Another Dark Day Challenge Meal or More

I'm back from Beautiful North Carolina!  The new baby is a doll and the two sibs just love her! The whole family is doing great.  Chapel Hill had the best weather and I enjoyed every minute.

Now for the Challenge:

The first thing my husband wanted when he picked me up from the airport was a home cooked meal...by me.  I quickly thawed some short ribs (Maltby's Grassfed).  I went to the pantry and grabbed a jar of string beans I canned in July.  The short ribs went in a baking bag (I love these, but don't think they are good for the planet) along with a quarter cup of jalapeno pepper jelly and homemade bbq sauce.  I popped the meat in the oven...it takes a bit for the meat to cook to the *falling off the bone* stage so I pulled out some bread dough from the fridge and shaped up a small loaf of French bread, threw the spud in the oven and waited for the bread to rise.   I fried up some bacon pieces, added some onion and then threw in the green beans (this is a veg dish we have all of the time...we love it).  TA! DA! Dinner.  Dessert was a small plate of oranges and roasted salted almonds.  All from our farm or within 5 miles.

I think I need to be a bit more creative.  It's been a whirlwind around here with the holidays and then flying off to North Carolina (thanks Santa for the lovely surprise).  I still have a week left on my 3 week school holiday so I will be putting together some more interesting meals for the Challenge.  The following pics are the meals made before Christmas...Christmas dinner was Prime Rib (Maltby's)...but I was too busy to take any pictures...had to freeze all of the leftovers because I flew to N.C. the next day.

Beautiful Pork Roast Dinner: Pork raised by my grandson as his 4-H project,  corn was purchased at the farmers market in October and canned by me, Italian parsley is growing like crazy in my garden along with the freshly dug fingerling potatoes and the carrots.  The garlic was grown by me...I did use Himalayan Pink salt and some fresh ground pepper.

Meatloaf made with Maltby's Grassfed ground beef and Sausage from my grandson's 4-H hog.  The eggs came from my hens, the bread crumbs are from leftover homemade bread, then I make a mix of homegrown and dehydrated and ground: onions, garlic, paprika, chilies, bell peppers, celery, carrots, celeriac, oregano, parsley, sage and dehydrated beef stock. The bbq sauce was made over the summer: tomatoes, onions, garlic, celery, carrots and honey cooked down for two days in a slow roaster and then canned.  I grew the potatoes and green beans.  All the dairy products come from a local dairy about 25 miles away and the vinegar was organic and bought at S&S Produce in Chico.