Venison - the other red meat

Today is Monday, November 26 - the first day of rifle season for white-tailed deer here in Pennsylvania. Mr. Curious ( my husband) has just left on his annual quest. He doesn't go far; just across the road, really. He doesn't need to go far, since our neighborhood is lousy with deer. Deer hunting is a big deal here; schools even give kids the opening day off to go hunting. A word of caution: If you, like me, enjoy walking outdoors - be sure to wear some bright orange clothing during this time of year! The various deer seasons here in PA stretch from now until Jan. 26. If you're interested, here is the PA Game Commission page on seasons and bag limits.

 

                                                    Ghostly herd behind our house

 

Mr. Curious is not a trophy hunter. He enjoys being outdoors, sitting quietly and observing nature. He's always telling me stories of this bird or that fox that he saw while sitting still, and how much I would've enjoyed seeing it. He enjoys the tradition of it, too, having hunted since childhood with his dad and brothers. And of course, the free meat is huge plus. There's no need to be squeamish or anti-hunting, people! The deer herds no longer have any natural predators (other than speeding cars) and the herds are managed for hunting. The idea is to keep the populations stable so that starvation and disease don't become a problem. As it is, many, many deer will starve and succumb to diseases, despite all the efforts put forth on their behalf.


So, I'm not squeamish about all of this and in fact I enjoy eating venison. We have most of our deer meat ground up into burger meat. Not that I make burgers with it - I use it in place of ground beef in recipes that call for that ingredient. I can't tell any difference. We don't have any pork fat ground into it as some people do. As a result, our ground venison is lean, lean, lean - a low cholesterol dieters dream. Plus, you can't do any better when it comes to all the recent buzzwords: Local, all natural, grass-fed, antibiotic and chemical free. Even if you don't hunt, perhaps you know of a hunter who doesn't use the meat and you could get a hold of a 'side of deer' in that way. Be adventurous. Give it a try!


 Another favorite cut of venison is the back straps - the tenderloins. Oh, my, they are delicious. Here's my go-to recipe for the straps:

VENISON TENDERLOIN BITES

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 1/2 cups Italian dry bread crumbs 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 pound venison tenderloin, cut into 1 inch cubes salt and pepper to taste 5 cups arugula 1 lemon, cut into quarters

Directions:

1.	Preheat the oven's broiler and set the oven rack at about 6 inches from the heat source. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
2.	Warm the olive oil and garlic in a small saucepan over low heat for 5 minutes to infuse the flavor of the garlic into the olive oil. Place the bread crumbs into a mixing bowl, and pour the oil mixture over top. Stir the parsley, and Parmesan cheese into the bread crumb mixture until evenly blended. Press the venison cubes into the bread crumb mixture to coat, and place onto the prepared baking sheet. Make sure the venison pieces are not touching.
3.	Broil in the oven until the bread crumbs are golden, and the venison has turned from red to pink in the center, or to your desired degree of doneness, about 6 minutes. Turn the cubes occasionally as they cook.
4.	Divide the arugula onto 4 dinner plates, and top with the broiled venison. Squeeze a quarter of a lemon over each plate to serve. Enjoy!

Bluebirds through the window

I've been observing bluebirds out my window. They arrive in small flocks of 6 - 10. They flutter about the yard, trying out different perches, nabbing a wayward insect or two, and then they begin to land on the nest boxes. It's fun to watch them as they check out the boxes. I can easily anthropomorphise their behavior as they flick their wings and chatter to each other: "What do ya think? I dunno, let me go in...Please do! After you..Thank you,Yes, okay, this one's not bad.." and so on. In fact, I can imagine them chatting back and forth in the manner of those polite gophers from the old Looney Tunes cartoons. But I digress.
In the winter months, bluebirds form small flocks and travel about foraging together. They will use empty nest boxes as a communal roost at night when the temperatures really plunge - as they tend to do during our long, dark Pennsylvania winters. I like to think of these as 'our' birds, although there's no way to know for sure if they are, in fact, birds fledged from our nest boxes.

Looks like they're trying to reach a consensus.

 

Wing-flicking - "Over here, this one looks great!"

Some background info would be helpful.We put up the nest boxes years ago, as we live in ideal bluebird habitat: open fields bordered by woodlots. We've hosted nesting bluebirds every year since. They always raise two, sometimes three, broods. We love 'our' bluebirds! They are very personable - as birds go - and beneficial to have around the yard since they feed on insects, caterpillars, and the like.

Our first two nest boxes were mounted on a fence post and a tree. Both are terrible ideas. It's amazing how many different creatures can and will climb in order to reach a tasty meal of eggs or nestlings.The final straw came when a squirrel deftly reached into the tree-mounted box, pulled out the nestlings one by one, and devoured them. Murdering squirrels?? Waaah! Enter our current predator-proof mounts.The boxes are on metal poles with a homemade predator guard below.
 Resourceful humans - 1
 Pesky squirrels, cats, raccoons, snakes, and other assorted climbing critters - 0

If you plan to host bluebirds, do yourself a favor and install the boxes on a metal pole with a guard underneath. Here are plans for a stovepipe baffle. That website, Sialis.org, is an excellent and complete resource on being a landlord to bluebirds and other native cavity nesting birds. I might mention that I didn't touch on the subject of English Sparrows here - that is a subject for another day when I'm in more of a ranting mood. Suffice it to say that the predator baffles don't help with that problem. And problem it is, with a capital P which rhymes with G and that stands for Gun.... Stop right there! Before you write me off as a yee-hawin' nut - hear me out. I am not a shoeless, gun-totin' old Ma with a chaw in m' lip - if you peruse the Sialis website, you'll see where I'm coming from and what a dire threat the sparrows pose to Bluebirds.

Meanwhile, off I go to waste some more time, staring out the window at the cute antics of MY bluebirds!