Eating Wild

So, after all the skeet-shooting photos, I feel like John's first hunting trip deserves a post.

It went well.  Very well:

Lots of birds met their death, but no actual people (or dogs) were injured.  So my prayers were answered. :-)

I told John that if he brought any birds home, I would attempt to cook them as long as I didn't have to clean them.  He took me at my word and brought home 3 duck breasts and several pheasant.  They also shot some quail, but John didn't get dibs on any of those.

I headed to the internet for help, and found a few highly-rated recipes from Emeril.  I used these instructions for pan-roasting the duck breasts, but the guys who cleaned the ducks took all the skin and fat off the breast.  So I added some butter in the pan to help them brown.  I thought they were just okay--I only ate a few bites.  Truthfully, they sort of tasted like steak (I cooked them to medium), but a little bit gamey.  John thought they were decent; Will thought they were fantastic and asked for seconds.

I went all out for the pheasants since I had a whole afternoon to prepare them.  First, I finished the cleaning job by removing some stray feathers, one heart, and some kidneys.  I also had to hack off the rest of their necks.

Poor naked thing:

While I was patting them dry, Anna leaned over the bowl and said, "Well, I hope you got all the shot out."

I about died laughing.  And double-checked that the shot was indeed all out.

All stuffed and layered and ready for the oven:

And plated.  Pardon my horrible food photography, but it didn't look that much better in person:

I also made the wild mushroom bread pudding accompaniment recommended in the recipe.  Will (yes, Will--the same child who never eats his PB&J at school because "the bread is weird")  said that he loved it, that the mushroom bread pudding was "so, so good" and that it was almost as delicious as the duck.  Color me shocked.  John liked it and requested the mushroom bread pudding for Thanksgiving.  I thought it tasted like dry chicken.  Anna refused to eat it, then asked, "Daddy did I hurt your feelings? Because I didn't eat your bird?"  John reassured her that his feelings were just fine.

And now we're back to the land of eating whatever animal I retrieve from the Publix meat section.  Nicely packaged and free of innards.  And feathers. :-)