Slow Cooker Rabbit

Continuing my underappreciated meats theme here, let me tell you about the most delicious, tender rabbit dish we had last night. My stepson helped my uncle to process some rabbits over the weekend, and his payment was a whole rabbit. These rabbits are raised on a farm, so they don't have a gamey taste, which I'm told wild rabbit does. I will admit I've never had wild rabbit, so I don't exactly have a frame of reference here, but the rabbits we get from him are very tasty!

Ingredients:

1 whole rabbit 

A few slices of bacon (I use bacon ends)

1 Onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 T rosemary

2 t tarragon

salt 

Zesty Baby Back Ribs

With a wind chill of -25, several inches of snow on the ground, and more winter weather in the days to come, all I can think about is summer. Maybe that's why I was craving ribs today. But this is no time to stand outside at the grill (even I could even get it lit with these winds!), so on to plan b.....

For the sauce.....

1/4 c brown sugar

2 Tablespoons paprika

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon celery salt

1/4 c hot sauce

1 small onion, minced

salt and pepper

Cut rack of ribs down to individual portions. I did about three ribs in each portion Mix together sauce ingredients and slather on ribs.

Wrap the rib sections in foil. If you plan ahead, toss them in the crock pot on low for 8 hours. Or, if you're like me and planning dinner 8 hours ahead of time is nearly unheard of, place in baking dish and bake at 275 for 4 hours....then grab snacks for everyone to hold them over until the late dinner!

After cooking (either crock pot or oven), unwrap and brush on a little bit of barbecue sauce and put under the broiler for a couple of minutes.

These ribs are fall off the bone, finger licking good!

3/4 of the World's Population Can't be Wrong

Nearly 3/4 of the world consumes goat as their primary meat source. With that many people eating it, it can't be all that bad, right?

I'll admit; I've been very curious to try it for a while now. I keep seeing it at the farmer's market, but it's fairly pricey. I have no idea how much is costs to raise goats, but $16 a pound seems a bit high. I know; people like me will pay it. But I don't think one time customers is a good business model. Maybe that is a very reasonable price-again, I have no idea what it costs to raise and finish goats.

Anyway, I got a bit sidetracked. Back to my curiosity.....

So the husband and I finally decided to purchase goat chops at the farmer's market. Now that we bought them, how the heck do I cook it? I turned to facebook, where all my foodie friends could give me advice. I got the same thing over and over...."low and slow". Yeah, I figured that part. But what seasonings do I use? And that's why I love Google. I found a recipe that seemed easy enough here. I used white wine vinegar instead of plain white vinegar. I don't know that it really added anything, but I figured it couldn't hurt. The recipe says to marinate for 2 hours-I let it marinate in the fridge for nearly 4 hours. I did flip it after about two hours and gave it another massage to really work in the curry.

I cooked it at 400 for 30 minutes, then at 300 for 2 1/2 hours.

I really should have taken a picture of the meat when it was cut open. It was a beautiful, perfect pink and it fell apart when you cut into it! Goat chops with garlic and rosemary couscous and roasted veggies....delicious dinner!

I was very surprised by how much I like it. I had several people tell me if I like lamb, I'd like goat. In my opinion, the goat was much better than the lamb I have made. I'm not sure we'll buy it again at $16/lb, but if I found it cheaper, I could definitely see us eating more goat! 

Cheesy Bacon Meatloaf

I hate meatloaf. Let me just get that out there now. I've had many, many people tell me how much I'll like "their" meatloaf. But no. I really just don't like meatloaf. Of course, the kids and the husband all love it. I think the problem is that I detest ketchup. I'm not much of a condiment person. Although sometimes, you have to give it to what everyone else wants. I decided to make a compromise. That's when the Cheesy Bacon Meatloaf was born.

What you'll need:

1 lb ground beef (lean)
3/4 c cheese, shredded
6 pieces of bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 eggs
1/4 c onion, diced finely
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350.
Dice the onion and shred the cheese

Cook the bacon and chop finely, or crumble

Mix cheese, bacon, eggs, ground beef, and onion in a large bowl. Add a few shakes of salt and pepper. Mix well and press into loaf pan.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until no longer pink. 

No meatloaf is complete without mashed potatoes!

The first time I made this, I added breadcrumbs as you normally would with meatloaf. The second time, I just totally spaced it. The meatloaf stayed together just fine. It was a little crumbly when we cut it, but still great.