Mongolian Venison (Or Beef)...You decide

So, I've been going a little blog reading crazy! My Pinterest boards have been feelings the effects of it as well! There are just SO many recipes that I want to try, I have no idea how I'll get them all done. I stumbled upon this little blog, Tracey's Culinary Adventures, and fell head over heels for her recipes! I quickly pinned as many recipes as possible, before her Mongolian Beef recipe popped off the page! She uses skirt steak, I used hind steaks (venison), you can take your pick! The smell alone, got DJ out of bed and ready for work without any snooze button!! (Just so you know, I didn't fix this for breakfast! When schedules are crazy you eat an early "dinner" a lot.) But, before we get started on this crazy awesome dinner, I want to introduce to you to my new niece and nephew!

Meet Malachi! Such a sweet little man and full of so much spirit!

Meet Morgan! She is such a cutie pie!

Okay, I won't gush...even though I REALLY want to! I just wanted ya'll to see how much more fun and exciting our lives just got!! 

Now, let's get started on this recipe! Here are the ingredients you will need:

Ingredients

1 lb. skirt steak-thin sliced against the grain (I used venison hind steaks)

1/4 c cornstarch

1/2 c water

1/2 c soy sauce (low sodium)

1/4 c packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

3 tsp canola oil--divided

1/2 tsp. grated ginger

1 TB garlic 

Scallions or green onion to top off (I didn't have either, used a white onion...tasted great)

To start off, you're going to want to take a paper towel and pat the steaks dry and then place them in a resealable bag. Add the cornstarch and give a good shake, shake, shake to move it all around! Once the pieces are coated, pour out onto a strainer and get rid of any excess cornstarch! In a small bowl, whisk together the water, soy sauce, brown sugar and red pepper flakes. Set aside for later!

Before they got thin sliced and coated in cornstarch

Now take 1 1/2 teaspoon fulls of the oil and heat it in a pan over med/high heat. Add the ginger and garlic and saute for 15-30 seconds. Add the sauce to the pan and heat through another 2 minutes. Transfer this back to the bowl.

My new cutting board I got from my sister! Love it :)

Turn your heat on high and measure out the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons of oil. Add the beef (or venison) and cook until browned on all sides. Add the sauce back to the pan and turn down the heat. Allow to simmer until your sauce has it's desired consistency.

Getting ready to be cooked! 

Ready to add the sauce back now

Simmering away...Smelling DELICIOUS

All finished! I snapped this photo and then devoured it! It's truly that good!

We served this over white rice, and it was really delicious! Great, quick meal for that left-over meat in your freezer! Thank you all for the visits to my page!! Can't wait to give you an update on the cutie pies!! Until then...

~Happy Eating~

Stew for those colder Fall nights

Well, I don't know about where you are, but here at home the nights are getting pretty chilly outside! It's so nice to finally have some crisp, cool air to make us forget about those sweltering summer days! We had some leftover stew meat in the freezer before all the new venison got added to the mix, so we decided to try out a new recipe I have in my new cookbook I got from a friend for my birthday! You can find the cookbook here! I must admit, I have already sat down and began to read this cookbook like a book! It is chalked full of great ideas for almost anything you want/need in your kitchen! So, thanks to Martha Storey (author) and her friends, we got to work on her venison stew! Again, if you don't have wild game meat on hand you can always substitute it for whichever stew meat tickles your fancy!

Here are the ingredients we decided to use:
1/2 c (+ 3 TBS) all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2-3 lbs. venison coast (cut into 1 inch cubes) or ready to go stew meat
1/4 c vegetable oil
2 c boiling water
1 bay leaf
2 beef bouillon cubes
1/2 lg onion, diced (recipe calls for 12 small whole onions cut into chunks but we both prefer onions in our stew a little smaller) 
5-6 small carrots thin sliced, (recipe calls for 6 medium carrots, cut into chunks but I'm not a carrot person)
1/2 c of cold water
1 lg. green pepper diced (again it called for 2 large green peppers cut into rings...I don't like a lot of "chunky" vegetables in my stew)
3 small potatoes sliced into rounds, then quarter each round (we added this)
Note: We left out the frozen package of lima beans (again...not a fan)

Here's what you're going to do with all these fantastic ingredients:
1) Mix the 1/2 c flour with the salt and pepper. Take the meat and cover (dredge) the meat in the flour mixture. Make sure each piece is coated on all sides. Place the coated pieces aside on a plate.
2) We used a large skillet and added the 1/4 c of vegetable oil, then browned the meat on all sides.

3) Add the boiling water and bay leaf to the skillet with the meat. Cover it up and let it simmer for about 30 minutes!
4) Discard the bay leaf and add the bouillon cubes. (NOTE: We added 2 cubes to the water that we were boiling and then added one more cube after we put it all in the skillet.)
5) After it has simmered for half an hour add the onions and carrots (and potatoes if you so wish). 
6) Simmer for another 45 minutes or so. I think we left ours on there about an hour!
7) Serve in a bowl and ENJOY!

We left out a part of the original recipe where you remove the meat and vegetables and thicken the sauce with the left-over flour and cold water. We wanted more of "liquid soup" instead of something thick! It turned out just as hearty and we both loved it!

You'll see in the picture which I forgot to add that when we added the vegetables 

we added a can of fire roasted tomatoes to give it a kick. 

And seriously...I couldn't make stew without adding tomatoes :)

I hope ya'll had a great weekend! 

December will be here in just a few short days, and I can't wait to cookin'!!

~Happy Eating~

 

 andertoons.com

Jalapeno Dove Poppers from Deer Camp

So, I'm back!! It has been a crazy last month and a half with traveling, work and hunting season starting back up! We had the opportunity to get some vacation time with some great friends of ours at Grand Lake here in Oklahoma! The guys did a lot of hunting, although I did get to go sit in the blind with DJ for the first time this year!

Of course "deer camp" would not have been the same without all the wonderful food we cooked up and shared with the Copes! So the next couple of posts will be me sharing with you everything we got to eat! Let's all be real here...I LOVE to eat and I LOVE to be outdoors! This girl was HAPPY!! Also, in honor of the holiday we just had I want to say thank you to all the men and women who have sacrificed their lives and their time to serve this wonderful country. Sitting out in the woods surrounded by nature, peace and quiet, and the man who has my heart makes you suddenly very aware that we are lucky to get to have these experiences and live in a country like the good ole' US of A!

 Beautiful sunrise coming up over the field

So, let's get started on these dove poppers!!

He started with 15 dove breasts (bones removed) and marinated them in a Ziplock bag in the fridge for 2-4 hours in Allegro game tame! (We love Allegro...although it is a bit salty so if you're cooking with it you may want to hold back on the salt until you do a taste test)!

Luckily Dee Jay's best friend, Eric was there with us to share a couple of his recipes with us! Truly, all I had to do was stand by with the camera and learn as he cooked! Ladies...can we say SPOILED???!!! He started by soaking some toothpicks in a glass of water like so..

Next, he took 8 jalapenos and cut them in half (length wise) and dug out the inside (core and seeds)!
NOTE: If you like your poppers a little more spicy, leave a couple seeds in there!

Now he took 8 pieces of regular bacon and cut them in half (to make a shorter piece of bacon not two long pieces)! He put one piece of dove breast into a halved jalapeno and wrapped that goodness in bacon. Skewer with the toothpick and place on a grill over medium heat until bacon is done and golden brown!

Eric preparing the poppers

Here they are all ready for the grill! The extra meat was just leftover

 dove breasts we had that they grilled up after it had been marinated!

Hot off the grill (insert drooling face here)

That's about it! So easy and incredibly delicious! Get ready for some more great recipes!! Hope everyone has a safe weekend and as always...

~Happy Eating~

I almost forgot: I have to brag a little here about Dee Jay :) He harvested an 8-point buck with his bow over the weekend and got a doe! This is the nicest buck he's dropped since he started hunting! Eric's wife Tara owns her own photography business and you can find here at Full Feather Photography! She does really awesome work and is just getting started (that's how amazing she is)! Luckily we not only had a great guy cooking for us this weekend (who I might add harvested a really nice doe) but we also had an incredible photographer! Here is a shot she got of Dee Jay's buck! GREAT JOB GUYS!!! Can't wait to start cooking all this meat we now have in the freezer!!

Venison Roast and Potatoes

So, I don't know if I wished on enough shooting stars the other night or if it was just a plain old lucky day, but we found more venison!! I'm sure for those of you who don't have venison or like venison you're probably saying, UGH! right about now! However, you can substitute beef/turkey/chicken whatever you like into these venison recipes to fit your liking! With that being said, I defrosted a great looking venison roast and threw it in the crock-pot, left it overnight, and by the time Dee Jay was home from work the next day we had a FANTASTIC venison roast with potatoes! It was so easy I almost felt ashamed that it tasted so good. (That is why you will see to keep it easy, we used paper plates instead of the real deal!) HaHa! So, just for kicks I looked up some better nutritional facts about venison! You can find it here at Self Nutrition Data (know what you eat)! Here is everything I did to make this melt in your mouth roast and potatoes.

I started with about 5 to 6 small potatoes and sliced them into thin rounds. I cut enough to cover the bottom of the crock pot (leaving room for the roast in the middle) and stacked them about 3 layers high! Next I poured about half a container of beef broth into the crock pot. I added the venison roast after we salt and peppered both sides. Next I added chopped red pepper, red pepper flakes (for a little spicy kick), a whole white onion, and 2 cloves of garlic minced! Left all of the ingredients in the crock pot on low overnight until the next day for lunch! When I woke up, there was no problem getting me out of bed, the smell alone made me want to eat the whole roast before DJ even got home! Good thing I didn't, I would have be in
T-R-O-U-B-L-E! I added some Brussel Sprouts for a side and we had a very lovely little lunch!
Side Note: There is not a lot in this picture because I seriously was so anxious to try it, then couldn't stop eating it, that I forgot to take a picture. Luckily I had a little extra at the end of the day, so I snapped a quick photo! :)

I'm sitting here thinking about it, and getting in the cooking mood so I think I'm going to head to the kitchen and make something delicious to share with you next time! I'm thinking some sort of cupcake so DJ can take them to the guys at work! Hope everyone had a wonderful, safe Labor Day weekend. Until we meet again... ~Happy Eating~ 

A little funny for your afternoon

ToonPool.com

Italian Sausage Meatballs and Spaghetti

Wow, time has flown by and I finally had some time to sit down and share a meal with ya'll!! It was one of those nights where we had some random items hanging around and the Italian came out in me full force with this one!! Spaghetti and meatballs is a favorite of mine. I love to throw in all sorts of yummies to make it a little less ordinary! So, I pulled the drawers out of the fridge and looked for things I needed to make fast before they went bad and realized I could make a mean spaghetti dinner! It was fabulous and everything was just hanging around our cabinets and fridge, so here is how I dressed it up.

I threw a package of spaghetti in a large pot and started that cooking, while Dee Jay started on the meatballs. We had a little over a pound of ground Italian sausage ready to be cooked so he mashed up the meat and threw in a couple handfuls of finely diced onion, and tossed in a little handful of oatmeal. I had a left-over jar of Ragu spaghetti sauce, so I tossed that on a back-burner and chopped the rest of the onion and tossed it in. I added a dash (shake the container once or twice) of oregano and parsley. Then found some red pepper flakes to add a kick to the sauce! When the spaghetti was done, I drained the water in the sink added a splash of red wine vinegar and about two tablespoons of butter. We tossed the sauce in with spaghetti and left it on the stove on low while the meatballs finished cooking!

When everything was ready to go I warmed up some garlic bread in the oven and served it up!! The meal saved an onion and a jar of sauce from meeting their doom! It's so easy to grab things around your kitchen and start cooking something regular and give it a little individual taste of your own! If you're out of ideas for cooking and about to throw a microwave meal in, look around and think to yourself what tastes good together and what could make an easy meal when you're at the end of your groceries!! You'll find you have enough food left to feed a family of 10 for a week if you really use your brain :) It's fun to cook like this, even though some people think it's scary or afraid they will just mess it up! You know what tastes good to you...So, I'm challenging you to try it out! It's fun to come up with a meal by yourself and we LOVED this! I could eat Italian food every single day, so it didn't take long to know what I wanted to do! If you get a good idea going, send them my way!! I love to hear what ya'll are cooking in your kitchens!! Stay tuned because I just made an incredible venison roast that will be added very soon!! Hunting season is almost upon us once again, and this girl could not be more excited to finally have some meat back in the freezer!!

Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top when you're ready to eat :)

~HAPPY EATING~