Locally raised organic ground beef

Last week we had someone come to the door asking if we would be interested in a locally raised meat sample.  I said yes; we picked a day and time.  A few days later I get a call an hour before my sample was to arrive, and I am told there will be a short presentation, and Derek will need a table for it.  I forgot about the sample, and I was still in bed when I answered that call.  So I had an hour to get up, shower, get ready, clean up the place and my table, which was covered with pots of herbs I had brought in from outside, because I didn't want to to get frost bitten.  It was a mess.  We managed to clean it up, and i had a quick bite to eat.  A man came by trying to sell us a package.  I wish sales people were more up front about their agendas.  The package seemed like an awful idea, at least for us.  It included a year's worth of frozen meat and frozen veg, as well as pantry items.  None of the pantry items on the list were things I use.  It was a bunch of over processed items, which completely counteracts the "healthiness" of the locally grown organic meats.  I may as well take that meat, microwave it, and serve it up.  I don't own a microwave, because I think it destroys nutritional value on a molecular level.  I'm not snooty, I'm just very particular with what I put in my body.  Having said that, I'm not a calorie counter and I don't eat organic only.  I love good pastries, and full fats, as you'll see in my posts.  I believe in eating like my grandparents ate, even how I ate before moving to Canada in '87.  Aside from store bought cookies, ice cream, sugar, flour, and some rice, I had very little exposure to processed food, certainly no fast food.  I believe in whole foods, which include full fats.  I do love to bake, so I use unbleached flour for most pastries.
Anyway, I decided to use that beef sample today, and I made a meatloaf.  It was small, perfect for the two of us. 
I used fresh rosemary, thyme, marjoram, s&p, an egg, some bread crumbs, and fresh Canadian garlic, which is hard to find and about 3 or 4 x the cost of the stuff from China, but you don't need as much, because it does have a more potent flavour.  Mixed it all in and pressed it into a small baking dish:

I usually cover the dish with aluminum foil for most of the time it's baking, so it doesn't dry out and bakes quicker.  The last 10 minutes I remove the foil and increase the temperature.  For a meatloaf I'd use 375, and 400 to brown the top.  Time depends on how big and thick your portion is.  If you aren't comfortable not knowing exact times for baking meat, I suggest getting a meat thermometer for the first while.
The meatloaf turned out well, and it was tasty, though James covered his with ketchup, and it made me cringe.  Our taste buds are very different, though over time I've managed to adjust them a bit :)  He grew up without seasoning.
The meatloaf shrunk a bit, oddly enough mostly on one side, the meat was lean and teh dish was small enough to fit in my toaster oven.  I use my toaster oven whenever I'm making something small enough to fit in there, to conserve energy.

I also made white button mushrooms, sauteed in salted butter with a very small amount of fresh lemon thyme.  These are all the herbs I was growing outside all summer, in pots, that were spread out on my table, I had to clean up.  I have loads of dry herbs as well.  I feel that in most cases, people who don't like certain foods, just haven't had them properly seasoned.

These mushrooms were from the supermarket, but locally grown as well.  I try to use produce which is in season, so that I can get it locally grown, as much as I can.  I make most of my meals around that notion.

Lastly I made mashed potatoes with skins.  I scrub, cut, and rinse, then boil.  Once they are cooked, I drain, and stick the pot under my stove fan, to evaporate excess moisture.  It's a thing I'd see my mom do.  I used to watch her and my grandma when they were cooking - not necessarily at the same time.  In fact I think the only time they'd both be cooking at the same time was at Christmas, Easter, and other major family events.  My grandma lived with us, when we were growing up, it was awesome.  She was an amazing cook, my mom's awesome as well, she's told me that great grandma was even better.
So these potatoes, I boil them without salt, and when they are drained, but before I mash, I add a pinch of salt and some pork fat with bits of bacon.  I guess they're called lardons here.  When I was in Newfoundland, that's Eastern Canada, they called them scruncheons and they were available at the sparse supermarkets we popped into to refill on snacks, mainly fruit, I miss it when I'm on road trips.  You can make your own lardons out of good quality bacon; I buy mine at a Polish deli.  It's quite an amazing product, I will write about it another time.  You'll notice I tend to go off on tangents, sometimes they are relevant.  I mash the potatoes with skins, salt, and lardons.  It gives the potatoes a nice slightly salty bacony taste.

In the end I noticed that my dinner was very beige.  It may not look as amazing as some other dishes I've made and will post in the future, but it was sure tasty: