My wife and I have been eating a mostly plant-based diet, with limited dairy and fish, for most of this year and enjoying the adventure.
Recently, however, I noticed that 1 1/2 pounds of ground grass-fed beef from Marin Sun Farms was taking up space in our freezer. We bought this a while ago when en route back from a hike at Point Reyes. Seeing as how the cow had already emitted whatever green house gases cows emit and I didn't want to waste food, I decided to make a simple beef bolognese, learning something about fresh herbs in the process.
I found a number of recipes online that took 4 to 5 hours. I modified one I found from Bon Appetit, which was quite basic. I have to admit, this tasted good. Maybe I will do this again annually.
Servings: 8
And now for a quick lesson on herbs:
Picking the leaves off of fresh thyme is sort of tedious, even when you can "strip" the leaves from the stem, as I usually break the stem in the process.
I just threw a bunch of fresh thyme from my garden, stems and all, into the bolognese at the beginning.
By the time it had cooked and simmered, the leaves had all fallen off and all I had to do was fish out the stems with some tongs. I've used this technique since with some pizza sauce and cherry tomato sauce. It works.