Into the Wild

I'm thinking that Kathy and I are cooking on the wild side this past couple of weeks.....a wild game kick that is.  Last week, you know we cooked gator and next week we already planned to "cook our goose".  Tonight, we cooked and ate venison, which is just a sneaky way of saying, "deer meat". 

I shopped like a bog boy and picked up a green pepper and some sliced mushrooms.  We already had one box of mushrooms but I got another one.  Why?  Because we like it!

We marinated the venison with meat tenderizer, Worchestershire sauce, and steak seasoning, and let it sit fuming in its juices.  Oh, by the way, my son, Jason, gave us the deer meat which he had processed by Joe Wood.  Hey Joe!  Beautiful job on the cut!  And Jason, thanks for hooking Mom and Dad up!

Kathy browned the venison while I diced up the veggies.  The grand dish that we were preparing was Venison Stir Fry.  It consisted of the following (Get this because there will be a quiz later!): green pepper, red pepper, onion, mushrooms, lots of mushrooms, tomatoes with green chilis, and unmeasured dashes of A-1, Heinz 57, Worchestershire, Crystal's Louisiana sauce, garlic salt and season salt.  (If you want to thicken the sauce, use a heaping table spoon of corn starch dissolved in a little water.)  After adding all of our ingredients with the meat and veggies, we let it simmer for about 20 minutes.  Total prep time was around 40 minutes.  Worth it!!!

The side dished were: green peas, apple sauce, jasmine rice, and cole slaw.  We like to eat! 

Mom was our sweet guest and we all enjoyed this meal entirely.

Food taste score: 3.5

Thanks for coming in and peeking over at our table.  You are always welcome!

Eat Them Before They Eat You

Tonight, our theme for cooking was, "Eat them before they eat you!"  We decided to cook Gator Bites...that's right, alligator in bite-sized chunks.  Where did the idea of gator to eat come from?  It's mainly from our scampers to St. Pete Beach, Florida where we eat at a place called Silas' Steakhouse.  In fact, we're planning to head back down very soon to see our granddaughter, Corey May.  And we'll also be headed back down to St. Pete BEACH!  Why?  Because we like it!

Kathy and I picked up the gator meat from Nick's of Clinton last week thinking we would be cooking them last Saturday, but a stomach bug said otherwise! Ugh!  So, tonight was the night for it instead.

We ran by McKay's for buttermilk to soak the gator meat, and picked up some jalapeno and red pepper that will be diced and added to fried potatoes.  (It's fried potatoes with a kick in the pants!)  We also settled for some coleslaw from Mckay's.  We usually get it from Copsey's Seafood in Mechanicsville.  (Holler out to Marie for her killer coleslaw!)  Then we were on our way home...

We diced up onions and tossed them in with the jalapeno and red pepper as Kathy fried the potatoes.  (Take a peek at the pic...What a beautiful mix of colors and taste!) 

Flour, of coarse, is what we used for frying the gator, but not without some doctoring.  Salt, pepper and garlic powder joined the flour and waited to gently coat the gator.  Next came dipping the gator in the flour mixture, while handling the gator chunks with the hands of a mother: gentle but firm.  Then we plopped them into the deep fryer.

Earlier today, we made a remoulade sauce that contained creole mustard, ketchup, horseradish, mayonnaise, tobasco, and a dash of white vinegar.  You have to have dippin' sauce!  Come on somebody!

After prep and 35 minutes of cooking, we sat down to eat our experimental plate.  Overall opinion: Not Bad.  It tastes like chicken!  No, just kidding.  It doesn't at all.  It's not gamey, but something like calamari.  You have to try it!

Food Scale Score: 3.0

We will do it again....but maybe with a different sauce?!

Gator Bite Recipe: