Eating wild

When I was little, we had neighbors that would host a huge 4th of July bar-b-que and all the neighbors were invited.  I looked forward to it every year.  They had a huge pit in their backyard where they smoked an entire pig for a few days before the event and it was delicious.  One of those years they had a huge spread of different food to eat.  When I asked them what some of it was, They responded with venison and goat.  There was NO WAY I would have touched it.  Then I grew up and married a hunter.

My oldest daughter turned 12 this year and bagged her first buck.  It was very exciting for all of us.  It was right before Thanksgiving and my father-in-law was coming down for the holiday anyways but ended up coming a few days early to help process it.  It was so nice of him to help out as Brent had to work and I was clueless.  The weather was too warm to let it hang any longer so it needed to be done.  I did watch though and tried taking mental notes on how it was quartered and skinned.

Taylor's buck

Some of my first posts on this blog over 2 years ago were about my misadventures with wild game.  I have struggled with birds and fish and this was my first time dealing with venison.  We didn't really have time over Thanksgiving to deal with the trimming of the venison so we threw it all in the freezer until we had time to grind it up and make sausage.  Since Brent had so much time off over the Christmas holiday we decided to tackle it then.  On Christmas day, while the kids all toyed with their new goodies, we went at it.  We were up until midnight grinding and packaging up pounds and pounds of breakfast sausage. It turned out really good.  The kids haven't developed a taste for it yet but hopefully they will.  Brent and I really like it though.

Deer steak in my Gramma's old cast iron skillet

Throughout the season Brent has been bagging some various birds.  Chukar, quail, Hungarian partridge, ruffed grouse and sometimes a pheasant.  We decided to thaw these out and make a meal out of them. The birds are delicious but it takes quite a few to feed this family.  Thankfully all of my kids love them.  I have not had a lot of success with pheasant in the past.  It is really lean and cooks pretty quickly.  Today, in order to make the cooking process a little faster I decided to just cut the breasts off all of them and fry them up.

Fried quail breasts

I just used a flour breading on the quail and a Panko breading on the larger birds.  I wish I had taken note of the different birds I cooked because they all had their own unique taste.  The quail is the biggest hit around these parts though. Too bad it takes so many to get a decent batch.  There were 7 quail this time around, enough for each person to have one whole quail.  

Quail, Panko crusted pheasant and others

The pheasant was much better this time around than previous times but I still think there is a better way.  I was surprised how quickly I got the hang of taking the meat off.  There ended up being very little waste once I got the technique down.  I had never really messed with anything like that before.  I am used to prepackaged chicken breasts and tenders.  Other than the Thanksgiving turkey I am pretty inexperienced with bone-in meat.

To round off the day, I made some venison stew.  I wish I had more of the stew meat.  It was a little potato heavy but tasted good nonetheless.  I  have been trying to get away from prepackaged seasonings and making my own.  It is surprisingly easy.  I make my own taco, chili and stew seasoning now and so far there are little complaints.  The biggest complaint is that I go heavy on the amount I cook with because it isnt measured out for me.  It is still so much better than MSG laden seasonings.  In fact when we were making the deer sausage, we looked all over for a prepackaged seasoning and all of them had MSG as the first ingredient, so we resorted to a recipe and it turned out great.

Venison stew

I am just really happy that I am getting the hang of cooking this meat.  It would be a shame to waste any of it.  It is so tasty and healthy (except when fried in a ton of butter!) and I get excited each time my husband and his bird dog bring home some more birds, and hope someone is able to get a deer (or elk) each season as well.

You Might be an Idahoan If....

....you go to a Hunters Education class with your two preteen daughters.  This, my friends, is what I am up to this weekend.

Many people from my life in Tennessee and beyond were hunters.  I knew my husband was a hunter before he was even my husband.  I had cousins that hunted deer, my dad shot a squirrel or rabbit from time to time, I even had a boyfriend once that hunted 'coons.  I actually went on a coon hunt once, and it was very.... different.  Bird hunting is popular in the Midwest and we saw a lot of that when we lived in Nebraska, but at that time my husband hadn't gotten into birds yet.  It wasn't until we got to Idaho that I saw what  real intense hunting was.

Brent had been itching to get back behind the gun for so long and when we moved to Idaho he was able to do it again.  He starts getting antsy every year before elk and deer season and the passion and desire is there.  He has taken the kids bird hunting for a few seasons now and takes them fishing all the time.  Their love for the outdoors is really starting to shine.  My youngest daughter gets to go on her first ice fishing trip on Monday and she is really excited about it.

I feel the kids have a really strong bond with their dad since they are able to do these things with him and I know they are building memories that will last them a lifetime and to me that is priceless.  This year is a new milestone.  My oldest will now be old enough to hunt deer.  She turns 12 in September and when she realized she was old enough to go this year she won't quit talking about it.   So it was decided, me and the two oldest girls were going to take hunters ed, because its what all the cool Idaho kids (and moms apparently) do.

I'll be honest, I have only shot a gun twice in my lifetime.   We went target and trap shooting in Wyoming once and I will admit it was fun!  Due to lack of equipment, it was also the last time I went.  After that and babies 1,2,3,4 and 5 popped out, I didn't do much of anything.  Brent took up bird hunting again and bought and trained a bird dog. He learned to fly fish and went big game hunting again with his dad.  As a new-ish mom I resented him taking off for a while to do these things but now, in retrospect, I am glad he was learning  new skills and and honing those from his own past so he can teach them to our kids.  Its tradition, legacy, and something they will have for the rest of their lives.

So now I think I am finally really converting to Idaho culture.  I love wild game meat; elk, deer, pheasant, chukar.  I think there is nothing that is more tasty.  So tomorrow bright and early, the girls and I will head off to the fish and game office once again to learn how to be hunters.  Even if I never get behind another gun in my life, at least they will know I am behind them 110% in becoming well-rounded individuals.