of course, I also had to keep in mind that there was NO need to eat THIS much red meat every week, so portion control was important too. The first dish happened to be spaghetti and I wasn't quite prepared for the strong taste of the beef. Once I got used to meat actually tasting like something, I was able to move forward with other dishes without getting completely freaked out.

Next dish? Lasagna with my ground beef and homemade pasta. Luckily, Mike and I received a homemade pasta maker as a wedding gift from said rockin' mama mentioned earlier in the post. Well, lookie here: A way to use the wedding gift and some of my newly purchased beef. Awesome. I followed the Pioneer Woman's pasta suggestions and even loosely based my homemade tomato sauce on the bolognese recipe posted after the pasta recipe.

And then today I made some Beef Stew with my stew meat from Birdsong Community Farm. The recipe was inspired by Barefoot Contessa's Parker's Beef Stew recipe.Of course, now that I'm getting used to this cooking thing, I am improvising and creating as I go. I need to start keeping better notes in 2010 so I can list the recipes that I come up with! And do you see that beautiful Le Creuset pot? Well that was a wedding gift from some amazing friends. I think 2010 will also be the year I try to incorporate my thoughtful gifts just as a note of thanks. Man, I'm happy. 

Enjoy!
xo,
A