Meatloaf with Lentils and Veggies

OK, so this is terrible, I realize, to post a recipe with no picture or step by step instructions. I will be totally honest. If I don't post it I'll never find it again, and it was amazing. Loved it, loved it. I'm too much a carnivore to believe in a "meatless meatloaf" as a concept, but I'm too much of a vegetable nut to make a true meatloaf. I had some of last year's local, free-range ground beef left over in my freezer, and the new meat has come (thanks, David, for picking it up!). I wanted to use some of the ground beef and figured someone surely has made a meatloaf with lentils that still contained meat. This was a really great middle ground (50/50 lentil to meat ratio) from a website I just found called "Kathryn's Kitchen."

Here it is: Meatloaf with Lentils and Veggies

Happy Meat

So, after the stress of planning; picking up the enormous weight of a full cow, a pig and a half, and 12 chickens all packed in boxes (slightly alarming for our van, with its already lousy shocks); and driving to and from Lancaster on a snowy day (worried on the way back that an accident would endanger Abigail with all the frozen meat in the car) . . . we're done!  The local meat is in the freezer (or picked up by participating families), the money is mostly in, and we're just getting ready for some roasts and sausage meals.  Last night was actually the Lancaster classic (at least in my house) of Sausage and Rice with butter beans on the side (the southern version of lima beans).  Tonight is beef chuck roast with noodles, pumpkin (with brown sugar and butter?), salad, and the leftover butter beans.  I'll include the recipes for anyone else who just filled a freezer with meat--they're two of the easiest things I know to make.  :)

Sausage and Rice (Lancaster style)

Saute the sausage (about a pound) on medium-low heat until it's cooked through.  Add two quarts of frozen/canned diced or stewed tomatoes.  (To sneak greens into the meal, add blended kale, which will change the appearance, but not the taste.)  Before serving, mix a few tablespoons of corn starch into a small dish with a few tablespoons of water or white wine.  Mix thoroughly, then pour it into the simmering sausage tomato dish.  That will thicken the tomato into a "sauce."  Serve over rice.

I got that recipe from my mom.  This next recipe, for a spice rub, I got out of a magazine and I keep a mix of it in a drawer with the recipe taped to the bottom (thank goodness for that, considering that I'd otherwise have no idea what was in it).

Davis Dry Rub
(that's really what it was called in the magazine)

To make the mix (which you can use multiple times, it stores well), get a bowl and add:
1/2 c paprika
1/3 c ground black pepper
1/4 c salt
1/4 c chili powder
1/4 c ground cumin
1/4 c packed brown sugar
3 T granulated sugar
2 T cayenne pepper

There's no way I made that much when I mixed it up, I just used the amounts to know the balance of ingredients.  I probably made about a quarter of that and it lasted a few years (we don't do that many roasts).  But I use it every time I make a roast and we really like it. 

Wash the meat, dust both sides of the roast with the rub, and put it in the crockpot or roasting pan--with carrots, potatoes, and onions if you prefer.  Easy schmeasy!

Math in Every Day Life

If you stay home with little kids, your math skills might generally be used only when factoring one of the following scenarios:

• If the gas light has gone on, giving me 30 miles before empty, how many minutes in city traffic and stoplights does that translate to, considering there's no way I'm stopping to get more gas--will I make it home?
• If I'm running 4 minutes behind for picking up from pre-school, how may lights do I need to catch green to make up the time?
• If I have two apples, one half-rotted, for our dessert tonight, how many slices does each family member get, taking into account the size and nutritive needs of each individual?
• If both of Abigail's morning naps were interrupted and she's miserable as a result, what is the earliest possible time I can put her down for her afternoon nap without risking that she'll wake up too early from that nap?

But if you really want to stretch that math part of the brain, just contact a farmer about buying a cow and a pig and then get 11 families to commit to buying them.  Then try meeting everyone's needs while working with a very rough estimate of how much meat you'll actually end up with.  My friend Rachel helped me start a spreadsheet, which I then wrote addition programs into to explore such options as, "If such and such family gets x amount of this cut of meat and y amount of this cut of meat, blah, blah, then how many steaks should this family get--and how much bacon?"  Not exactly an exact mathematical equation.  But to get whole cow and pig costs of butchering and packaging from "hanging weight" into a comprehensible "This is how much you'll be paying for a pound of ground beef" kind of explanation to give the families involved took a lot of work for both me and the butcher.  I had to call the butcher enough times that I actually feared that I was becoming a nuisance (I know, crazy thought, me, a nuisance).

I thought I'd share some of the charts I was working on in case anyone was interested.  (The sketches of coral were at the request of my oldest child.)  At the very least, it makes you appreciate your meat in a whole new way--every free-range, antibiotic- and hormone-free pound of it.