Oompa Y'all!

Our 6+ cu ft freezer is stocked. About half of it is venison in some way shape or form. Because of that, I cook with venison a lot. Bottom line is, I'm cheap... The more cost effective the meal made from things locally or already in the home is, the more I'm going to make it.

Ran into a personal roadblock this week in terms of motivation. Yeah, the 4 loads of laundry, 3 loads of dishes, multiple meals and breads, bathing 4 dogs, trimming dog toenails, completely detailing the truck, cleaning up the garage some more, almost finishing taxes, blah... blah... blah..., just didn't quite make me feel productive...

I did what any smart woman does. I called my Mommy! She always has the best ideas. I'm super excited for her cookbook to come out (which is why some of my recipes don't end up on here). Anyway, she did some browsing of the internet and came up with Vension Gyros. Vension Gyros? Seriously? WTH!?

Then, I thought about the pita's I found on sale for $0.50 in the deli drawer, half a freezer of Vension, Greek Yogurt I bought with a coupon for like half nothing (plus it was on sale), and butt load of herbs and spices in my cabinet that I like to use within a year.

Side note: please use your spices within a year or throw them out. I know there's nothing wrong with them but if you can't get them fresh, at least have them not old!

She did some leg work for me and sent me the following Venison marinate. Jeff got the itch to grill today so we grilled the meat after marinating it with the FoodSaver container thingy. That thing is awesome by the way.

So here is the marinade.

1 tbsp cumin
2 garlic cloves, smacked hard with a knife so it kinda smashes
2 tsp marjoram
1 tsp rosemary (can be fresh, if so, just a sprig or so)
1 tbsp oregano
few splashes of red wine vinegar
2 pinches of salt
about a half a palm full of pepper (I like pepper!)

Mix this all together and sprinkle over 2 packs or so of Venison steaks. Ours were tenderized which made them SOOO good. Splash the whole thing with a few tablespoons of olive oil. Just eyeball it. It's really hard to mess it up. I put it in the Food Saver vac seal container thingy. The plastic one. Sealed it up and threw it back in the fridge.

Let it sit overnight. This is important!

After you get done with the meat, you need to mix the Tzatziki to sit overnight too. It needs to mix.

My recipe is not traditional really but it's super tasty.

1 cucumber peeled and finely diced
around 2 cups of good greek yogurt, do not substitute for regular, it's gonna be nasty!
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp herbes de provance
1 tsp salt, fresh and ground in a morter and pestle
1 tsp pepper, fresh and ground in a morter and pestle
1/2 tsp coriander seeds, fresh and ground in a morter and pestle
1 small garlic clove, finely minced
2 tsp lemon juice (or Nelly & Joe's Key Lime Juice. It's really good!)

Mix everything together until it's nice and creamy. Put it in the fridge overnight to let it set up.

NEXT DAY!

If you're like me, get a husband involved with this one. Spending time with food together is a GREAT way to connect and mine is just as much a foodie as I am. :-)

Light the grill and get it screaming hot. When it's nice and hot, lay the happy meat on the grill and let it sizzle like a fat kid at the beach. After about a minute and a half, flip it. If it sticks, the meat hasn't caramelized enough, don't pull it, just let it sit a minute more. But DO NOT walk away. This will burn extraordinarily quick. When it's about medium, pull the steaks off and let them sit under foil for no less than 5 minutes. Otherwise it's gonna lose all the juice and end up dry like shoe leather.

Toast your pita on the grill for about 30 seconds. This makes them super tender and delicious.

Schmear the pita with tzatziki sauce nice all the way around. Dice up some fresh tomato but don't put it on yet.

Slice the steaks very thin at an angle into strips. The goal is something easy to bite through so you don't end up with meat dripping down your chin... that's for another time and completely your business.

Pile a decent handful of steak on the pita and throw a few tomatoes on the top. Onion if you really like it. Sometimes fresh cucumber isn't bad, but I don't think it's quite necessary here.

Dig in to your delicious low country culinary adventure!

Yes Deer!

This year my husband took a dear hunting. The processor turned a good bit into sausage so my goal was to find some new ways to use deer. Today, amongst finding boxes and more unpacking, I managed to come up with some decent dishes. I know what you're thinking... Deer? Eww. Not so much! Bambi is good, y'all!

Number 1: Ragu very much...

Ingredients:
1 Onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
about a foot of deer sausage, casing removed and sliced into medalions
1 inch of peeled chopped ginger root
1 tbsp paprika
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp fresh coriander (ground in a spice grinder or mortar)
about 2 cups of carrots, sliced into thin medallions
1 can chickpeas
1 zucchini, diced
1 yellow squash, diced
1 can stewed or diced tomatoes (whatever is in the pantry works!)
1 can tomato paste
2 cups chicken stock (much better if home made)

Saute everything but the tomatoes in about 2 tbsp of olive oil. When it starts to get a little crusty (not burnt, this is NOT a Cajun dish) add some of the stock to deglaze (this is foodie talk for get all the crusties off the bottom)the pot. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for about 10-20 minutes. If you have more time, well go ahead and leave it on. Nothing will really hurt it at this point. Just turn the heat down low.

I served it over some mashed potatoes. I kind of like the Idaho boxed potatoes. They don't have anything but dehydrated spuds and none of that weird junk. Add your own weird junk!

Makes a great hearty meal for a cold day. Even my husband, the squash hater, liked this one. He did however want to trade out the chick peas for green beans, which is totally acceptable! Throw whatever you have in the pot so long as it's a veggie.


Number 2: Can you Deer? Chili

This one is super hard. You'll need a crock pot, can opener, and possibly a knife. That last one is up to you.

Ingredients:
1 ft long section of smoked deer sausage (substitute whatever meat you like here if it isn't available)
2 cans of black beans
2 cans light kidney beans
1 can dark kidney beans
2 cans corn
1 onion, diced
1 pack taco seasoning
2 cans diced tomato and green chili
1-2 fresh diced jalapeno

Throw everything (including liquid from cans) in a crock pot on high for like a minimum of 4 hours. This stuff is great the next day. Make some corn bread for it though. It tends to get a little warm. You can tone it down with some extra corn or beans. If you want to use fresh, go for it.

I also made some of Jen's famous chicken soup. I'll let her tell you about that one. Sufficed to say, it's like, awesome.