Farmers Market Venison Pastitsio, page 30-31

Now that's a full pan of pastitsio!

Fred here. This was another recipe that would expand my vocabulary, if nothing else.  It contains eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, venison, penne pasta, oyster mushrooms, parmesan cheese and a bechamel sauce, all layered like a lasagna.

Ann and I worked on it together on Sunday afternoon, although she was definitely in charge. She would probably have referred to me as a sous-chef, but I was really more of an escuelerie. I did grate some cheese, and get tomatoes out of the downstairs freezer when needed.  

We usually try to do these recipes by the book, but after we had browned our venison, and added the two tomatoes, the skillet just looked like browned venison. The tomatoes disappeared. But the picture in the book looked like a red sauce, like you might see in lasagna. We added another tomato. It disappeared, too. We added a can of tomato paste. The meat started to look a little red, so we stopped there, not wanting to deviate from the recipe too much.

The tomatoes from the freezer where late season tomatoes that we ripened off of the vine, which may be why they faded away so quickly.

When we shifted from the mixing bowl to the 9 x 13 glass cake pan for baking, we were glad we hadn’t added any more tomatoes, or any more of anything else. That pan was full. We even tried to push it down to compress it between layers, and it was still quite heaped up in the middle. When we added the sauce on top as the last step, I thought it was going to run over. We debated trying to take out about a third of it and put it in a different pan, but since it was in layers it seemed like that would end up being a real mess, so we stuck with having the pan piled high.

Fortunately the sauce added in the last step was fairly thick, and the whole dish was rather dry. I expected it to boil over and bubble out a lot while baking, but it didn’t lose a drop.

The result: A very hearty dish that may be the very epitome of pastitsio, but I would simply call a casserole. I was hungry when I set down, and I loved it, and kept filling my plate.

We should have invited friends, though. The boys didn’t really go for it, and we have a lot left over. If Henry and Oliver didn’t eat it on round one, we can be pretty sure they won’t like the leftovers much better. On the other hand, it will make a lot of good lunches. This was our next-to-last venison recipe from the book, but we still have a lot of ground venison left, and I look forward to having this again. Sorry kids.

Persimmon Bread Pudding, page 162

Bread pudding is something I've had a lot, it seems like, but have never made. Maybe that's because I like it enough to eat it if it's offered to me, but not quite enough for make it myself. However, it's winter and the list of wild ingredients we have in to keep going with the woods to food project is slimming, so it seems about the right time to make persimmon bread pudding.

We froze enough persimmon pulp in the fall to get through most of the persimmon recipes in the book. That's wild ingredient #1 for this recipe. Wild ingredient #2 is pecans and we still have pecans in the fridge.
I bought a nice loaf of rustic french bread from our local bread bakery, Uprise, for the recipe. That was a good choice. The crust is firm while the bread in the loaf has body without being to rough.
It was a fairly simple recipe to put together with 4 cups of milk, four eggs, a stick o' butter, rum, raisins, etc.
We had my cousin and family over for dinner. I  was glad to hear that Ben, my cousin's husband, really likes bread pudding but rarely has it. At least that was one person who was looking forward to the dessert. And, as far as how the dessert faired: two kids ate all theirs, two kids didn't care for it, and I think the adults were pleased, though I was the only one who went back for seconds.
When I served Oliver a bite of the bread pudding, he mentioned it made his tongue feel funny. Why I couldn't figure out what he was talking about, when it's PERSIMMON bread pudding for goodness sake, is crazy. But, somewhere mid-piece on my own serving, as my mouth felt funny, it occurred to me what Oliver was referring to. The persimmons in the bread pudding were not all ripe! Ooops. You know that weird sensation you get in your mouth when you bite into an unripe persimmon (and if you don't, it's kind of a right of passage thing, you really should try it)? Well, there was a slight sensation of that in the dessert. Strangely that didn't ruin it, though.
Anyway, would I make this recipe again? Yep. Am I dying to make it again? No, not really. But, I think that has more to do with bread pudding not being a favorite in my family than anything with a faulty recipe. I think it was good bread pudding, in fact better than Fred was prepared for, but I like to see a little more elation before I make a recipe again.

Date and Nut Bars, page 130

OK We just saw a performance of STOMP with the kiddos at Jesse Hall. Have you heard of them? No, this has nothing to do with date and nut bars, or our blog. Only we just got home and it's really fun to type after you experience such a fun rhythm and dance performance. The kids are drumming in the hall, and I'll typing like a mad woman and enjoying the sound it makes. Bam. Bam! BAM BAM BAM!!!

OK now I'll try to get over it to write the post. We made gyros tonight for dinner and date and nut bars from the infamous book for dessert. Pecans and black walnuts were the wild ingredient (clickety, click, CLICK, still not over it!)

My sister-in-law Christy is a mighty walnut picker in the fall. And, for Christmas this year she cracked a jar of nuts and gave them to Fred and I. What a very nice gift for us. I used her nuts in this recipe and thought of her, and her thinking of us as she cracked the walnuts, as I was cooking.

The recipe has no fat in it, besides what's in the nuts. It's lots of nuts, dates, lots of brown sugar, three eggs, a fairly low quantitiy of flour and salt. Once cooked, the bars you cut are coated in powdered sugar (click, click . . .sorry, it's hard to get over).

I was surprised by Fred's reaction. He really, really liked them. Normally, his biggest raves for dessert directly coinside with the quantity of chocolate served.

These are a very chewy bar. They are rich but not too heavy. I was hoping they'd be tasty and not remind one of some foamy, nutritious health food bar, and I was in luck. This recipe is awesome.

I think of all the categories so far of wild ingredients we've made from the book, nuts have been my favorite and I believe this is the last nut recipe. So long, nuts. I'll miss you until I cook all the remaining  recipes in the book and can start all over making whatever recipes I want to my heart's content.

Now, excuse me as I go type with abandon just for the rhythm and fun of it . . .

Gooseberry rhubarb chutney with Indian Venison, both page 172

Fred here. Ann's sister Tracey gave our boys tickets to a dance performance in St. Louis, so we came to the city for the weekend. Like the last time we were there, Tracey encouraged us to stick with our program and make a Cooking Wild recipe while at her house. This time we opted for Indian.
While Ann and Tracey were out running errands, I took care of the marinade for the venison. I've optimistically spent many hours and ingredients making marinades before, and I'm usually disappointed with the results. The complex, magical list of ingredients often ends up not making much difference by the time I take the meat off the grill. And you can get good marinades off the self in the store, even though I might not be able to identify, or pronounce, some of the ingredients they contain.
This marinade was pretty straight forward, and it came together quickly. As soon as I had it together, I got started on the chutney.
My first experience with chutney was when I was dating Ann, and we were having dinner at her parents' house. Ann quietly said to me a "This is really expensive, don't take too much of it," as she passed me the chutney. I used the tiny spoon in the jar to take one tiny spoonful to have with the wonderful Indian dinner that Ann's mother had made. And I loved it.
Since then we've always kept a jar of Major Grey's Mango Chutney in the refrigerator. We've tried other kinds, but have never bested it - until now.
I'd never considered making chutney, but making this batch was a lot of fun. It wasn't too complicated, and it was exciting to see what would happen when you combine ingredients like gooseberries, rhubarb, raisins, cayenne pepper, ginger, garlic, sugar and cardamon.
The result was a bright red chutney (red from the rhubarb) that was fantastic. The recipe says it will keep for months in the refrigerator, and I would be happy to always have a jar on hand.
Tracey made some excellent palak paneer to go with  the meal, and also had some naan and other flat breads to go with it. And she had purchased some bannana blossoms to serve it in. Ann made rice in Tracey's rice cooker, something new to us. The whole meal came together nicely.
I found the venison to be quite good. The effect of the marinade was subtle. If I make it again I might have the venison marinade longer, or make the marinade more intense.
This was another fun and tasty meal, another winner from Cooking Wild in Missouri.

Jewell McConnell’s persimmon pie, pages 164-165

Persimmon pie. Hmmm. I once had a slice of raisin pie and still remember the traumatic experience of disappointment mixed with trying to choke the thing down. Persimmon pie sounded similar: too heavy and rich. But, I hadn’t taken the time to read the recipe. I was picturing a two crust pie filled with persimmon pulp. Intimidating.  Upon closer inspection (i.e. after realizing it would be best not to wait until the end of the year to make the recipes that sounded the least good to me) I realized this was going to be more like a custardy pumpkin pie than a fruit pie.

Persimmon pie just before it's baked. Recipe called for pats of
of butter on top. They make funny divots in the baked pie.
Wouldn't do that again. This pie needs all the aesthetic help
it can get.

The persimmons I froze this fall after picking them from the back of my brother-in-laws truck from about the only persimmon tree that bared this year, it seemed to me. The recipe calls for 2 cups whole persimmons. I had already deseeded and skinned mine and froze the pulp. Since 3 pounds of persimmons make 1 pound of pulp, I guestimated I needed 2/3 cup for the recipe.

For the crust, I made my mother’s recipe ,which I love.

2 c flour, sifted. Add ¾ tsp salt. Mix. Add between 1/3 and ½ c vegetable oil. Mix. Add 4-5 tbsp cold water. Stir barely with a fork.

This makes, in my opinion, awesome pie crust.

Anyway, the pie filling is buttermilk, persimmon, a bit of sugar, egg, spices and what not.

There isn’t a picture of the pie in the book. Mine came out not as smooth and consistent as a pumpkin pie, and more brown.

But the taste was once again better than I thought it would be. I reminds me of spice cake, but in pie form. Or like a wild cousin to pumpkin pie. And, whipped cream on top is a must both to make the pie a bit prettier, and to help give it a smooth feel. We brought it to our friend's house for dessert and enjoyed sharing it-both the taste and the experience of trying a Missouri persimmon pie!

Finished product, butter divots and all

I NEVER thought I’d want to make this recipe again, but now am hoping to. I can picture looking forward to persimmon pie in the fall. I’ve never heard of anyone making it before and feel like it would be a novel treat.

And, who knew leftover persimmon pie would make for a great breakfast!!!

Savory pheasant bread pudding, page 75

Jen and son Cyrus at the farm

Yea. This recipe is not exactly easy to picture, is it? It’s like trying to wrap your mental taste buds around “kale chocolate chip cookies” or “fried catfish blueberry pie”.

Well, let me tell you, it may be a difficult recipe to picture, but OMG-and every other camouflaged expletive that gets the point across without saying naughty words on the internet- this baby is so bleeping good.

We were so proud of the pheasant that Fred hunted and ready to put it to good use. There had been a lot of effort to get the bird: Fred found a place that raised and released pheasants, he arranged with his sister to drive their dad up to Columbia to go hunting so that his dad didn’t have to make the trip, they spend about all day in the hunt, and about the rest of the day cleaning the birds. Now we were hoping to make something good from it.

Since there are two recipes for pheasant in the book and one calls for morels, a spring mushroom, we went with what was behind door number two: savory pheasant bread pudding.  It was one of those all day cooking affairs is seems like: first finish up cleaning the bird, then cook it until you can debone it, then get the rest of the ingredients for the recipe at the store, chop, stir, bla bla bla. And, all for a recipe that was so curious to us. What in the world were we making? Savory pheasant bread pudding? What even is that?

We were taking this dinner to our friends house who make cheese (www.goatsbeardfarm.com ) so that ingredient we left out until we got there. By the way, I can not recommend their cheese enough. It is fabulous and can be purchased in Columbia at the farmer’s market, HyVee and the Root Cellar, I believe. Anyway, we prepared the bread part of the recipe, and custard/meat/veggie part, and tromped on out to their farm to assemble and bake dinner.

It was all so wonderful. Grate some goat cheese and stir into the egg, cream mixture. Help package cheese while the oven warms up. Chat. Mix the spinach, pheasant, onion and cream mixture with roasted bread chunks in pans and bake. In the mean time make a salad of candied Missouri pecans, dead ripe pear, Goatsbeard Farm blue cheese, currants and lettuce. Serve with beer. Chat at dinner about the hunt, and about what in the world we were eating and about everything else we are anxious to chat about. Watch the kids play. Be glad for the lives we have.

This one one of the best recipes out of the book thus far. And, the whole experience from hunt to dinner was an experience just like we hoped for when we started the woods to food project--an interesting hunt shared with family, a great meal shared with friends.

Man, sometimes life is rich.

Big Lick Birds



Dad with his dog Penny

On Saturday my Dad and I set off for Big Lick Birds. Although this may sound like a fried chicken stand, it is actually an upland game bird hunting preserve near Boonville.

I had given my father this hunt as a combination Christmas/birthday gift. He had turned 83 December 30. In addition to having fun, our purpose was two-fold: Dad had hunted his young dog some this quail season, but rarely got her into any birds, so he wanted to make sure she encountered some quail, just to remind her of why they were taking these long walks together. Me, I needed both quail and pheasant for recipes in Cooking Wild in Missouri, and didn’t see any other way I would get enough birds to match the grocery list.

Dave DeGraffenreid, who owns Big Lick Birds (www.biglickbirds.com) with his wife Jan, is a very likeable guy. Before we went hunting he showed us where he raised the birds, and the flight pens. It looked like a lot of work. He mentioned that he lost $5,000 last year, which was pretty good, because the year before he had lost $7,000.

Following the brief tour we got in our truck and followed Dave to a nearby field. After a two-hour ride in her dog box in the back of the truck, we were afraid that Penny, Dad’s English setter, would be ready to run, so we started her off slow. Dave put out two quail. Sure enough, when we let Penny loose, she ran up and down the field without a care in the world. She looked rather ridiculous, and I think Dad was somewhat embarrassed for her. She was acting just like a dog in the park, not a bird dog.

After watching her frolic to and fro without locating either of the two quail, we finally tried to show her where one was, and she still didn’t get it. That quail got up and we shot it, but Penny just wasn’t into the game.

Dave was sympathetic, and offered to go get Duke, and we said sure. Duke is an English setter like Penny, and has been Dave’s pride and joy. Duke is now 17 years old, although if you asked Duke, I think he would describe himself as being middle aged.  Duke did find the second quail, but Penny failed to back his point like a good bird dog should. She just wasn’t really paying attention.

By now we had spent an inordinate amount of time on killing two quail, so we had Dave go ahead and put out the other 10. Penny had calmed down, but still wasn’t awe-inspiring. We got up another quail, and shot at it, knocking off some feathers, and saw it land at the fence that separated the woods from the field. I spotted the quail walking about there, just on the other side of the fence, looking quite healthy. The woods were a mess of cedar trees at the edge, and I knew I wouldn’t have a shot if the quail flew into the woods. I didn’t want to shoot it on the ground, so we called Penny over and took our chances. She smelled it, but didn’t have a point before the bird took flight into the woods. I wrote that one off as lost, but a few minutes later, Penny came out of the woods with the quail in her mouth.

From then on she was on pretty good. She and Duke both found and pointed birds, and we got six more, missing  one that flew to the end of the field and across the road. The quail didn’t really want to fly much until they just had to, but once they got off the ground they flew as fast as a quail living in the wild.

It was then about noon, and we had found 10 of the 12 quail, so we let the other two go and moved on to the next field to hunt the pheasant. Normally at a pay-to-hunt hunting preserve, you pay a price per bird if you have your own dog, and if you need to use the house dog and guide, you have an additional fee. Dave didn’t bring this up, and gave us a lot of his, and Duke’s, time for no additional fee, and no questions asked. He also helped me clear a jam in my shotgun that I was giving me trouble. He just really wanted us to have a good hunt, and when Penny came around and started acting like the bird dog that she was meant to be, Dave was more excited and happier than any of us.

Dave set out our four pheasant in pretty heavy cover, warning us that we would need to get on them pretty quickly or they would run. He then took Duke home and left us on our own.

We looked and looked for the first two cocks he put out for probably half an hour without luck. Finally, Penny located the first cock. I missed it, but saw where it landed in the woods, and the second time we got it up it wasn’t so lucky.

After failing to find the second cock, we moved on to the part of the field that should have the hens. We had another big walk, back and forth through the heavy cover several times, and came up dry. Then Penny got a point in a spot we had walked through two or three times. Sure enough, one of the hens was there.

Dad decided to take a break from searching for the last two pheasants, and go back for the quail that had flown from our former field across the road into this one. It was worth our while, Penny found the well hidden quail. Even though she had a solid point in what looked like little cover, neither Dad nor I saw the bird until it flew. We got it as it flew on into the pheasant field.

We looked a little more, but finally gave up on the last two pheasant. Penny had gotten into a lot of birds, and had redeemed herself from her initial frivolous behavior. All three of us were tired, and we had enough quail and pheasants in the bag to take care of the Cooking Wild in Missouri recipes.

We enjoyed making the acquaintance of Dave and briefly, Jan. Jan had a tough year last year, having three strokes, but she managed to kill three deer in-between the strokes.

When we left it was after 1:30, and we needed lunch. Dad had never been to Boonville, so we headed over there. We were looking for an old downtown diner, and crisscrossed the downtown about three times without finding anywhere open. I went one more block toward the river, and saw a man standing on the corner with a sign that said “Fried Fish Special - $5.00.” He was like a messenger from God. I immediately parked, and he directed us to a little side-street restaurant called “Catch and Release” (http://boonvillescatchnrelease.com).  The food was excellent. The only disappointment was that the owner, a Kansas City guy, said he is going to close by March 31, because his current location isn’t working out, and he couldn’t find anywhere else to rent in Boonville. But he hopes to open another restaurant soon, perhaps in Columbia. I recommend going to the Catch and Release in Boonville while you still have a chance.