i bought a cow

Well, not exactly.  I didn't buy a real live breathing pooping steer.  A few weeks back, I saw the live creature at the Washtenaw County 4H fair.  With the help of a persuasive friend, I split the cost of the animal, knowing that it would be sent right from the fairgrounds to the processing center.  Not only did I manage to buy locally humanely raised beef for my family,  I had the added benefit of supporting a young farmer.

And finally, after slaughter, two weeks of hanging (for aging purposes), a week of processing time (butchering it into desired cuts), a week of my vacation delay, I picked up my cow, my beef, in two whole shopping carts full of bags from Jerome Country Market.  Bags that were full of countless cryovaced packages, roasts, sirloin, t-bones, ground beef and hamburger, brisket, a heart (the size of a baseball mitt!), a tongue, & soup bones.  Now it fills a garage freezer that we've lovingly nicknamed "the Dugger".

Tonight is the first meal from the cow.  I've started with the easiest preparation.  Hamburger patties. But because I felt just a little bit guilty about that simplicity, I decided to amp up a different part of the meal. Also...at some point (around 4:30pm) I realized that it was easier to make buns than it was to drive to Busch's.

I used the recipe from The Tipsy Baker's book: Make the Bread buy the Butter.
A fantastic book, by the way... providing funny narratives about which pantry and kitchen items are worth the cost, time and stress of making versus the simplicity of purchasing.

Hot Dog Bun Recipe

courtesy of Jennifer Reese.

She thinks it more successful for hot dogs buns than burgers. But I had no problem at all adapting it.