Christmas nutcracker

Our Woods to Food Christmas Gift Poem

by Ann Koenig

I didn't get a llama for Christmas

To munch on our lawn like I dreamed

Not sure quite what I was thinking

Apparently not logic, it seemed.

But, under the tree what could there be

But a spring loaded device of new

With a lever and cams it's cooler than lambs

This nutcracker will surely do.

So, all you walnuts beware

And, hickories you'd better hide, also

'Cause I don't think there's a nut in the world

This baby can't crack with gusto.

And to all the family and friends

who from us recieved a copy

of our new favorite gift to give 

A signed Cooking Wild in Missouri

Let me extend the offer

If you're ever driving past

To bring your whole nuts to our house

Our nutcracker's built to last.

Papassinos (Sardinian raisin and nut shortbread cookies), page 131

It is so the Christmas season. We've made a gingerbread house and actual cookies not from the frigerator section at the grocery store! That tells you right there that something special must be in the air. One of the Christmas cookies we made was papassinos from Cooking Wild in Missouri.

Really, as I think about it though, this story is about mammas, and specifically my mom.

Sara Hill with KOMU asked to film a story about the 'woods to food' project our family is doing. She wanted to film Fred and the boys hunting and then me cooking from the book. We set up Thursday to do this since the boys would be home from school. Anyway, because 1) I rarely seem to get done everything I picture getting done and 2) we're trying not to stress this season, Thursday morning came and I hadn't got the house straightened up too much.

My mom and dad were up to watch the kids for the day. And, while I went to work in the morning for a bit, Mom saw to it that things got tiddied up. Then, because the Sara Hill was coming at noon and the cookies I wanted to make needed to chill for four hours, Mom made the dough for me in the morning. Then, she trotted to the basement to help us catch up on laundary, helped my older son on his piano playing, and worked with the boys to clean their rooms - all before 11:00 a.m.

Then, when the film crew got here, she stepped outside with her dog, stepping away from the attention of the TV folks.

And, as it turns out, Sara and company filmed us making another recipe, but didn't stay long enough to film us baking the cookies anyway. They left to film Fred and the boys rabbit hunting and had enough footage by then that they didn't need to come back to see the finished product of what we were making.

Thanks, Mom, for supporting us on our project and our family! And, thanks to all the mommas this holiday season who are helping their adult daughters make "ends meet" with all the big and little things you do to keep our worlds turning in the right direction. Life is so much with better with you.

Cookies were good, by the way.

Merry Christmas, Mom, and to all a good night.

Venison ragu, page 24

I’ve been looking forward to making this recipe since before I got my deer. Ann’s been doing nearly all of the cooking, and I wanted to take a turn. This looked like a good one, and one that I could handle.

Ann was in the kitchen with me when I started. As she read down the ingredient list, she said, “Oh, that’s just gross.” She was referring to the six tablespoons of butter we were supposed use to sauté the onions.

I tried to sway her with math. “It’s a big recipe,” I said. “If you divide the butter out by the number of servings, it amounts to less butter than you’d normally use to eat a slice or two of bread.”

“Yes,” she replied, “ but this butter is being used to fry pork sausage.”

She had a point. Although I normally precisely follow all recipes, figuring the author of the recipe knows far more than I, I relented and cut back to three table spoons of butter. I put in the 1/3 cup of oil before we had a chance to discuss it.

The excess continued throughout the recipe. Once I had about three pounds of meat (venison and sausage) simmering, I added 3 ½ cups of milk to it, and then let it boil away. That was followed by adding three cups of dry white wine. I was all out of the cheap stuff, so I had to pop the cork on a bottle of Yellowtail that I had paid $5.85 for. This recipe was getting to be an investment. And in case you haven’t done the math, three cups of wine pretty much equals one bottle. There’s hardly enough left for a glass. I did substitute a big pile of tomatoes that we had left over from the garden for one of the 28-ounce can of tomatoes. These were tomatoes that we had harvested green right before a freeze, and I had finally got them ripe, so I didn’t want to let them go bad.

 We asked over company since it was such a big recipe. Our guests included three adult friends, and two kids that are Henry’s age.

All of the kids were polite enough to not say anything negative about the dish, but none of them asked for seconds. This surprised me, because they all like deer burger, and love pork sausage.

The adults liked the dish – okay. I don’t think anyone was crazy about it. Ragu Bolognese is a very different dish than spaghetti sauce, be it homemade or from a jar. It’s not just that it’s drier; I found myself longing for some oregano or basil, and not really needing the nutmeg. In order to appreciate the dish, I think you just need to get spaghetti sauce out of your head and treat this as something different altogether.

 A couple days later, Ann warmed up some of the leftover meat for lunch, and had it with some kale and good bread, and just loved it. This might be a dish that has some staying power after all.

Jim Low's Mallard Satay with Thai peanut dipping sauce, page 61

We've now had wild duck cassoulet (which one could call bits of duck hidden in a bean and sausage casserole) and duck rumaki (which one could call soaked duck wrapped in much bacon).

What we haven't had was straight up duck. You know, an actual piece of meat, naked, staring up at you, with no bacon, sausage or whatever to hide behind. And, I was beginning to think there was a reason for that. A reason like "plain old wild duck is too nasty to eat alone", for instance.

I had one more package of duck in the freezer from Fred's hunting expedition and a couple more recipes to choose from. I bought ingredients for mallard stew but got out of the mood for another tomato based wet dinner, so I shifted gear to the duck satay recipe.

BUT, satay is basically meat of a stick, like fair food only with a bit more spice. And, that stick wasn't going to do much hiding for the duck meat. How was straight up duck going to be?

I used the last four ducks for this recipe since that's what it calls for, feeling guilty that I might waste quite a bit. The meat is marinaded in wine, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and lime, then skewered and grilled. OK, in the recipe book the cool people grill over charcoal with soaked sassafras wood on top. Whatever. I didn't get to that.

Then, there's a Thai peanut dipping sauce to make. I loves me some good Thai food and was excited about the hopes of making a good peanut sauce.

Anyhow, we kept checking the duck satay with a flashlight on the grill. I didn't want to overcook and ruin the meat (hey, let's at least give the recipe a chance) but the duck wasn't browning much it didn't seem like. I guess that's because it's so lean. We made a guess that they were done and brought them in.

Fast forward to the end of the meal. Bamboo skewers are littering the table. Four are by my plate. About half a dozen are strewn around each of the boys and Fred's plates. The platter is bare.

So, this recipe proves it. Duck on a stick with no bacon or anything else to cover with . . . can be yummy.  

George Seek's Duck Rumaki, page 60

This is the ultimate guy food. It involves hunting, fire, wooden sticks . . . even bacon, for goodness sakes. First, hunt the duck. Then soak daylights out of the stips of meat in soy sauce and teriaki. Then, wrap the duck around a water chestnut, a strip of bacon around that, and spear a couple times with a toothpick. Add fire, and via la, you've got a tasty snack. And, let me tall you, fellas, compliments to the chef on these tasty babies. You know how to cook a game bird. This is an often used recipe to cook duck and a fine way to get the job done. When I told our friend we'd be having duck at dinner, she said it had been years since she'd had duck and was looking forward to juicy, rich meat.  Whoa, we are not talking about the same duck here. Finnie was thinking of domestic duck, the duck I think of hanging in Chinese meat markets. As I said in an earlier post, wild duck is vastly different with a dark, livery taste. Soy sauce and bacon are a great way to help the meat along. So, thanks, boys, for the excellent recipe.

Craig's Picante Pecans, page 141



Spice mix for the pecans

I made an appetizery dinner this week for some folks and used a couple recipes out of the book. It was quite fun because a couple of the people we had over are from Australia. I love the idea of serving wild foods to them. If I were in Australia I would be thrilled with having some home cooked dishes from wild foods-talk about getting to know a place!

One of the dishes I made was spicy pecans. The nuts are from the orchard here in Columbia. A duck hunter told Fred that he knows of several wild pecan trees growing at Overton Bottoms Conservation Area which is west of Columbia just on the other side of the Missouri River. It would be interesting to pick our own next year.

I was leary of usig lavender buds, which is one of the herbs in the recipe. I think of lavender as incense and therefore it is not appetizing. But, by this time I'd have to be dense to not trust the cookbook and at least give it a try. 

I've made candied pecans once before by winging it and they turned out a mess. At the time I was guessing the crunchy foamy coating on candied pecans must come from whipped egg whites, so I foamed up some, dipped the pecans in them, and baked them with some other ingredients. They turned out soggy and much like chicken food.

The spicy pecan recipe from the book, however, used butter, maple syrup and spices and turned out  rich and meaty and flavorful. I'd recommend them for sure. I served the left over nuts at brunch on the weekend and that was nice, too.

Venison Shephard's Pie, pages 32-33

Here's the spice list in the shephard's pie recipe:

coriander

cumin

fenugreek

cardamom

mustard seeds

fennel

cloves
cayenne
tumeric
cinnamon

garlic

Um, that doesn't sound like my mother's shephard's pie. Actually, I don't remember my mom ever making shephard's pie. But, you get the point. The top is sweet potatoes mostly, with a small portion white and a little bit of maple syrup added.

The meat portion is venison, onions, cream, egg, peas, corn and the spices.

I actually thought this was going to be a bust dinner. I've made mashed sweet potatoes before too wet, and thought this dish was going to be bland (before I  looked at the spice list) and wet. To my pleasant surprise, we all loved it. We stopped the boys at thirds because we had just shy of half left and if stretched, that could do for another meal. There's a good mom for you: "No worries, kids, we'll just fill up on brownies at dessert." "Oh, come on, Mom. Can we at least have toast? We're still hungry."

Toast was made. They ate it while wrestling around on the kitchen floor. Boys. And, there you have it. A mom sliding on her parenting care and growing, silly boys . . . and shephard's pie.