Shelby

Oh how I love your tree trimming traditional meal Pizza night last night. Pepperoni. Eaten with several glasses of wine and then blissfully falling asleep in my comfy bed.

I'm just in awe. The people, the dress, the food, the tea bushes. Everything. The lanterns that hang where you took your wander before the meal. Beautiful.

Ok Ronnie says he weighed around 200 lbs. field dressed. After boning out...cutting out a little shot up part, we got around 85 lbs. of good meat. He was a big deer. Thank you so much! I'm so tired I don't know which end is up.

Enabling alert Thank you for the link! I will take a look....it was such a bad experience that I think I have PTSD.

I will ask Ronnie about the first question when he gets home. I haven't SV'd any yet---but that will change now with these loin steaks. I think they would benefit because I think they are going to be a bit tough.

Sorry, I should have called it the loin. Backstrap isn't probably the proper term but it's what we call it around here. We make breakfast sausage. Many years ago we tried stuffing sausage into casings. OMG it was not pretty. We never tried again

Oh thank you so much for this!!!!!! Those silver hats are so intricate and amazing. I could stare at them for hours. Any guesses on how long it takes to make one? All of the women are so beautiful. All of the food looks so good. The color of the purple potato is so vivid. The dogs!!! The one on the far right --I love him. I love all of them. But his coloring is so different! You would have to sedate and carry me over that bridge. Good thing we don't live together. Our lightbulbs would never be changed lol.

Mr. Deer was a tough old deer. Phew. We decided grind most of him up for burger meat. Of course, I made steaks out of the backstrap ( I won't bore you guys with too many pictures of things you've already seen in years past ) One of the backstraps The other Steaks A few roasts that will probably become jerky All packaged up! The scraps, hide and carcass have been taken down to the river for the critters. There are many days left of deer season. I don't know whether another will be gotten or not--there is also a January Doe season. I heard talk of our hunter maybe coming back for that but that might have just been talk lol. All I know is that I'm ready for a glass of wine . A million thank you's for keeping me company this week!

Lunch Our hunter makes a mean bloody mary. One must drink whilst cutting up deer.

Oh WOW!!!! I just love looking at his creations. He has such a talent. Thank you, @FauxPas

You put coffee in it? Huh. I'll have to try that next time.

My breakfast

I threw them in a screaming hot cast iron skillet with a lot of butter

Last day! The hunters are out and about. It's foggy this morning so we'll see how that affects things if at all. I gotta get a move on because I'll be cutting deer up in a bit. The usual ham/egg/cheese The star of any deer that is procured: The Tenderloin. All cleaned up I cooked the bacon for a bit so it would get mostly done around the rare cooked steaks Marinating in Dale's and some black pepper Ready to eat! Salad Not pictured: baked taters and green beans...the picture taker (me) failed.

It's like you were here.........

I made my way into the garage where two football games and a basketball game are being intently watched and asked these questions. Might not have been the best time to do this because the answers were very short . We are in south central Kansas where there have been a total of 3 positives found for CWD. It really isn't an issue around here and Kansas doesn't have a carcass transportation ban. Regarding the bare handed gutting. I don't think I've ever seen anyone wear gloves. Not saying that one shouldn't, I'm just saying no one has ever had a problem that we've seen. I don't think you got girly training as being cautious is always smart. I wish it was colder, but the deer is still very hot right now and it's 61F outside. Weather says it's a low of 41F so it'll be ok overnight. We will cut it up tomorrow. We've had winters years ago where we had to worry about the hanging deer freezing just like you do--I wish we would get back to those cold winters!

Mr. Buck is getting ready to be hung in the garage. These are from earlier this morning. Chum is very proud of herself. She helped track the deer The gutting process

Oh I didn't know it is a super moon! No wonder it's so bright! Our hunter texted me this picture this morning at about 5:30--taken with his cell phone. After the failed bullfrog hunt in September, I bought these from Cajun Grocer so that our hunter could eat them this time--I misread how many are in the shipment...lets just say that I will not run out of frog legs any time soon.

I think your kitchen looks great! Nice and tidy. And, you can never have too many shiny objects

LOL it worked! I just got a text message that says: !! SCORE

I'm just going to say it out loud.......I'm having a fear that for the first time ever, Saturday night game night dinner might not have any game. . It was very windy yesterday and nothing was moving around. Added to that, the moon is full or almost full so it's super bright at night so the deer can come out and feed then. Maybe since I've said it out loud, it won't come true? On to the food of yesterday: Ham, egg and cheese sandwiches for their breakfast this morning Last night was frog leg night: Also thawed out some shrimp for appetizers Threw together some cocktail sauce--somewhere around here I talked about Atomic Horseradish. I know it's expensive but it is the BEST horseradish you'll ever have. Sinus clearing. It doesn't have a super long shelf life. For reasons that are beyond my scope, it loses it's hotness after a couple of months so don't buy a lot at one time. Also made some tarter sauce--no picture of that All fried up--I did the smooshed up rice chex method that I referenced somewhere upthread I watched our hunter eat at least 8 legs

You're allowed in here without the Filson

You mean you don't keep your hunting stuff in the p-mobile?????

So, next I cut up a whole bunch of red bell peppers and onions and grated the ginger for the Honey Chicken. Then I moved on and cut up more onions and broccoli for the lo mein. I had some green beans that I had done in the Instant Pot left over from the tart the other day so I thought those would go good in there, too. Lo mein is super easy. Get a pint jar with a lid and put in 3T. of soy sauce, 1 t. sesame oil and 1t. sugar. Shake it up. Boil your water and cook your noodles --I use this brand Heat a bit of oil in a skillet or wok and sauté what ever veggies you think sound good--I did onions and broccoli--didn't have to do the beans as they were already soft enough. When the veggie are done to your liking add a shot of mirin and give it all a stir then add the drained noodles and your sauce. I put the pork belly in the instant pot along with the whole can of broth. 30 minutes, high pressure, natural release. Heavenly. And, we have a whole bunch of really wonderful broth to use later. Then, I used the other instant pot to make the rice. Then I tossed the chicken into the honey sauce. Then I fried the egg rolls. Then I had like 20 glasses of wine. Kidding. Maybe. Here is everything finished Honey Chicken Pork Belly Lo mein Eggrolls Our hunter's plate And this is happening as we speak---Chum is in her lookout chair in the shootin' house.

Confession: I made the egg rolls a couple of weeks ago (thank goodness because I couldn't fit that in yesterday). I make a huge batch and they freeze beautifully. This is the recipe that I loosely follow My changes are that I used pre-bagged coleslaw and I usually don't put any mushrooms in. So, first I make the filling-- a pound (give or take) of ground pork gets mixed a T. of soy and a t. of cornstarch. Let it marinate for a bit then throw it in a skillet with some oil and brown it up for a couple of minutes. Then dump in the coleslaw mixture and cook for 3-4 more minutes. If you're in a hurry, put it all out on a sheet pan to cool and then drain it well. If you're not, throw it in the fridge overnight. These make the lightest, crispiest egg rolls ever. I'll never go back to using the thicker dough again. Make a slurry of cornstarch and water in a little bowl. I have to really fight my urge to over fill these. Just use a T. of filling--maybe a smidge more or else they just don't seal up as well. Put your filling in and do a roll Fold one corner over Then the other In the above picture now is when you wet your fingers with the slurry and put it all around the top corner there. Then roll it the rest of the way up. Voila! I put parchment on a cookie sheet and freeze them like this over night and then the next day transfer to a ziplock freezer bag.