New career!

A couple days ago we finally took my parent's advice and went to Cash and Carry. For those who've never been it's a wholesale store where you can buy in bulk, kinda like Costco but fewer products, larger bulk sizes and no membership. We came out with a 10 pound case of chicken breasts, a 20 pound hunk of beef, and 11 pounds of pork loins. I easily could have come out with boxes of cookies, the prices were so low, but since we are trying to lose weight I didn't think having 400 Oreos around would be helpful.

Once home I scrubbed down the big freezer and then sharpened the awesome knives Dad and Mom got us when Miss M was born. After watching a couple YouTube videos on carving steaks (it's been 10+ years since I've done any butchering and I didn't want to ruin anything) I got to cutting. Made a bit of a mess of the kitchen since it's really not set up for cutting up huge slabs of beef but it was so much fun!! I want to be a butcher now, there is something wonderful about taking a huge leg of cow and with a few slashes of a knife turn it into thick, juicy, perfectly marbled steaks ready for the grill.

From that 20 pound hunk we got 2 pounds of stew meat and about 10 one-inch steaks, all for under $30. Hubby BBQ'd some last night on his brand new grill and while they were a little more done than we like (still getting used to the new grill) the meat was tender and delirious. I doubt we'll buy pre-cut steaks again, you just can't beat the savings. I can't wait till we have the ranch and raise our own beef.

I did the same to the hunks of pork loin to get thick, boneless pork chops that we are going to cook tonight. They look wonderful, better than what we've been getting pre-cut in the store. For $17 we got about 25 chops with about 2 pounds of bits and pieces to use in stews. I've never made stew using pork but I found an interesting recipe using pork and sweet potatoes with lots of spices and peppers that looks very tasty-will let you know how it works out.