Cottontail Dinner

Megs is always hounding me to “take pictures for the blog, take pictures for the blog”. This event was no different but she did add the caveat… don’t make it gruesome. Although I think hunting helps to sustain a healthy habitat, the act is not for the light of heart. So when I showed Megs the action shots of cleaning said animal she was concerned for our viewers. Please note that this blog post contains pictures and descriptions of responsible hunting and if you are not interested please join us again on our next posting!

A few months ago Megs and I started to notice a trend. When I was able to get out early on Saturday morning for some “woods” time, I was a lot more enjoyable to be around during the rest of the weekend. I love my job but it comes with a lot of desk time and I really need to get out into the fresh air as much as possible to balance my sanity.

One of my absolute favorite spots to spend time outdoors recently is my buddy’s mom’s place. It is 120 acres of rolling woods and fields, northeastern Iowa cliffs and river valleys. It is a great spot all year round. My buddy AA introduced me to squirrel hunting last year and I have grown to love the activity. Most people, including myself would never dream of eating the garbage-fed tree rats in the city suburbs, however around here country squirrels are considered free range in most people’s minds.

Not an attractive woods selfie, it doesn't get much better

The idea is to get out to the woods in the dawn hours and find a grove of oaks to sit quietly and wait. Getting out early is important because you want to be in place before the squirrels wake up and come down from their nests because once they are on the forest floor they are impossible to see or shoot.

I have been out to hunt squirrels 8-9 times but only have come back with a squirrel in hand once or twice. There are always squirrels out there but grey squirrels are small and not worth the effort for the most part. Red squirrels are where it is at, but more accurately, the hunting part of the event is overshadowed by sitting quietly out in the woods and watch the world transition from night to day. Birds start to chirp, turkeys cackle, deer grunt and spit (not a majestic creature the deer), and all the nocturnal animals head to their dens.

On this outing the weather had turned cold and not much was moving around, including the squirrels. I was the only idiot not tucked up in their respective beds staying warm and dry that morning. After about an hour of meditation I stood up, stretched and decided to take a meandering valley out of the woods and back to the car. Bushwhacking through scratchy terrain is most people’s idea of torture, especially my sister, but I was having fun. Suddenly there was a flash of fun nearly under my feet. During my heart attack I realized it was a decent sized rabbit… good enough for dinner. Pop!

Once ol’ fluffy was bagged up I headed home. Megs always told me she was fine with my hunting as long as I didn’t bring anything home. Rabbit, however, is one of those animals that show up on high class menus so I thought I could swing it, and to my excitement Megs was on board. She even picked the recipe, beer braised rabbit with rosemary gravy. I set out to prep the beast for cooking. Some water, gloves, my knife and a plastic bag for the offal. I decided to lay down a spare scrap of house wrap to catch all of the what-have-you’s and keep my shop floor clean. I won’t go into detail how to clean a rabbit, you can look online…I did.

Furred

Un-wrapped

Once prepped and washed thoroughly in the sink, I cut it in 6 major components then drenched it in egg and rolled it in flour.  I heated some olive oil in our favorite La Cruset dutch oven and browned the rabbit chunks, in batches on both sides. Once that was complete I added all the chucks back into the pot and covered it with salt, pepper, rosemary, a bottle of dark beer, and a container of chicken stock. An hour later yielded a cooked rabbit, and it was now time to use the cooking stock to make gravy… I love you gravy.  Make a rue, add it to the stock, ka-pow, gravy!

Looks a little more store bought now

I liked the rabbit flavor and the gravy this recipe made was outstanding but I think the cooking instructions for the rabbit made it tougher than it could have been. We all ate it but I was the only one who ate the leftovers. One of the ladies at work makes a rabbit “McNugget” that are fabulous and I will plan that for my next foray into loveable edibles. My next foray could fairly come soon as I just found a rabbit superhighway in the back part of our property.

Stay tuned to hear all the antics of my first deer season and the 3 projects I am behind on writing about!

Ap

Hunt Day Recipes: Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls and Garbage Energy Bites

Today marked day one of shotgun deer season here in Iowa.  Our previous life in Illinois did not include any hunting (unless you count the night Andy stuck his BB gun out of our bedroom window to ping a rogue raccoon that had climbed up on the roof).  Once we moved to Iowa, we quickly learned (much to Andy's delight) that it is pretty much the norm where we are at.  Our first experience with shotgun season was a year ago- a few months after we had moved here.  Andy was excited to head out on his first 'hunt', though he hadn't gotten his license yet so he was just going as a spectator.  I remember the day clearly- shotgun blasts ringing across the fields all day long which had me convinced the zombie apocalypse had finally happened while deer frantically ran through our property with a frenzied look in their eye looking for a safe haven.  Deer hunting always makes me think of "My Cousin Vinny" when Mona Lisa Vito (played by Marisa Tomei) is outraged at Vinny Gambini's (Joe Pesci) nonchalance about going hunting.  "Imagine you're a deer. You're prancing along, you get thirsty, you spot a little brook, you put your little deer lips down to the cool clear water... BAM! A fuckin bullet rips off part of your head! Your brains are laying on the ground in little bloody pieces! Now I ask ya. Would you give a fuck what kind of pants the son of a bitch who shot you was wearing?"

Now, I am a pretty typical, meat-eating American and I am very aware of where the meat that I eat comes from.  I don't love the idea of hunting, but I also realize it is a necessity in many areas and won't get all outraged at Andy's interest in hunting.  Despite this, though, I have put my foot down on Andy bringing home a carcass.  I literally have no interest in eating deer so our deal is, if he catches one (my terminology for shooting because it sounds less gruesome) he will donate it.  There is a local food bank that will take the deer and give it to needy families in the area.  A win-win in my book.

So, Andy has been preparing for his big hunting adventure all week.  He was like a boy at Christmas, laying out his clothes, sewing hand-warmers, checking with his hunting buddies that they had their plan down.  It was pretty amusing how confident he was that he would catch something.  Looking at the weather forecast for today, the high was going to be a mere 11 degrees.  I was actually a bit gleeful at the cold weather as I think it evens the ground a bit for the deer but I also was concerned about Andy keeping warm and staying well fed.  So I devised a menu for hunt day to supplement the food that would be a the base house (pancakes, eggs, chili, lots of white bread, etc):  Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls and Garbage Energy Bits.

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

Adapted from whatscookingamerica.net

For the Dough-

1 cup sourdough starter (we were just given some from a neighbor and it is like having a tamagotchi pet again- you have to remember to feed it and care for it but so far it is worth the trouble)
3/4 cup milk 

2 T butter, room temperature

1 egg

1 t salt

1/4 c granulated sugar

3 1/4 c bread flour

1 t instant active dry yeast

For the Filling-

1 T butter, melted

2 T granulated sugar

2 T brown sugar

1 T cinnamon

For the Frosting-

2 1/2 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

3 T milk

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

For the dough, warm the sourdough starter and milk until just simmering.  Remove from heat and whisk in the egg.  In the bowl of a food processor with the blade attachment, mix the salt, sugar, flour and yeast. 

Yes, that IS E's foot on the counter.  My trusty helper is sitting on the counter pressing the pulse button when needed.

 Pour in sourdough starter mixture and butter and pulse until just combined.  It will be really sticky and moist.  Dump onto a floured towel and sprinkle some flour on top.  

With floured hands, kneed quickly into a smooth ball.  

Cover with a towel and let rest for 15-20 minutes.  After the dough has rested, roll into a 15x24 rectangle. 

 Brush 1 T melted butter on top.  Mix the rest of the filling ingredients and sprinkle evenly on top.  

Starting with the long side, roll up the dough, pinching the seam to shut.  Cut the rolls into even 1 1/2" sections. 

 Place rolls in a greased 9x13 pan, leaving space in between each roll.  

Cover and put in a warm place for at least an hour until they puff up to touching.  

My secret weapon is putting a heat pad under any bread I am trying to rise

Preheat oven to 350 and bake for 20-25 minutes.  Let cool (or if you are like me, spread frosting on hot rolls which will cause it to fall off but allow you to eat piping hot cinnamon rolls-yum!!)

For the frosting, whip cream cheese until fluffy.  Beat in milk and powdered sugar until smooth.  Spread over rolls and serve immediately.

Notice the 2 rolls I took out before Andy took them on the hunt for breakfast for myself and the kiddos at home.  YUM.

Garbage Energy Bites

Adapted from gimmesomeoven.com

When I knew Andy would be out in the cold, I had imagine him needing a snack to really stick to his bones.  In my mind, I imagined making him the craft kids make as a bird feeder- seeds stuck by peanut butter on a toilet paper roll.  While Andy found this amusing, he did not find it appetizing.  So, I went back to the drawing board and found a great recipe for Trail Mix Energy Bites at gimmesomeoven.com.  The site has a ton of variations but I decided to use the peanut butter based one.  I call mine garbage bites because I basically took whatever nuts we had on hand and threw them in.

1 cup puffed rice cereal

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1/4 cup chopped almonds

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup wheat germ

1 T chia seeds

Stir all the ingredients until coated well.  

Cover and refrigerate 1-2 hours.  Press into a greased baking dish and cut into granola bar size pieces or roll into balls.  Keep in fridge to maintain shape (though they don't have to stay in the fridge for freshness).

My snack plan seemed to work because Andy came home tonight (empty handed) with a full tummy and generally pretty warm and comfortable!  Success!