November 17, 2008

Field to feast!

I took up hunting this year and have actually had some pretty good luck. I shot my first dove, quail, and pheasant all this year within the last 3 months. It has been a great overall experience being out in the wilderness and trying to shoot some of God's creation. Each one presents a different challenge which has made trying to get the hang of it a little more difficult than I had thought.
I didn't take any pictures of my first pheasant because I shot it and it landed in a bunch of water and so it wasn't so pretty. But I did take some of my next pheasant. Pheasant display such a wide variety of color and patterns and it is quite magnificent. With all the birds I have been able to
take from the field I have started to stock pile them in my freezer. I have been quite eager to eat them but at the same time somewhat reluctant. Here I am with about a dozen birds in my freezer just waiting to be cooked and eaten and I haven't even tasted them. Will I like it or not. I have hear quite a few times that they do in fact taste pretty close to chicken. After my last pheasant kill pictured within this blog I decided I was going to do it. I was going to take the bird immediately into the house and prepare it to be eaten. I had no clue what I was doing. I have heard from many to cook them just like chicken. So that is what I attempted to do. I figured I would marinate them overnight and then BBQ them the next day. I went into the house to find things I could use to marinate. I checked the fridge and the first thing I grabbed was lemon juice. Poured some of that in. Then proceed to add soy sauce, honey, onion salt, meat tenderizer/seasoning/ garlic chips, and finally some BBQ sauce. I mixed it all up and stabbed the meat a few times. I smelled my concoction and was not really looking forward to it. Saturday afternoon rolled around and as I committed to myself to do I placed them on the BBQ and hoped for the best. Not more than 15-20 minutes later I took them off and inside for the final test. Without anything else I took my first bite. Not bad! After a few more I thought where is my dipping sauce this is good grub. It was about all I could do to keep from eating it all but I wanted Jen to try it. Reluctantly she did and wasn't going to right home about it but didn't mind it, or at least that is what she said. I am looking forward to cooking the rest of the pheasant and also giving the quail and dove a whirl. As the title states this blog wouldn't be complete if I didn't put a picture of the after look at the pheasant after a few bits had been thoroughly enjoyed.