'Tis Hunting Time—A smallish blog

[blue_dolphin]

5 minutes ago, IowaDee said:

I drink the same brand but stick to pinot grigio.  Probably mentioned this before, but one of the kids calls it Mom's box 'o drunk. 

My friend's mom drinks gin & tonics.  Her little daughter calls the gin, "Granny's wine" 🙃

 

6 minutes ago, IowaDee said:

Around here the price varies from $20.99 to $22.99 a box.

I just checked and the 5 L box is $11.99 at Total Wine.   When I come to visit, I'll just fill up the the trunk 🤣

[Shelby]

1 hour ago, IowaDee said:

Mom's box 'o drunk

🤣

1 hour ago, IowaDee said:

Your energy puts me to shame

I swear on my life, I'm the opposite of energetic.  Box 'O Drunk=Shelby's Red Bull

 

Maybe I should start drinking when I get up in the morning.....might get more done.  Or at least I'd think I got more done.

54 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

$11.99 at Total Wine

😳

 

I can't tell Ronnie this.  He would be in his truck in a hot minute driving out there.

 

It's around 15.99 to 18.99 here.  Some places give 20% off when you buy a case.

[kayb]

I've become a devotee of Bota Box red blend -- RedVolution. I have to drive 12 miles or so to one of four liquor stores, depending on which direction I'm already headed, as we're in a dry county. At the cheapest one, which is the one I frequent most, it's $18.03 with tax. At the priciest, it's $26 and change. The other two are in the $22-23 range.

 

I get their Pinot Grigio too, in the summer.

 

[heidih]

1 hour ago, IowaDee said:

I drink the same brand but stick to pinot grigio.  Probably mentioned this before, but one of the kids calls it Mom's box 'o drunk.  Around here the price varies from $20.99 to $22.99 a box.  

 

Wow here it is maybe $13 or $14. We buy it for nursery bus tours for the several hour return leg. . Bus school district provided but driver looks away and nobody gets rowdy. (half of the bunch is over 80)

[Shelby]

1 minute ago, heidih said:

half of the bunch is over 80

I was slightly worried about a bus full of tipsy nursery school kids until I got to this part.

[heidih]

Nursery as in plants and some are close to Mexican border so kind of a haul. Example  https://www.kartuz.com/

Edited December 6, 2019 by heidih (log)

[heidih]

OK I tried to stop myself but the time leading up to Christmas seems to be license for merriment, What I also wanted to say was :"It should have been Trader Joe's 2 Buck Chuck"  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Shaw_wine

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

I was slightly worried about a bus full of tipsy nursery school kids until I got to this part.

I was thinking that it would be a great way to get them to nap on the bus!

[Shelby]

3 minutes ago, KennethT said:

I was thinking that it would be a great way to get them to nap on the bus!

That's why I was only slightly worried.  I have nothing against a good dose of NyQuil or a shot of whiskey to get a kid to pipe down. 🤣

[SLB]

I totally understand why Chum wanted to stay home for a day with the Shelby and the Franzia, sigh.  

 

Also, I think I could come too, and we would all get along famously.

[heidih]

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

That's why I was only slightly worried.  I have nothing against a good dose of NyQuil or a shot of whiskey to get a kid to pipe down. 🤣

 

My sis used to dose them with benedryl stuff on trans pacific flights - especially as nephew is a puker - so better asleep. 

[IowaDee]

I agree but the NyQuil for the kid and the whiskey shot for me. That's a toofer that works.  And now I"m having a brain fart.  We were in a liquor store in Columbia, Missouri a couple of year ago and everything we drink was "almost free" compared to Iowa prices.  I have searched and searched and nothing rings a bell.I thought maybe they would meet us at the border.  Heck it is only a bit over ten miles from my house.  😉

[chromedome]

14 hours ago, IowaDee said:

We were in a liquor store in Columbia, Missouri a couple of year ago and everything we drink was "almost free" compared to Iowa prices.

That's what crossing the border feels like for a Canadian. There's many a hard-drinking New Brunswicker who can cite in detail exactly how much you're allowed to bring back after a given length of visit, and I'm sure the same holds true for border areas of the other provinces.

If "Two-buck Chuck" had a Canadian equivalent, it would be "Ten Buck Chuck" or something like that (or maybe "twelve-buck").

[Shelby]

It's Saturday  

 

No deer gotten yesterday.  They all came out just as the light was fading and too dark to shoot.

 

Chum and the cats spent yesterday afternoon napping in the sun in the front room while I puttered around the kitchen.  Dr. Lecter especially likes this and snuggles up to Chum--which she politely tolerates for a bit and then moves.

 

The alarm went off this morning at the usual middle of the night time lol.  Ronnie got up and got downstairs before Chum roused herself...you could tell she was struggling between going back to sleep and getting up to go.  Getting up prevailed and she bounded after him.

 

Back to yesterday: 

 

Trying to change things up, I decided to make breakfast burritos for this morning.  Just the usual sausage, egg, cheese and a few pickled jalapeños.

 

 

Then I moved on to the pork belly.  I like pork belly done about any way you can think of.  I usually do it in the IP--easy and melty delicious, but I wanted that crispy crust of skin on top and the IP isn't good for that.  So, I looked around the internet and found a recipe.  Yes, you shouldn't try a new recipe when you have company, but I did it anyway.

 

The recipe said to poke holes in the skin with an ice pick--don't go through the layer of fat, just the skin.  Out of all the utensils I have, I do not own an ice pick.  So, I used a knife which wasn't the best, but I made do.  Then you turn it over and rub Chinese cooking wine, 5 spice powder, salt and pepper into the meat.  Turn it back over onto a tray, pat the skin dry and let it marinate in the fridge.  It said 12 hours, but I did it for about 5.  I'll get back to the belly later.

 

Appetizers were definitely un-Asian.  When I try to find appetizers to go with that type of meal, it always sends me to egg rolls which we eat with the main meal...

 

Anyway, the ever solid Knorr veggie dip in a sourdough bread bowl

and @Kim Shook's sausage pimento balls.  I over heard our friend saying how much he loves these  

 

Next I prepped all the tofu and veggies and sauce for the drunken noodles.  I need the veggies to be softer for me to eat, so I did the broccoli in the IP on 0 minutes quick release.  Not falling apart, but not crunchy.  Success.  And, I like to crisp up the tofu in a skillet a bit.  

 

On to the baby bok choy.  A glug of oil in the IP and sauté a couple chunks of garlic.  Wash the bok choy, cut off the hard ends and place in the IP with about 1/2 cup of water or so.  Again I needed the bok choy to be soft so I did 10 mins, quick release.  

 

Back to the pork belly:

 

When ready to cook, you pat the skin dry again, brush with vinegar and cover the skin with rock salt.  Bake at 350F for an hour.  I did it in the CSO on steam bake.  When the hour was up, I took the meat out until it was about 30 minutes before we were to eat.  Then --still following the recipe--I brushed the salt off, put it back in the CSO and broiled at 500F for about 20 mins.  I was terrified and I was starting to do that nervous sweaty thing.  It didn't puff up like I thought it would...a few places were burned...a few weren't done enough, but I forged ahead.  I picked off the really burned parts and cut the belly into strips and placed it on the platter like I was confident.  Ha.

 

By then the oil was hot enough to fry the egg rolls ( I made those last week and froze them)

 

And yay, dinner was ready.

 

Drunken Noodles

Bok Choy drizzled with a bit of rice vinegar and soy sauce

Egg Rolls

And pork belly

 

The belly was actually good despite my best efforts to screw it up lol.  I need practice.  Again, the skin wasn't exactly like I imagined it, but it was ok.  I think our friend ate half of this platter lol.  The meat and fat were meltingly tender and when you happened to get a bite that had the perfect skin ( I ate a tiny bite with the skin even though I wasn't supposed to ), it was like the angels were singing.  The guys really liked the contrast between the skin and the rest.

 

So, the plan is that they hunt for a while and then our friend wants to come back here and watch the LSU-Georgia game while they bone out the deer.  I'm having them put all the parts in the fridge and I'll work on that either tomorrow or Monday.  I have an assortment of cheeses laid out to "warm" up.  Cheese always is better like that I think.  I'm going to do a platter of nibble-y stuff for the appetizers and that's as far as I've gotten.  Need to figure out dinner tomorrow.

 

But first, I need to go start some laundry and I need to vacuum but I have two sleeping cats in here and I can't bear to wake them up  

[heidih]

Shelby!  https://forums.egullet.org/topic/108508-siu-yook-roast-pork-belly/

 

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/147019-eg-cook-off-65-pork-belly/ are 2 good examples 

 

[MelissaH]

@Shelby, how long does it take to get the guts and tenderloins out of a deer, as you posted the photos of doing earlier? What more still needs to get done, and how long does that take?

[Jaymes]

On 9/27/2019 at 8:23 AM, Shelby said:

On to last nights dinner:

 

Snacks

Fried bass and catfish

with green beans from the garden, @Jaymes's squash, truffle cheese mac using the melty cheese calculator  and tomatoes

 

Hey - glad to see my squash recipe getting a little love. So simple but so good.

 

And your photos of the landscapes, the sunset, the birds, the dog were so wonderful. Like an LL Bean catalog! 

[lemniscate]

@Shelby Do you use any of the venison bones to make bone broth in the IP?   I was planning that if we had been fortunate to take a deer this year, but that didn't work out.   I make copious amounts of bone broth from all the bones leftover from all proteins.   I've never had venison bone broth, so I don't know if it is worth doing.

[Anna N]

15 hours ago, Jaymes said:

Hey - glad to see my squash recipe getting a little love. So simple but so good.

Where can one find this? Thank you. 

[blue_dolphin]

28 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Where can one find this? Thank you. 

 

Thanks for asking.  I'm curious, too.  Wondering if it might be this?

[Shelby]

17 hours ago, MelissaH said:

@Shelby, how long does it take to get the guts and tenderloins out of a deer, as you posted the photos of doing earlier? What more still needs to get done, and how long does that take?

The guts and tenderloins take about 10 minutes--but we've done zillions.  Had a lot of practice.   After that we bone the deer out meaning that we get all the meat off.  That probably takes 45 mins to an hour.  We usually put all that in huge, clean trash bags and put them in the outside fridge (that's what happened this time too).  Tomorrow I'll bring it all inside and soak the meat in a sinks full of cold water.  That makes sure to get any hair etc. off.  Then I clean the meat up for packaging meaning getting tendons, silver skin off.  Then wrap in cling wrap and then butcher paper.  That probably all takes an hour or so.  Depends on if I stop for sips of wine 😁

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

Thanks for asking.  I'm curious, too.  Wondering if it might be this?

I bet that is it. 

[Shelby]

17 hours ago, Jaymes said:

Hey - glad to see my squash recipe getting a little love. So simple but so good.

 

And your photos of the landscapes, the sunset, the birds, the dog were so wonderful. Like an LL Bean catalog! 

Jaymes!!!  So great to see you!!!  I love love love that squash.  We probably eat that squash at least once a week and I always think of you while making it  

2 hours ago, lemniscate said:

@Shelby Do you use any of the venison bones to make bone broth in the IP?   I was planning that if we had been fortunate to take a deer this year, but that didn't work out.   I make copious amounts of bone broth from all the bones leftover from all proteins.   I've never had venison bone broth, so I don't know if it is worth doing.

No.  You don't want to do that.  It would be very strong in a bad gamey way.  It's too bad because there are a lot of bones, but it wouldn't taste good.

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

Where can one find this? Thank you. 

 

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

Thanks for asking.  I'm curious, too.  Wondering if it might be this?

Yes!  Thank you BD, that is the recipe  

[Shelby]

These days have flown by.

 

No deer yesterday.  The guys got home pretty early to watch football and bone out the deer that was hanging.  

 

As usual, I putzed around in the kitchen.  Had enough breakfast burritos left that I didn't have to make any breakfast for this morning.

 

The guys wanted venison steaks for dinner so I decided to get the backstraps and tenderloins out of the fridge and get them cut up.

 

Backstraps

After getting the silver skin off and cleaning them up

The cats LOVE venison.  I can hardly keep them out of it.  I cut off little bits for them and they purr very loudly.

 

Cut into nice thick steaks

Tenderloins

Tenderloin steaks

Snacky stuff to munch on

I had a package of doves in the freezer from September, so they grilled some of those up too.

Scalloped potatoes

Stewed tomatoes

 

Brussels sprouts

My plate--my steak was perfectly done and so tender

 

Sooooooo, Christmas is coming early for Shelby.  My existing dishwasher is disgusting.  It's too embarrassing to even post a picture.  I've tried cleaning it with citric acid....etc.  it's just simply time for a new one.  I asked for one for Christmas, not really expecting it to happen.  But, the guys pulled in with one yesterday!  They are now trying to install it.  Of course, we are missing a key part so they are off to the big city.  Nothing is ever easy around here . I will be majorly cleaning my kitchen after this ordeal is done lol.  I so appreciate it.  It's so shiny and pretty I don't even want to use it.  Our friend also raised a cabinet in my laundry room so I can actually open the washer and put clothes in without having to hold the lid with one hand.  I won't know what to do with myself after all of this  

 

Anyway, hopefully they will be done with this chore in a couple of hours and then they are going out to deer hunt late afternoon and evening.

 

I'm pondering dinner.  Mexican sounds good.  I'll think on it longer.....

 

I gotta do some cleaning real quick while the coast is clear  

Edited December 8, 2019 by Shelby (log)

[suzilightning]

@Shelby,  that venison looks fabulous.  This reminds me I have a package of backstraps in the freezer.  I'll have mine with a dab of lingonberry jam, some old school green beans almondine and I'm craving a simple baked russet.