Cabbage and apples and deer. Oh my!

Round One:

To kick off the first official meeting of the food group known as the Foodivas, I decided to go big or go home. It was a crisp January morning when I peeled myself out of bed and made my way into my frigid kitchen at 8:00 am to begin preparations for the feast that would soon follow. What I was about to embark on was not a journey for the faint of heart, I was about to prepare my first deer roast. Yes, that’s right folks, I said deer. For those of you interested in the deets of the deer- it was a two point buck, shot and killed October 22, 2010 in the great Pacific Northwest. Later brought back to my family homestead in Port Townsend, Washington to be packaged upon arrival.

I must now admit to our dedicated foodie followers that this was only my second time cooking meat EVER. Right now you may be asking yourself, how did she get here? Well, up until recently (partially sparked by a trip to New Orleans where virtually every choice on the menu is meat or fried in meat fat..) I was a dedicated vegetarian for over two years. I would not consider myself a vegetarian for the traditional reasons though- animal rights. Now don’t get me wrong, I am no pusher for animal cruelty and enjoy humane treatment as much as the next guy/gal. My reasons however were more sparked from my first encounter with Michael Pollan’s The Ominvore’s Dilemma, which stressed to me the negative environmental and consumer health effects associated with traditional meat production in industrial agriculture. There I sat reading about concentrated animal feed lots, runoff, antibiotics, corn and so on and so forth…. Not to mention the loss of calories through producing grain to feed livestock as opposed to direct human consumption. “Vegetarians advocate eating ‘low on the food chain’; every step up the chain reduces the amount of food energy by a factor of ten” (Pollan 118). People wonder how it could be possible that we are currently producing enough food to feed nearly twice the world’s population, but starvation is still a constant form of suffering for millions worldwide. Needless to say ignorance is bliss, so when I was slapped in the face by the cold cruel hand of industrial agriculture I felt I had some sort of mild obligation to take a stand for the environment, the animals, the starving people of the world (ok I may be getting a bit melodramatic, but you get my drift) and of course for myself.

Now I am back on the meat train again, but not in the same way I was before. I am still attempting to do my part by limiting my consumption of animal products and doing my best to eat meat that is local/free range, etc. Usually I simply rely on animal products my family members have acquired during hunting/fishing season. I know where the products come from and that they were killed in a humane manner. I also like to think that the meat tastes better because they animals were free to roam and living happy/healthy lifestyles, opposed to those born and bred to die. On that note- lets jump into the first foodie meeting! 

Pollan, Michael. The omnivore's dilemma: a natural history of four meals. New York: Penguin P, 2006.

The Before.

Lindsey made an amazing deer roast! The bone marrow was even tapped into!
       Ingredients:
                       1 deer roast
                       3 cups chicken broth, organic
                       1 package dried onion soup mix
                       garlic salt, organic
                       dried rosemary, organic
                        pepper
                        spike

carrots, organic

garlic, organin

onion
Process:

        Combine chicken broth and soup mix in slow cooker. Put roast in cooker and coat          
        with mix.

        Season roast with spices. Add veggies.

       Cook on low for 8 hours.

       Extracted extra broth and added organic flour to use as gravy

        Berry Cobbler:

Ingredients:

 2 cups flour, whole wheat, organic

 2 cups rolled oats

 1 ½ cup butter

 Cinnamon

 Nutmeg

 1 ½ cups brown sugar

 4 tbs. sugar

 4 ½ cups berries, organic

  Process:

Preheat oven to 350 F

 Combine berries and white sugar

Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg. Cut in butter until crumbly.

Press half of the mix in a 9x13 pie plate.

Cover with berries and sprinkle mix over.

Bake for 30-40 minutes

·         Apple Pie:

    Ingredients:

  ½ cup organic butter

  3 tbs. organic flour

  ½ cup organic white sugar

  ½ cup organic brown sugar

  ¼ cup water

 7 organic green granny smith apples 

  Process: 

 Melt butter in pot, add flour and stir into a paste

 Add both sugars and water to mixture and bring to boil.

Bring to boil and lower heat, simmer for five minutes and set aside

Peel and cut apples then place in crust and pour mixture over apples 

 Place on second crust and brush a small amount of sauce on crust 

 Cook for 15 minutes at 425 F

Cook for 30 minutes at 350 F or until are soft when poked

Roasted Red Potatoes:

         Ingredients:

             2 pounds organic baby red potatoes

             1 tbs rosemary

             2 tbs organic sunflower oil 

         Process: 

             Preheat oven to 400 F

             Wash and cut potatoes into halves or quarters

             In a gallon zip lock bag combine potatoes, rosemary, and sunflower oil

             Shake zip lock bag

             Spread potatoes onto a cookie sheet

             Bake for 40 minutes

Bavarian Red Cabbage

         Ingredients:
              One head of red cabbage (6-7 inches in diameter)

              4 strips of bacon

              1/2 cup of onion

              1/2 medium golden apple

              1/2 tsp. clove

              1/4 cup red wine

              1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

              1 tsp. sugar

        Process: 

             Shred red cabbage, dice onion, bacon, and apple

             In a large pot combine onion and bacon. 

             Fry until onions are tender

            All other ingredients and bacon/onions go into a large pot and cook slowly for          

                    at least 3 hours.

Make sure the mixture does not dry out, if it does add a few tablespoon of hot water.