Deer Chili

I got my deer back from the meat shop Saturday and while LeeAnn is typically the chef in the family, I do make a pretty good deer chili so I thought I would share the recipe. You will need:

2 LBS Ground Venison
1 Onion Diced
2 jalapeño peppers split in two with seeds removed
2 cans of tomato sauce
2 cans of kidney beans (I like to do one light and one dark for looks)
2 cans of Rotel Tomatoes or 2 cans of diced tomatoes depending on how spicy you like things (not everyone is from TX)
2 packages of McCormick chili seasoning (I use the stuff with 30% less sodium)

The most important step is to smoke the frozen deer burger and the jalapeños in your BBQ over Mesquite chips. I usually do this by putting a bunch of soaked mesquite chips over the flame guard and turning the heat to low. Smoke the meat and peppers for about 20 minutes, this will mostly thaw the burger and it helps get rid of the any gamy flavor.

Once the meat and peppers have been smoked, dice the peppers and place the meat, onions, and peppers into a stock pot and brown the meat over medium heat. Once the meat is browned, add the remaining ingredients (drain and rinse the beans first) Let the concotion simmer for 20 minutes or more and serve with cheese and sour cream. It should feed four or five adults no problem devide the recipe in half for two people. Happy hunting.

Jeff

My Dad

Last week my Dad called and said that if we were available he could come for a visit on Sunday and Monday and, thankfully, it was the perfect weekend for a visit. He arrived Saturday night, Sunday we went to church and took Dad to see where we work, watched the Broncos (ugh), ate good food and ended with a trip to Red Lodge. It was a good time and I am so glad that the trip worked out! Here are just a couple of pictures from our weekend:

Recipe 5 Kori's Baby Shower :)

Last Sunday we had a baby shower for my friend Kori, it was a lot of fun (I'll throw a party with Abby any day!). Below are some of my favorite pictures and below that are the recipes for the sandwiches I made, enjoy :)

Goat Cheese Cucumber Sandwiches



The spread is soft goat cheese, cream cheese (more goat cheese than cream cheese), crushed garlic, fresh thyme and parsley, salt and pepper. Put spread on both slices of bread with cucumbers in the middle, mmm mmm good.


Asparagus and Prosciutto Sandwiches



Cut asparagus to fit your bread and then steam for 3 minutes immediately plunging it into ice water when it is done (you want 6 spears per sandwich). To assemble the sandwiches, spread cream cheese on both pieces of bread then season with pepper. place a slice of prosciutto on cream cheese, spread honey mustard on prosciutto, place 6 spears of asparagus on the mustard, place another slice of prosciutto on asparagus and then finish with your other piece of bread. One of the favorites at the shower.

We also had chicken salad on croissants, if you want my recipe for chicken salad let me know, I wasn't planning on posting it but I can...

CARNAGE 2008 - AN OPENING DAY TO BEAT ALL OPENING DAYS!

You know that saying, "it's not what you know but who you know,"  Well I know Don Gibson and he was able to get access to 48,000 acres of prime hunting real estate for me and my hunting companions.  Today Ian, Ryan, Todd and myself accessed said hunting real estate and had an absolutely amazing opening day to the 2008 rifle season!!  By 11:00 am all four of us had our bucks loaded in the truck. These were pretty nice bucks too.  All were four points and the product of passing up a multitude of shots on lesser animals.  After lunch, we went up to the high country and shot three elk, Ryan and Todd got their first and I would have but mine didn't stay dead and disappeared into the forest never to be seen again :(  I looked until it was too dark to see and I feel really bad but these things happen.  Fortunately, Don's dad manages the ranch we were hunting on and the elk have been driving him nuts so he invited us back to kill some more, which we can do because in that unit you can shoot two!  All in all it was an awesome day, I've never seen a truck so full of dead animals.  Well I've been up for 23 hours so I think I'll go to bed. . . actually I smell like a dead deer so I think I'll take a shower.  Here are some pics.

Cooking and Hunting, a good day for the Grissoms :)

So, I sit here tonight completely overwhelmed by my trip to Walmart, known by my husband as "The Beast". It has been many moons since I have had a pleasant shopping trip there and today only reiterated why I shop at Albertson's. Parking, maneuvering through the masses and standing in line FOREVER... okay I'll stop, now I'm just complaining. I write all of that because I am sitting here after stopping at 5 shops to get everything I needed and I am worn out... although, unlike most of my dear friends, it was just me and my shopping list... no babies, no toddlers... how do you guys do it?

Tomorrow is going to be a good day, for both Jeff and I :) My sweet friend/boss Kori is soon to have a little girl and tomorrow Abby and I are throwing her a baby shower so I get to spend the day assembling neat little finger sandwiches, chopping and decorating to my hearts delight (hmmmm, contented sigh). Jeff gets to go hunting, it is opening weekend and he has been invited to a ranch, hopefully tomorrow we will have more red meat than we can eat and you will get to see some photos of Jeff and his trophy/trophies. I really do plan to go hunting with my husband some day, some day is just taking a lot longer to get here... oh well, soon enough (I'll catch up to you some day April ;)

We haven't posted in a few days so I thought I better fill you in on what is happening, we should have photos and recipes from our weekend adventures soon.

What a Difference a Week Makes!

This was the view from our front porch Saturday morning.  As you can see all but that little pile of snow by my truck is gone and the weekend was very pleasant.  Fall is back or should I say Indian Summer. The temperatures were in the mid 70's which made for some great outdoor recreation over the weekend.  Saturday afternoon I went paintballing with Ryan Lynch and his buddies, I felt kind of weird being 31 years old and hanging out with a bunch of 14 year olds but I quickly got over it and had a great deal of fun shooting them.  I didn't get shot up very badly this time either, the only one that really hurts is the one I took to the side of the head, my head was actually misshapen for a while. . . good times!  Sunday after church I went fishing with my buddy Ian in the Beartooth mountains.  The brown trout are spawning right now so they are all schooled up in the river, I've actually never seen so many trout in one place.  They weren't very hungry and we each only caught one, but it was great to get out of town and see the fall color in the mountains!  Reading over this I feel like quite the neglectful husband as I left LeeAnn at home with a painful knot in her neck.  She assured me that it was okay for me to go play but I still wish she could have come. . . we would have dominated at paintball! Anyway please pray for LeeAnn she has been in a lot of pain with her neck!  Oh yes, work is going much better as well, I test flew the hangar queen on Friday and after four months of being worked on she is finally flying which means that all of our 1900s are flying again.  Which really means that I don't have to fly all over Montana in the middle of the night to bring airplanes back for the morning UPS operation.  All is good!  Except LeeAnn's neck so pray about that!

Recipe 4

Last weekend we had the opportunity to make dinner for some new friends, the Moores. Not only did I get to cook lots of fun food but we also had a blast, Sunday was a great night :)

This is a recipe from the Food Network website, we have really enjoyed Alton Brown's recipes and this is one of our favorites:

Beef Tenderloin in Salt Crust
Prep Time:25 minInactive Prep Time:4 hr 35 minCook Time:40 min
Level:
Intermediate
Serves:
10 to 12 servings
5 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups kosher salt
3 tablespoons fresh ground black pepper
5 egg whites
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup chopped fresh herbs (parsley, thyme, and/or sage)
1 (6 to 7-pound) whole beef tenderloin, trimmed
1 tablespoon olive oil
Place the flour, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites and water and add to the dry ingredients along with 2 tablespoons of the herbs. Combine with a potato masher until the mixture begins to come together. Then knead with your hands for 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a large zip-top bag, seal, and let stand at room temperature for 4 hours, or up to 24 hours.
Transfer dough to a floured surface and roll out to 3/16-inch thickness, approximately a 24 by 18-inch rectangle. Trim away extra dough, if necessary. Sprinkle the remaining herbs on the center section of the dough and gently press down.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In order to achieve uniform cooking, fold over slender tail end of tenderloin and tie with kitchen twine. Set a large electric griddle at its highest setting; brush the tenderloin with the olive oil and sear on all sides until well browned, approximately 10 minutes. Rest the meat for at least 5 minutes or until it is cool to the touch so as not to melt the dough.
Place the tenderloin in the center of the dough. Fold top part of dough over, flipping back about 1-inch of dough onto itself. Repeat with the bottom half of the dough. Press together the 2 flaps of dough and seal. Make sure the dough is not too tight around the tenderloin. At the ends of the tenderloin, press together dough to form a seal and cut away any excess. Transfer to a sheet pan, place in the oven and roast to an internal temperature of 125 degrees F, approximately 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 30 minutes or up to 1 hour. The tenderloin will continue to cook 10 to 15 degrees more. Cut salt crust at 1 end and extract meat by pulling out of dough tube. Slice and serve immediately.

I served this along with:

Mashed potatoes with garlic butter, sour cream, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper

Fresh green beans sauteed with a little bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic salt and lemon juice

Salad of Romaine, blueberries, cucumber, pine nuts and Brianna's French Vinaigrette

Rhode's rise and serve dinner rolls (in the frozen section, really good)

and for dessert we found this, also on the Food Network website, it was my first tart and it was really easy, really pretty and turned out really well:

Fresh Fruit Tart
Prep Time:25 minInactive Prep Time:15 minCook Time:14 min
Level:
Easy
Serves:
8 servings
Crust:
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened and sliced
Filling:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:
Fresh strawberries, kiwi slices, blueberries, raspberries
Glaze:
1 (6-ounce) can frozen limeade concentrate, thawed
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Whipped cream, for garnish
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
For the crust: In a food processor, combine the confectioners' sugar, flour, and butter, and process until the mixture forms a ball. With your fingers, press the dough into a 12-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, taking care to push the crust into the indentations in the sides. Pat until the crust is even. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until very lightly browned. Set aside to cool.
For the filling and topping: Beat the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla together until smooth. Spread over the cooled crust. Cut the strawberries into 1/4-inch slices and arrange around the edge of the crust. For the next circle, use kiwi slices. Add another circle of strawberries, filling in any spaces with blueberries. Cluster the raspberries in the center of the tart.
For the glaze: Combine the limeade, cornstarch, lime juice, and sugar in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until clear and thick, about 2 minutes. Let cool. With a pastry brush, glaze the entire tart. You will not use all of the glaze.
Keep the tart in the refrigerator. Remove about 15 minutes before serving. Slice into 8 wedges and serve with a dollop of whipped cream.