The Beef is here

I picked up the beef from the packaging place today.  Browned up the ground beef in the skillet for dinner and sold some to our first two beef customers!  It tasted delicious.  I don't know if it was just the meat I was tasting, or also the satisfaction of raising it ourselves.  I'll be trying different cuts to see how it is and if we can improve anything for next year.  I hope you will try some too and give us your input.  Tomorrow I'm looking forward to a Rib Eye steak!  I will take it just one piece at a time, though, as I am trying to cut our family's consumption of meat down in general.  It seems like we have a grocery store of meat here now, but we still need to be judicious about how it is used.  Our country can't continue on eating as much meat as we have become accustomed to.  I combined the ground beef with barley today, since I am trying to introduce my family (and myself) to grains we aren't so used to.  I have some lentils to cook next.  I'm really spending a lot more time in the grains and beans section of the grocery store these days.    I'm looking forward to reading Jonathan Safran Foer's new book Eating Animals.  I don't think he'll convince me to become vegetarian, but his slippery-slope comparison of animals we consider for meat and those we consider for pets sounds interesting.  Thanks Lauren for the suggestion!