Recipes and Pics From This Weekend

This weekend Hubby promised the kids he would take them squirrel hunting. Yes this just thrills me. No not the hunting part but the squirrel part. I eat deer but that is about where I draw the line on the meat from game animals. They ended up with three squirrels. That is perfect since there are three of them.

Anybody that has read my blog or has known me for a while knows that Hubby loves to cook outside. He would rather eat food cooked on an open fire in cast iron that any thing else in the world.  Here is his squirrel recipe and a corn fritter we put together. I made the batter and he fried them.

 First thing you need here is some squirrels. Thankfully he handed them to me already cleaned.  The next step is to wash them and get off all the hair. This is a hard thing to do as it loves to stick. Then we soaked them over night in salt water. I drained them and cut them into pieces. I removed the legs and left the ribs and back bones together. He then parboiled them for about 30 minuets at a good rolling boil. Then he drained them and let them cool. I coated them in butter milk then seasoned flour. I set them on a baking sheet and let them sit for 15 minuets to let the flour stick. He then fried them covered in a cast iron skillet in lard.

Here is Wesley eating his first squirrel leg. Yes he asked me why I did not eat one. I told him I don't make him eat things he doesn't like and I do not like squirrel and he left it at that. I did not tell him I will not eat frog, rabbit or squirrel. Two are to close to the rodent family for my taste and I am not starving and The other reminds me of Kermit the frog to much.

 Here is the recipe for the corn fritters.
1 cup self rising flour
1 cup self rising cornmeal
2 eggs
1 can cream corn
1 cup pepper jack cheese
1 small onion minced
3 tablespoons of pickled jalapeno minced
season salt to taste
right at 1 cup butter milk

I mixed all the wet ingredients in one bowl and all the dry in another. I then added the wet to the dry and stirred until mixed together. I used right at a cup of nonfat buttermilk. It may need more if you want a thinner batter. He fried these in lard so they had a slight bacon flavor to them as well.

 Here is a look at my lardo. I removed it from salt and rinsed it. I then dried it really well. I then placed it in the fridge in a zip bag for later use. I did try it but since my car is still broke down and I did not have any good bread in the house I did the red neck thing. I sliced it really thin and put it on some saltine crackers and broiled it in the oven. It did really great even Hubby ate it. I just coated it in a mix of molasses, curing salt, thyme, black pepper corns, garlic, and rosemary. I then put it in the fridge for two weeks covered.

 This is the view from the back of my house. We have some trees turning but most are just brown due to lack of rain this year.

 This is from the back of the field towards the house.

 If you pull up in my yard you would think we are nuts. The grass at the barn is over our heads. Since the flood we have not had any animals out there. We decided to let it grow up for the wild life. When we did this we had a rabbit explosion.  We will clean it up when we fix the fence and put more live stock back out there. But for now we have some of the cutest baby rabbits running out there. I can watch them from my bed room window.

 People on twitter hear me talk about Smokie. (@waylandcook) Well here is one of his pictures. He is a double haired Pom. His hair is cut short here. He needs your thoughts and prayers right now. He is going nuts on me. When he is left alone and has one flea on him he chews his self. Right now he has no hair on his rear end. We are doctoring the scratches and handling the flea that is driving him nuts. If any one knows what to do for him when he is alone in the house please let me know. He has separation problems and does not understand he can not go every where I do. (No he is not spoiled at all lol)

And since Halloween is just around the corner here is one of Wesley's Scary pictures. Bekka and Wesley  were playing at taking pictures with her camera. I think he is supposed to be growling at the camera but I still think he looks mean. Handme is just happy to be there and is sticking out his tongue at you.