She's crafty

I love Halloween. I'm not really into dressing up these days, or gore, or spooky stuff, but I am into October and Halloween is in October so in turn, I like Halloween. There is one thing I absolutely HATE and that is carving pumpkins. It's messy, and frustrating, and stupid...because of the frustration. So, I'm I selling my case of loving Halloween or what?

For the past couple of years I have been invited to my sister-in-law Kelsey’s house for and annual pumpkin decorating party. It's pretty much awesome! I guess her aunt started this tradition YEARS before you would see it in a Martha Stewart magazine and it has just stuck around. Aunt Suzie (Kelsey's aunt) is a talented florist and lives on a large piece of land in Oregon. This time of year everything she has tended to in the yard starts to die which makes for perfect pumpkin decorating. We use staples from a staple gun...both short and long to keep the vegetation in place by pushing the staple directly into the pumpkin. How easy is that? The hard part is trying to be creative....this year I did pretty good.
 

I always make two.  One for Steve and one for me.

Old meat, new meat, one meat, two meat

Mid October has snuck up on me like a court date (kidding..never been to court). I couldn't think of anything else that sneaks up on me that is fit to print so a "court date" will have to do. Steve (he's my husband) has already been deer hunting in our area of the world and finished up a successful hunt for Antelope in Montana and will be well on his way to Washington to hunt deer. This usually is the time of year to start making room in our chest freezer in the garage. We still have some meat from last year that will need to move over to one side to allow the meat from this year start the freezing process. Thanks to my website http://www.recipesfromthewild.com/ and my testing of recipes I have used up so much meat this year that the whole "making room" process won't be a headache.

A few weeks ago when hunting season actually sunk in and Steve's rifle began greating me at the front door I started thinking about what sort of meat will show up to fill our chest freezer this year. That thought stimulated a few other brain cells to come alive and I found myself reminiscing about my culinary school days. I had remembered a few important things I learned about thawing and storing meat while attending Western Culinary Institute in Portland Oregon. I thought I might share those things with you and maybe make sure I write it down in case those brains cells that stimulated me to remember what I learned don't disappear after age...... or too many beers.

1

Properly package your meat to prevent freezer burn. Freezer burn can compromise the quality of the meat. If you wrap with butcher paper I suggest to over wrap it. Let's use an elk roast as an example....wrap your roast once in paper, then wrap what you just wrapped, and maybe do it one more time, tape it firmly closed and then label it properly. If you have time and a scale I also suggest weighing your roast, ground meat, or cube steaks, before rapping them. I suggest 1 pound each. It makes it so easy when cooking with a recipe that calls for 1 pound of ground venison to have it ready to cook.

2

Always clearly date and identify each item you are going to lay to rest in the freezer. Example: Steve's Elk 10/8/2009 Backstrap 1lb.

3

The FIFO method. This acronym means "First In, First Out". It's suggested to use older (dated, like last year) items first then start using the new stuff however, I don't always follow that rule. I get pretty excited when a new animal is brought home and I just might cook up some of the backstrap. It's just "suggested" so no harm, right???

4

Defrosting: There are a couple ways to do this. If you plan a meal for the weekend remove your meat from the freezer, place in a bowl or dish to catch any blood, and put it in the fridge for 1-2 days, depending on size. Sometimes when I take a 1 pound package of steaks out the night before I'm going to cook it, it's not thawed entirely and I get really frustrated cause I'M HUNGRY, and that is why I suggest 2 days. If you are cooking in a hurry (another one of my classic moves) defrost in the microwave and ALWAYS use it right away. Bacteria will be inactive when frozen at 0 degrees but once you expose that meat to a warmer temperature you are asking for a nice case of the runs....or even worse.

5

Make sure your freezers temperature is at 0 degrees at all times.

6

When in doubt, throw it out. If something doesn't look or smell right seriously, just throw it out.

Now that you took a little time machine back with me to culinary school let's talk about some recipe ideas.

If anyone out there is like my husband and myself you have probably already devoured the good stuff and all that is left at the bottom of that freezer is ground venison or cube steaks. We have to eat it, it can't go to waste but man, I really don't like chewing through cube steak and ground venison can be so boring. Thanks to http://www.recipesfromthewild.com/ I can go online and check out some recipes that inspire me to cook those boring, chewy, cube steaks. When it comes to cooking I am inspired by others and their innovative ideas. It's not like we can grab a fancy cooking magazine and follow a recipe for steak and use venison instead. It just doesn't come out the same, let's face it, we have to be a little more ingenious then the everyday carnivore.

Here are a few of my personal recipes and fan favorites, by fan I mean my husband (number 1 fan) and a few other recipes members from http://www.recipesfromthewild.com/ submitted. These may inspire you to cook what's on the bottom of your chest freezer.


Ground Venison Recipes:


Lasagna with ground elk or deer
Submitted by: BHonan (yours truly)
click on this link for the recipe: http://www.recipesfromthewild.com/single_recipe.php?id=86&cur_cat_id=2

Venison Chili-New Mexican Style
Submitted by: BHonan (yours truly)click on this link for the recipe: http://www.recipesfromthewild.com/single_recipe.php?id=37&cur_cat_id=2

Game Meatballs
Submitted by: BHonan (yours truly)
click on this link for the recipe:http://www.recipesfromthewild.com/single_recipe.php?id=85&cur_cat_id=2

Venison Sausage
Submitted by: msimila
click on this link for the recipe:http://www.recipesfromthewild.com/single_recipe.php?id=57&cur_cat_id=2
Venison Breakfast Bowl
Submitted by: eequinn
click on this link for the recipe:http://www.recipesfromthewild.com/single_recipe.php?id=143&cur_cat_id=2


Cube Steak Recipes:

Humble Pie: No, not really. I'm sorry but I don't have any great cube steak recipes because I try to avoid it at all costs. Is there any recipes out there that someone can submit and share on http://www.recipesfromthewild.com/ that might change my mind? I think you all should take that as a challenge, submit your best cube steak recipe in order to persuade my taste buds.....GAME ON!