The Hunting Times

For those who do not know, Tannerite (TM)  is the brand name of a binary explosive target.  You mix two powders together and then shoot it with a high-powered rifle and it goes Boom!  Fun stuff.  On to the story... Mama and I went to town and bought new furniture on Saturday (after cooking at the Masonic pancake breakfast, cleaning up, and returning the flashing sign & then recycling - so it's already been a long day and it's only 1 pm).  We get back and there is no one around to help unload said furniture.  Nick is at a wedding in Whitestown and Alex is in Nashville, TN visiting his family.  I call BIL (brother-in-law) Andy next door.  He comes over after mowing.  It's now close to 8 pm. We unload the furniture - four trips to the basement.  Basement?  Yep, storing it there until the new carpet can go down in the living room.  Then what happens?  We pop a few tops.  My supressed .22 was still out from hav...

And I say, Oh Yeah! It's good to be me! Last week-end, all you faithful blog followers recall, Michael cleaned out his freezer.  At that time, I brined a turkey breast, a pheasant, and 10 ducks.  They have been in the solution for 5 days.  Some of you may say, "That's too long."  And, for smaller bits, you may be right.  But I did not use all that much salt.  I did add pepper flakes and cayenne to the mix though. Tonight, I fired up the smoker with apple wood.  I put the turkey and pheasant on the upper rack and the ducks on the lower rack.  I wanted the duck fat to NOT drip on the turkey and pheasant.  Well, what little of it there was. I pulled the smaller bits off after an hour.  You could taste the salt in them.  The pheasant was perfect - no salty flavor at all.  I have not yet tried a duck. BTW, I smoked the duck to 140 F, the pheasant to 150 F and the turkey to 160 F.  All done at 225 F smoker temperature. ...

We are T-Minus 26 days or so to our Annual Prairie Dog hunting trip to New Mexico.  Since our cabin is in Amistad and it is a 2-hour round trip to Dalhart, Texas (the closest town with gas, ice, beer, and food), it has become custom to take our food with us. To that end, Krueger cleaned out his freezer.  He gave me two garbage bags full of meat - mostly birds, but some deer as well.  I thawed it all out and called the boys (Nick and Alex) to come help me prepare it. Friday night we made dove stroganoff (cleaning close to 100 doves).  We also cleaned 5 geese, that on Saturday I turned into Italian Goose for sandwiches.  I ended up throwing one pheasant out as it was too freezer burnt to salvage.  However, I have about 13 ducks, 1 pheasant, and 1/2 a turkey breast currently brining.  I am going to smoke them all and turn them into sandwiches. And while we were at it, I pulled out a pork shoulder butt and tenderloin.  I smoked both on Sunday. ...