Sunday Football

Mia and I made some pepperjack nachos and enjoyed them while we baked our pie that we made. Nachos go good with football.

Apple pie for breakfast anyone? Anyone? Sold! To Mia and her mommy.

Pumpkin Scoopin'

My first sugar pumpkin for the season. Finally cutting it up.

Clean it. Chop it up as desired. Drizzle with good extra virgin olive oil. Bake for 90 minutes at 350.

Take out. Let cool.

Scoop every last bit of pumpkin out with spoon. Put in bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Put in fridge and let sit overnight to draw out moisture. If you use this right away, you'll have an overly wet pumpkin pie and let's face it kids - nobody wants that.

Then when your done - take a picture from inside the house because your too lazy to step outside in the cold rain and take a picture of your grapes that are turning beautifully. They're really only about 2 weeks behind, that last blast of heat helped them a ton. I should be making jam right before Halloween.

Ginger Chocolate And Swedish Meatballs?

So I planned on making Swedish meatballs for dinner. I've always had a hard time finding the lingonberry anything which is what it's suppose to be served with. So I went to the Food Co-Op, and found it. $8? Really. I'll pass. If this were a special occasion of just about any kind it wouldn't be a problem, but for Tuesday night dinner? Pass. So I went with their cousin - the good old cranberry and ended spending my difference on a crystalized ginger chocoate bar. Well worth it, but still different.
My meatballs. Last time I made this, I managed to only get one picture of them. I did it again - just this one lone photo. Anyways you make the gravy with the drippings from the browning, pour it over the balls in your baking dish and toss in oven. Serve with mashed potatoes and for today - cranberry sauce.

Food For Thought?

Pumpkins have been on my mind. If tomorrow turns out to be a fall day, maybe I'll roast my sugar pumpkin and make the first pumpkin pie for the year! Wouldn't that go awesome with Sunday football?

This past week has been a food rollercoaster. Up's and downs everywhere! From having venison chili, to KFC (eeek!), to fried chicken topped with peach salsa, wild rice pilaf - crap that reminds me I'm almost out of pure wild rice. Suppose I'll need a trip to the Food Co-Op. For breads I've had KFC biscuits, a different recipe for cornbread due to being out of whip cream, to cheesy, buttery drop biscuits that we never get enough of. I made those twice this week, Mark loves them and Mia likes them too because her and her daddy drizzle honey on top.

I fought the fastest head cold in history yesturday and I'm thrilled to have surpassed a week's worth of being sick. I was all ready to make a pot of chicken noodle soup and get all doped up on cold medicines just to get through my day. Now I really get to enjoy the ideal weather. No direct sun, LOTS of heat, and warm wind. Made me in the mood to grill, have a beer or, Kahlua. Maybe wrap jalapenos with bacon after stuffing them with cream cheese. Definitly Kahlua!

Speaking of food, if I roast my sugar pumpkin first thing - I forgot it has to sit in the fridge for a while before you mix it with the rest of the ingredients. I don't think I'll have enough time to make it for football. Pie on Monday, anyone?

I'm going to go enjoy a guilty pleasure right now. Dr. Pepper.

Venison Stew - A First For Me

This is the picture off the recipe I found online. It almost looked the same, mine came out a bit thicker.

My port to upload pictures has died after 5 long, wonderful years. So until I get another one, which I can't imagine would be more than a few days, I won't be able to upload pictures. I didn't even bother with today's food.

It's so fall like out side; wind, rain, grey. So I woke up and decided it was time to make venison stew. Found a recipe online and after one small tweek, we had a pot of stew. We ate it up and had the perfect amount of leftovers. I spent most of the morning making egg bread and all in all had a well rounded, homemade and killed meal. Husband is happy, as am I.

Venison

Well, for some reason I can't seem to get my pictures to upload. I'll have to have Mark look at it later. So he came back from his hunting trip with his deer! It was really exciting, even more so to see him with his deer. We went up to my parents house so they could teach us what they knew about cutting up and packaging.

It was actually kinda fun. To see what would be filling my new full size freezer and thinking about how I would cook these cuts, excited me. My mom taught me how to grind the meat to make ground deer. You go to your local butcher, get pounds of beef fat and add it to the grinder and it helps with the whole process. It will also help create a little bit of fat for cooking, deer are so lean, it would just completly dry out if you didn't add the extra fat.

Well, we came home after another long exhausting, but good day and I was just too tired to cook, so I went to Burger King. Yes I did! The next night I thawed out a tenderloin. OMG! This was by far the best piece of any meat I've prepared. I followed some advice, and did the following:

1.) thaw, and place meat on paper towel on plate to soak up all the extra blood. let sit at room temperature.
2.) Cook a piece or 2 of bacon and reserve the grease. ( I already had this from breakfast, so I saved it from the morning)
3.) Heat grease on high, add salt and pepper to meat and toss in the pan. Cuts like this will do better on really high heat, therefor it will cook fast AND never cook it past rare. It will dry out within seconds of passing that temperature.

Once I got it to rare, I pulled it out of the pan to rest for just a bit. I cut off the pieces for the girls and cooked those just a tiny, tiny, tiny bit more and saved the big pieces for Mark and I. Wow, hands down best cooking tip/advice I think I've ever recieved. This cut was amazing. Now I know why people pay so much money for venison in restaurants, if I can do this at home and within minutes, who knows what a real Chef could do.

It was so succulant, it had the slightest hint of bacon flavor, there was no game flavor or after taste, it practically melted in your mouth. The thought of having a freezer full of the stuff made me a happy girl.

Time Alone And Things To Learn

My husband has been gone hunting all week. When he is gone, I really don't cook at all. I make what I need to make for the girls to still eat a balanced diet, but we do indulge on things, like cake. So Mark called me yesturday with the news that he got his first buck, all with his bow and arrow! Now, what do I have to learn? I need to learn how to cook with it. To those unfamiliar, it's much different than beef, gamey, but so much more lean. It will be fun to experiment with different cuts and so on.

So, with a buck in a meat cooler, he's out for the big boys. Elk. This is an animal that would definitly be filling the freezers to a max. Looks like I'll be getting that full size freezer sooner rather than later. Probably sometime tomorrow.

Fruit And Fear Of The Earth

My last batch of blueberries (at least for jam). I've found that it's easier to hide certain things in the fridge these days because we recently put another fridge in the garage. So handy! When Mark does his fish, it takes up so much room and when I go to Costco every 2 weeks, my fridge is bursting at the seams, and my fridge is bigger than average so it's been made clear, we need a second fridge. Now all we need is a second, full size freezer and we should be golden for storage.
Another batch of bluberry jam. I adjusted some things from my first batch. #1 - 1 1/2 cups LESS sugar. #2 - MORE blueberries. #3 - more spices. #4 - a different brand of pectin - my last batch is totally spredable, but still not as "solid" or "set" as I prefer it to be. I think we are finally going to be blackberry picking next weekend. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. We plan to go up to the Marblemount area - about 50 minutes from my house towards the wilds.

I guess there's been rumors in the past, but just recently there's finally been proof that there is a grizzly bear in that area. Bringing the total number of grizzly bears in Washington state to 75. I have a deeply embedded fear of bears, mix that with my love and desire to collect mountain blackberries for jams and pies...and we have a trip fueled with: no less than 3 loaded guns - a 9mm, a .40 and a high powered rifle, a hunting permit, a camera, gloves and clippers, and a diaper sized box to fill with berries. The kiddo's will for sure be missing out on this one.


My steak sandwich dinner. Marinated steak grilled, put together with a gorgonzola and sour cream mixture, baby spinach (or arugula), salt and pepper and a full belly. Mark really enjoyed this.

Brrr, Soup Anyone?

Well, yesturday was in my opinion, cold. It sparked my mood to make a pot of potato soup. I'd made this a million times but still planned on taking pictures. Isabel had other things in mind.

I am not going to dish ALL the details here, but lets just say that taking her diaper off to get air for as long as it takes for me to walk back into her room and grab a fresh diaper - is no longer an option. It quickly turned into a shitty situation. 45 minutes later and a lot of cleaning on all levels, I finally made it back to my soup. I was willing to put money down that I had burned it. It didn't!
Yes! We will have dinner afterall!

P.S. Thank goodness I have no crappy carpets to scrub! Now off to battle a few grocery stores, clean the kitchen, make dinner and head off to Aikido.