'Tis Hunting Time—A smallish blog

[Smithy]

For what it's worth, I have used sous vide on deer meat - it was an old round steak that had been vacuum sealed and forgetten, I think - and it came out delicious despite its inauspicious handling.  Unfortunately I don't remember what I did for time and temperature.  You're so far ahead of me in the SV experience department that you'll do better following your instincts than my guesses.

 

Thank you so much for bringin' us along on this huntin' trip!  Now go enjoy that wine. 

[gfweb]

I've SV'd venison. I used beef time and temp for venison steaks and tenderloin. It turned out nicely using frozen meat (which takes trichinosis out of play BTW)

[Spork]

Such a great thread, thank you. 

[lindag]

On 12/3/2017 at 11:17 AM, Shelby said:

Lunch

 

 

Our hunter makes a mean bloody mary.

 

 

One must drink whilst cutting up deer.

YES!

[Shelby]

I guess this isn't such a smallish blog anymore . 

 

Our hunter/fisher friend will be here in a few hours.  

 

The boat is hooked up to the truck just waiting to be taken to a lake  .  Along with fishing I think there will be some bigger type chores that he's going to help Ronnie with around here.

 

Poison ivy absolutely loves me--I don't absolutely love it--and I found myself immersed in it while trying to cut a tree out of the front by the porch.  I usually have a few patches on me, but this is an epic bout.  So, that will add to the fun lol.  I even have it in-between my fingers.  Anyway, that's my poor me story for the week lol.

 

We went to Sam's yesterday to stock up on some food items and then did some stuff around the house.  Ronnie spotted these steaks in the meat section and I had thought to save them for sometime later this week, but they looked so good and it's so easy to toss them in the water and then have dinner in a  couple hours.  So, steaks with baked taters last night.

 

 

 

I'm off to do some weeding in the garden...it never ends.

 

I'll be back in a bit

 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2018 by Shelby (log)

[Anna N]

Wonderful, wonderful. I love a good blog!

[Smithy]

That looks like an excellent dinner! I especially like the way you put the broccoli and mushrooms on the potatoes. Makes 'em look more healthful, dontcha know.  Is there also cheese on those mushrooms, or is that a sauce of some sort?

 

I'm still trying to convince my darling that sous vide is a good start for steaks. What time and temp did you use for the steaks? Did you sear them afterward?

[Shelby]

37 minutes ago, Smithy said:

That looks like an excellent dinner! I especially like the way you put the broccoli and mushrooms on the potatoes. Makes 'em look more healthful, dontcha know.  Is there also cheese on those mushrooms, or is that a sauce of some sort?

 

I'm still trying to convince my darling that sous vide is a good start for steaks. What time and temp did you use for the steaks? Did you sear them afterward?

Yeah.....more healthy....yeah.....  .  I used something that would probably make a lot of EG people run screaming--it's called Cheesy Melt (it's an off-brand of a Velveeta like substance).  I just didn't have the energy to make a "real" cheese sauce.

 

I know your husband would love a sous vide steak.  I like mine very rare.  Ronnie likes his on the rare side of medium rare so I do 125F for 2 1/2 hours.  If I had made these when our friend is here, I would have had them fire up the grill and sear them on that, but because it's just us, I used a cast iron skillet and got it super hot.  I barely sear mine....I'm always afraid I'll over do it.  Ronnie gets a good sear on his.

[Kim Shook]

Yay!  So glad you are doing this!  And so sorry about the poison ivy!  Take care and sleep in gloves!

[suzilightning]

Wooo...Hooooo....

love me some hunting blog.

[Shelby]

I think this poison ivy has infected my brain.

 

I had the hardest time remembering to take pictures yesterday.  But, I did get some

 

The guys have ripped off my old porch and are starting to rebuild it.  It will be nice to be able to use the railing without fear of it falling off.

 

I haven't planned very well--but I guess that will make it a more interesting week lol.

 

Because the guys are working around here so much, I needed to have sandwich fixings for lunches.  If it was winter time, I'd do chili or a soup, but no one wants a big steaming bowl of soup after working in 90 degree weather.  Anyway, I had Ronnie brine and cold smoke a couple of  domestic turkey breasts and then I sous vide them.  He smoked them at 170F for about 4 hours and then I sous vide them at 142.5F for six hours.  Perfect for slicing thin for lunch meat.

 

Then of course I needed some bread, so yesterday around noon I made some white bread dough and let it rise for a couple of hours.  

 

This is before the rise.

 

Then divided into the pans to rise again

 

 

I baked them in the CSO.  

 

 

 

[Shelby]

Then, I texted the guys and asked them if they wanted Italian or Mexican for dinner.  I didn't get a response so I opted for Italian.  

 

I was just starting to make the sauce when I I got a text back.  They wanted Mexican.

 

Of course lol.

 

So, I decided to continue and get the sauce done.  We'll have it tonight.  It's better the next day anyway.

 

Last summer I dehydrated a bunch of zucchini.  I opened a package of that and threw the "chips" into some hot water to hydrate them.  I'm not sure if that step was needed because the sauce might have done the job on it's own.  Anyway, here they are in some butter with some onion.

 

 

I like to roast an eggplant over the flames of my stove burner and add it.  Gives the sauce a bit more depth (that sounded super chefy).  Also, I keep those little bottles of red and white wine for cooking with.

 

Italians and others who make their sauce the traditional way may not want to read further lol.  After cooking the squash and onions down, I added the wine, cooked it down and then added the eggplant.  And two beef bouillon cubes.  Gives it a little something.  Garlic, oregano, basil, black pepper were the spices used. Next the tomatoes were added and the heat was turned down to let it merrily simmer away.

 

It needs to cook down more which I will do here in a bit.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2018 by Shelby (log)

[Shelby]

Even though the guys didn't get up super early, I still decided to go ahead and make them their breakfast last night.  Toasted bagels, thinly sliced ham, eggs from the chickens down the road and pepper jack cheese.

 

I broke one of the yolks so someone got two eggs.

 

 

For appetizers I made some queso using some Rotel tomatoes--I did add some real cheese to the fake Velveeta.....does that count for anything? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I opened up a jar of this salsa.  If you don't have good tomatoes to make your own, this stuff is the next best thing, IMO.

 

 

 

 

I decided to make taco salads--I needed something easy.  A couple of packages of venison burger were excavated from the freezer and thawed.  I added the usual taco meat seasonings and fried it up.  I used flour tortilla shells and baked them in the CSO at 350F for about 10 minutes.  The toppings were the usual--lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, olives, cheese.

 

To go with I roasted some poblano peppers on the stove (I got my new stove dirty )

 

 

These got peeled and sliced open after they cooled.   Then I put them in a pie plate and stuffed them with sharp cheddar.  I doctored up some canned enchilada sauce and poured it over the top.  Baked until bubbly.  Easy peasy, but super good.   OH and I also did some RG beans in the Instant Pot.  Love me some Rancho Gordo.

 

 

 

So that's yesterday.  I'm now looking at the clock and realizing I better get a move on so I can start lunch in a bit.

 

See you after while  

 

Edited May 16, 2018 by Shelby (log)

[rotuts]

GeeWizz

 

w food like that

 

Id stay and have seconds

 

then maybe have a nap and get ready for Dinner !

[Smithy]

2 minutes ago, rotuts said:

GeeWizz

 

w food like that

 

Id stay and have seconds

 

then maybe have a nap and get ready for Dinner !

 

Heck, I think I'd volunteer for the building projects for food like that!

[kayb]

2 hours ago, Shelby said:

Even though the guys didn't get up super early, I still decided to go ahead and make them their breakfast last night.  Toasted bagels, thinly sliced ham, eggs from the chickens down the road and pepper jack cheese.

 

I broke one of the yolks so someone got two eggs.

 

 

For appetizers I made some queso using some Rotel tomatoes--I did add some real cheese to the fake Velveeta.....does that count for anything? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I opened up a jar of this salsa.  If you don't have good tomatoes to make your own, this stuff is the next best thing, IMO.

 

 

 

 

I decided to make taco salads--I needed something easy.  A couple of packages of venison burger were excavated from the freezer and thawed.  I added the usual taco meat seasonings and fried it up.  I used flour tortilla shells and baked them in the CSO at 350F for about 10 minutes.  The toppings were the usual--lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, olives, cheese.

 

To go with I roasted some poblano peppers on the stove (I got my new stove dirty )

 

 

These got peeled and sliced open after they cooled.   Then I put them in a pie plate and stuffed them with sharp cheddar.  I doctored up some canned enchilada sauce and poured it over the top.  Baked until bubbly.  Easy peasy, but super good.   OH and I also did some RG beans in the Instant Pot.  Love me some Rancho Gordo.

 

 

 

So that's yesterday.  I'm now looking at the clock and realizing I better get a move on so I can start lunch in a bit.

 

See you after while  

 

 

Do you have those forms you drape the tortillas over and bake to form the bowls?

[Shelby]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

Do you have those forms you drape the tortillas over and bake to form the bowls?

Yes!  They really come in handy.

 

[Shelby]

Today's appetizers.......

 

 

 

[Anna N]

3 hours ago, kayb said:

I broke one of the yolks so someone got two eggs.

 Beautiful looking eggs!   Even the broken one.

[robirdstx]

36 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Today's appetizers.......

 

 

 

 

Yum! All looks delicious! I love those little round crackers on the right. So thin and crisp!

[Shelby]

Good morning!

 

I can't believe how fast this new porch is being built.  

 

Not sure where the guys are right now.....we've had a raccoon infestation here and they have been setting live traps to catch and relocate them so that's maybe what they are up to.

 

Anyway, on to the food

 

They really liked the ham and egg sandwiches that I made yesterday, so I did the same thing for this morning.  

 

 

They haven't eaten them yet and it's all I can do not to go get one and eat it myself.  I'm hungry.

 

So, as you know, last night was spaghetti night with venison meatballs.  I hauled out the pasta maker and made some dough.

 

 

I used to drape pasta all over the kitchen.  This holder is much much easier.

 

 

Sauce and  meatballs

 

 

The usual salad

 

Our friends' plate

 

My plate

 

 

I am debating.....pork roast in the slow cooker, or @Ann_T honey garlic chicken and some pork belly and egg rolls...pork roast is easier....but.....hmmm........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Smithy]

That spaghetti looks wonderful. You inspire me to haul out my pasta maker - just as soon as I have time. As to this:

 

6 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I am debating.....pork roast in the slow cooker, or @Ann_T honey garlic chicken and some pork belly and egg rolls...pork roast is easier....but.....hmmm........

 

...well, you can do one today and another tomorrow and...maybe by then I can be there for the remainder of the building party! 

[Shelby]

1 minute ago, Smithy said:

That spaghetti looks wonderful. You inspire me to haul out my pasta maker - just as soon as I have time. As to this:

 

 

...well, you can do one today and another tomorrow and...maybe by then I can be there for the remainder of the building party! 

 

Well, yeah, I could, but I'm hoping they will take some time off and go fishing tomorrow.....I am hungry for fried fish...and I have some frog legs......  So much food, so little time lol.

 

I forgot to mention this, but Tuesday, just after our friend arrived, my UPS man pulled up and out of the brown van came a Weber grill!  Our friend bought it for us.  Yes, he does waaaaaaaaaay too much for us.  So, I think we will have venison burgers on Saturday night.  It's been quite a long time since I've had a burger from the grill.  I'm already dreaming about it. 

[MelissaH]

2 minutes ago, Shelby said:

 

Well, yeah, I could, but I'm hoping they will take some time off and go fishing tomorrow.....I am hungry for fried fish...and I have some frog legs......  So much food, so little time lol.

 

I forgot to mention this, but Tuesday, just after our friend arrived, my UPS man pulled up and out of the brown van came a Weber grill!  Our friend bought it for us.  Yes, he does waaaaaaaaaay too much for us.  So, I think we will have venison burgers on Saturday night.  It's been quite a long time since I've had a burger from the grill.  I'm already dreaming about it. 

Ooh, lucky you! Which version? (We got a Weber gas grill as a wedding gift. Nearly 20 years later, it's still going strong!)

[Shelby]

7 minutes ago, MelissaH said:

Ooh, lucky you! Which version? (We got a Weber gas grill as a wedding gift. Nearly 20 years later, it's still going strong!)

Thank you!!!

 

Our existing grill....is pretty sad looking.  It will be so nice to have this one.  I still can't believe he did this for us.