N.S.O., Week 3 and the Week of Meat

Another week of No Spend October ended up being a bomb.  Granted, not as horribly expensive as last week's expenditures, but technically worse as it wasn't really mandatory stuff like vehicle repairs.

Went to the store to get Rhiannon some jeans and socks.  I've been scrounging the thrift stores lately, but just can't find any jeans in her size.  So I broke down and got her several pairs of new jeans, although still on clearance so I didn't feel that badly.  And since I was at the store anyways, I bought some other already-forgotten things.  All I remember is that I spent fifty-eight bucks there.  For "just" jeans and sock.  Ugh.  Then since we were out, I went to the grocery store where I bought apples, potatoes, grapes and some other also-forgotten stuff.  Twenty more bucks.  Double-ugh.

Just ten more days to go.  Wonder how much I'll spend come November 1st?

Anyhow.

If you've read my last two posts, you know that Paul got a deer this weekend.  So we spent most of Saturday and almost all day Sunday processing the deer.  Processing sounds much nicer than killing, gutting, skinning, butchering, cutting and grinding, doesn't it?  But that's exactly what we did.

This photo, although cute, really has nothing to do with today's post.
But since people get freaked about seeing bloody meat as the first
thing on their "Followed Blogs" list, I figured this would be nicer.

Ok, here's the meat picture.  And actually, it's pretty PG-13'ish as this was at the beginning.

Buckets o' Meat, chilling in ice water & ready to be cut up.

If anyone were to have come over for a visit on Saturday, they would have run back to their vehicle and slung gravel the entire way out of our driveway.  Both Paul & I were either covered in blood or handling large pieces of flesh.  There were pools of blood on the counter tops, blood splatters on the floor, walls, refrigerator.  I had tiny bits of dried up meat on my shirt, in my fingernails, and in my hair.  Sinew and slimy bits of connective tissue littering the garbage can (and within five feet of the garbage can).  The entire house smelled like raw and bloody flesh the entire weekend.  At first it's kind'a yummy smelling (well, at least to me because it means food!) but it gets old after a while.  And no, incense will not cover that smell up.  What you get is a Raw-Meat-Patchouli smell.

I don't remember it taking this long.  But we did more than just quarter the deer and stuff it in the freezer.  We cooked some of it, sliced some of it into steaks, chopped some into stew meat, ground up a bunch of it for sausages.  I even weighed the meat this time just so I could brag had an idea about how much we got from one deer.

There was just under (by like ounces) fifty pounds of meat; the only bones in that calculation were in the ribs.  There was also close to twenty pounds of scraps that was ground up and fed to the Creepy Meats.  Which they devoured in two days, I kid you not.

Some of that meat has already been consumed or "experimented" with.  Last night we had more tenderloin medallions sauteed with red onions and garlic and a side of fried eggplant:

We also made a pretty darned good breakfast sausage out of some of the ground meat (I'll post the recipe sometime during Meat Week).  We've never made sausage.  Don't ask me why.  But we figured we may as well start as there are plans of having even more ground venison once I get my deer.

The kitchen is finally back to "normal".  Actually, it's cleaner than normal.  The counter, sink and backsplash get a good scrubbing and wipe-down with bleach after butchering.  And I'm totally sick of washing pans, tubs, cutting boards and knives.  But I'll be doing it several more times as I still need to make Italian sausage and have to can up the stew pieces in the pressure canner.

Stay tuned for "More Meat" tomorrow.

Clarifications

I was informed  by Paul that it is called "Muzzle Loader" and not "Black Powder" season. 

Oh, and exactly what season?  Technically, there are several critters on the Open Season list, but this is what he got yesterday:

Rhiannon made it clear that we were going to eat him with a side of french fries.  Hey, why not?  Although we're still not at that point yet.  It seems to be taking an inordinate amount of time to process this bugger.  No processing photos though.  Again, you're welcome, Mom & Christine.

Once cut away and cleaned up, the front legs were rubbed with seasoning, wrapped in aluminum foil and put in the oven for several hours to slow-cook.  Tenderloins and backstraps carefully removed, cut into manageable hunks and all but one tenderloin put into the freezer.  I boned the back legs, got the hams free, cut up ribs, neck and all the other stew/burger meat, then packed almost everything into the freezer.  We were exhausted by the end of the day.  Paul had to keep from nodding off during our traditional "First Taste" of tenderloin medallions sauteed in olive oil, garlic and salt.  Wow, was that good.

Today we'll take the burger/stew meat out of the freezer this to defrost it a bit then run it through the meat grinder; it's easier to do it when it's semi-frozen.  

Paul is currently picking apart the cooked front legs.  It will be chopped up and put it into the freezer for quick meals (like BBQ sandwiches, oh yum!) and the ground meat will go back into the freezer also.  I'm going to can the stew pieces and maybe cook the hams to run through the meat slicer for sandwich meat.

Got to get back to the kitchen!

Take a picture, it'll last longer

I figured I'd better, because in about a half-hour or so it will be a total disaster.

Today was the opening day for Black Powder, and Paul got one!

The only times my counter tops are this clean and uncluttered are when we've got a butchering job ahead of us.

See you tomorrow.  We'll be busy the rest of the day :)

Four fewer Sciurus carolinensis

When my sister and I lived at Dad's house back in the 'burbs, we had a pet squirrel.  It didn't live in the house with us (well, except for that one time when it snuck in when Christine was leaving for school and Dad found it sitting on the living room couch), but it would visit us and even come when called.  We fed it all kinds of goodies, including Frango Mints (understandably, Dad was horrified when he found out we were raiding his stash of gourmet chocolate mints to give it to the squirrel).

One day we found her dead by the side of the street.  We were obviously upset.  She had a full funeral and I buried her in the backyard in a Frango Mint box.  Then the next day we found an orphaned squirrel baby and figured it was her offspring.  Christine named him Mr. Bigglesworth.  So we nursed and cared for it, then eventually set it free to roam the backyards of our neighborhood.

A much younger Me, with Mr. Bigglesworth.

Fast forward almost fifteen years.

Although I still have fond memories of our pet squirrels, my attitude towards their kind in general has been severely tarnished since moving to the country.

They eat the logs of our home.  They chew through plastic buckets and eat the livestock grain.  They chew wires and gnaw on the barn door.  There are probably another half-dozen annoying little habits they have that I just can't recall at this time.  But at this particular moment the thing that is driving me nuts is the massive defoliating of the oak trees.

Every morning it looks like some giant came through and shook the occasional oak tree until half it's green leaves fell to the ground.  Instead of taking a few acorns off the branches and bringing them down, the squirrels are chewing off the branches of the oak trees so the bundle of leaves and attached acorns fall down.  After they've dropped about a half dozen branches, they go to the ground and harvest their prize.  Lazy or inventive?  Either way, it's pissing me off.  Technically I'm not sure if it's really harming the trees, and I am taking advantage of the fallen greenery to gather and give to the goats as treats.  Regardless.

For whatever reason I didn't do much, if any, hunting earlier this year and I remember there being a plethora of squirrels this spring.  Probably due to the fact that we had a very mild winter last year. I don't even think they went in to hibernation as I don't recall there being any winter month without them running around the yard.  Mild winter + lots of food (chicken food being their favorite) = unchecked and intolerable number of tree rats.

So after Paul heard me cussing under my breath "stupid #$^%* squirrels" for the umpteenth time, he finally just shoved the rifle in my hands and told me to do something about it.

Moonshine, Squirrel Picker-upper Extraordinaire

It didn't take very long to get four of them skinned, gutted and soaking in salted ice water.  I usually just plop them all in the pressure cooker with some seasoning then pull the cooked meat and serve it over dumplings and gravy, but Paul asked for something different.

So I quartered the four squirrels, dipped them in homemade baking mix (like bisquick) seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and fried them up until just golden brown.  Put the pieces in a 270 degree oven for about an hour and a half and served it with my favorite canned green bean recipe and homemade onion parmesan biscuits.

Don't let the picture fool you.  I ate more than was on my plate.  Actually, I ate an entire squirrel.  And it was G.O.O.D.!  Don't believe me?  Ask Rhiannon:

Stop taking pictures and let me eat, Momma!

Christine & Mom: Please take note that I did not post the actual skinning, gutting & cutting up of the squirrel carcasses.  You're welcome.

WHY is that buzzer going off?!?!

It's sad that I have to set the buzzer on the stove or crank the wind-up kitchen timer or set my cell phone alarm to make sure I don't forget things.  Like the goats are out on the leads to graze.   Or I need to blow out the candles before I leave the house.  Or remember to take my vitamin, take the clothes out of the washer, call the doctor's office before they close, take the milk out of the freezer, etc..

But it's really sad when, for the life of me, I can't remember why the hell I set the timer in the first place.........

.....like to check on the bread rising in the oven.  From like over six hours ago. 

I'm convinced that Mama Pea jinxed me.

Farm fatalities

Things die all the time around here, usually to fill our freezer and stomachs.  Death, ironically, is just a fact of life.  But it's a big ol' bummer when it's not a planned or natural death.

About a week and a half ago, I went into the chick pen to feed & water the creepy meats (Cornish crosses) and homegrown chicks and found one of the homegrown hens in a corner smooshed flatter than a pancake.  I knew it was past time to get the Cornish meat birds in their own pen but as usual, I delayed it because I'm just plain lazy.  The Cornish chickens were at least four times larger than the homegrown hens and they all cram themselves into a corner of the pen at night.  I'm assuming the pancake chicken was just smothered to death overnight and then just got flattened from the sheer weight of her larger and heavier coop-mates.  I got the Cornish into the outdoor kennel just a few days ago.

Then this morning I went to water & feed the Cornish and found one of them floating in a bucket half-filled with water.  I bring water to the birds in 5-gallon buckets and fill their waterers from that.  Problem is, I didn't remember to bring the bucket back out with me after filling up their water.  What would tempt a fat, chunky, can't-even-fly chicken to flap it's plump mass up and into a bucket, I'll never know.  But the end result was chicken that drowned from my carelessness.  That cost two bucks plus the cost of feed it ate.  That I spent the last five weeks caring for.  That will now not be filling up our freezer or stomachs.  What a waste.

And last, but not least, I'm waiting on the death of another potential farm animal.  I say "potential" because I'm still not sure if something is actually going to die or not.  Lily, the Boer doeling that I bought last month, hasn't gone into heat since we got her (or at least not that I could tell).  I assumed then that she was pregnant as her previous owner let the bucks run with her since birth (big no-no).  Being so young, I didn't want her to give birth yet so I went to my local vet and got this:

I actually got this over a week ago, but was still waiting and hoping that she would go into heat.  There are two very active and very smelly bucks at our place (separated from the does), so if that didn't get her into estrus in the past month, nothing would.

As I didn't notice any signs of heat from her, that probably means that she is pregnant.  And I'm not even sure how far along she is.  I did some online research on Lutalyse (Lute, for short) and decided that I would rather have her abort the possible fetus than have a kidding at such a young age.  Yes, plenty of goats give birth at an early age, but I didn't want to risk her life to find out.  So in order to save her from a potentially deadly labor and birth, I had to kill her unborn kid(s).

If she's not pregnant, the Lute will just cause her to go into heat.  If she's not far along in her pregnancy, her body will just reabsorb the fetus.  If she's further along, she'll go into labor and have a premature birth.  I'll have to "dispose" of the fetus and give Lily normal post-natal care.  We gave her the shot Sunday morning, so theoretically she'll abort today or tomorrow.  I've been keeping a sharp eye on her.  Hopefully I'll be able to tell if something is amiss and be there to help if she needs any.

Unicorns and ice cream cones, farm life is always not.


Wow, that sounded quite Yoda'ish, didn't it?

Kind'a Apple Cider'ish Recipe'ish

Ok, I'm guilty.  I make things and just go with the flow.  Some say that it's a good thing, others will say that's no way to cook.  And I have to admit, I used to be one of those people who would curse at someone who would admit to not using a recipe, not knowing the recipe or just gave directions like "a pinch of this", "season to taste", "a dash of that", and "some of the other thing".

And guess what I do now.

Anyhow, here's what I think I did to make the Apple Cider'ish Jelly:

I had two gallon-sized zippy bags plus a small zippy bag of frozen apple cores, skins, pieces, parts, etc. and dumped them into a large pot.  To this I added approximately 14 cups of water.  And I only know this because everywhere else I read about making apple juice is that you really don't get much juice out of the actual apples, just the "goodness" that gets cooked into the water you put in the pot.  And I ended up with just under 14 cups of juice.

You don't want to drown your apples in water though because then it will taste like, well, watered-down apple juice.  I figure it's better to be more apple-y at the beginning and then add water as needed.  Honestly, I think my juice could have been more concentrated, but I didn't have any more apples to put in the pot.  I guess I could have just boiled down the juice a bit, but I'm lazy.

I let my apples and water cook on the stove on medium/low for about a half hour, then at that point decided I wanted to make it taste like cider, so that's when I added the spices.  How much spice you ask?  If I had to guess, I'd say about one teaspoon of the cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice and maybe about a half teaspoon of the ground cloves.  I used my nose to sniff out the proper amounts.


I let it simmer on low for about another half hour and during the simmering time I'd occasionally use my potato masher on the concoction to mush out all the apple goodness.  After I figured I milked those apple cores for all they were worth, I strained everything through a sieve and smooshed that too.  The resulting juice was a bit cloudy and filled with tiny apple bits.  Normally, I would have just said "good enough", but I was planning on giving some of the jelly as gifts so I went ahead and strained the juice through some milk filters (you could use coffee filters or good cheesecloth).  But be warned; you will have to rinse out the filters many times because it will clog up with all those apple bits.

Once you have your juice strained, put it in a container or jars in the fridge and make jelly tomorrow. Oh wait, that's what I did.  If you're not lazy like me, you can continue right on with your jelly-making.

Take six cups of juice and put it in a large (not stock pot large, but not a small pot either) pot.  Turn on the stove and add 8 tablespoons of pectin and stir.  Yeah, I know, I know, pectin comes in little pre-measured 1.75 ounce boxes.  But I don't have those boxes, I buy it in bulk.  So you're just going to have to measure.  Or go online and find a more helpful and user-friendly recipe.  I never said my recipes were easy to use!

Anyhow.


Once the pectin is completely dissolved, keep stirring once in a while and watch for a boil.  Once the juice is boiling, dump in all 6 2/3 cups (yes, that much!) of sugar and stir until dissolved.  Keep the stove on high, keep stirring until it boils then keep it at a hard boil while stirring for one minute.  Once the minute is up, ladle the boiling-hot, oh-my-gawd-I-think-I'm-going-to-need-a-bandage-for-that-splatter, molten liquid jelly into your clean, hot/warm 1/2 pint or pint jars, wipe rims, apply clean/warm lids/bands and process in your already-boiling water canner for ten minutes.

Oh, and I found a great website for jelly making.  This link HERE gives you measurements for the sugar and pectin required for just about any fruit/juice.

So if my kind'a sort'a directions completely turned you off from making apple cider jelly, go to that website and read some actual cohesive jelly-making directions.  You could also skip the whole cider-making part and just buy a gallon of apple cider and then follow the jelly directions in the link above.

Good luck!