spices and trying not to waste

First off, I really enjoy cooking and making delicious meals, so in order to do that you have to have a decently stocked pantry and a good spice cabinet. Nick and I kind of went overboard on the spice cabinet but we have everything you need, so that's a big benefit. Its amazing what spices can do for a meal. A friend recently gave us a spice mix from savory spice shop called bohemian forest rub. Wow!! Its awesome and good on a variety of things. The shop is a chain, so there are various locations (but not one in Tulsa) and here is their website savoryspiceshop.com. Its fun trying new spices-I challenge you to buy a new one this week. Smoked paprika is a good one if you have not tried it before.

One of my goals is to not waste, especially food. I hate throwing away food because I didn't eat it before it went bad or veggies start to mold in the fridge. I try to plan out meals and buy food only for that week, but plans always seem to change and one of the meals doesn't work out. So one of the things I do is go through my fridge to see what is going to expire soon and I make a meal with those items. So this last week I realized I had some brie cheese in the fridge that I bought for Christmas day. Nick and I were booths battling sinus infections on Christmas so brie was not really appealing. I did a little Google search and decided to make apple, cranberry and brie stuffed chicken.  Luckily I had everything on hand for the meal and it turned out awesome.  I served this with green beans.
Here is the original recipe and below is my version with a few tweaks to the original, I hope you enjoy!

Cranberry, Apple and Brie Stuffed Chicken

• 3 good sized boneless skinlesschicken breasts, pounded out to about  
• 1 package of brie cheese (about.55 lb pkg), remove the outer white part
• 3/4 cup of cranberries
• 1/4 apple diced small
• 3 pieces bacon
• Desired seasoning – I used seasonedpepper, salt and bohemian forest rub

In a medium size bowl mixthe brie, cranberries and apple. Take your rings off and dive in with yourhands, the best way to mix this is to knead and mix with the hands. After thisis done and the chicken is pounded a little flatter, put this mixture on halfthe chicken breast, then folder over the other half. Wrap each stuffed breastwith one piece of bacon to help hold in the mixture. Season the wrapped-stuffedchicken.  Bake at 350 degrees forabout 45 minutes.

Wild Game Meals - come on be adventurous!

First off, I wanted to start with a beautiful sunset picture that I took tonight! It was gorgeous outside.

As some of you may know, Nick is a hunter so we have some wild game in our freezer and it is always interesting to try new meals with the meat. I did not grow up eating deer meat or wild birds so it took me a while to get used to. I have 2 recipes that involve wild game and both are good. The great thing is that other meat can be substituted if you do not want to be adventurous or you don't have chukar or deer in your freezer.

Here is a little about the meats that I used:

Chukar- this is a bird in the pheasant family and tastes just like chicken.

Deer backstrap - also known as tenderloin. This is a very tender piece of meat and super yummy.

So--here are the recipes.

Deer Backstrap (AKA ternderloin)

 

Ingredients:
Deer Tenderloin (desired amount)
Teriyaki Sauce (enough to cover meat)*
Juice from one Lemon*
Garlic*
Soy Sauce – ¼ cup*
Season Salt*
Course Ground Pepper*
Bourbon – ¼ cup (optional)*
Desired Seasoning for tenderloin, we used Daddy Hinkles
1/3 Less Fat Cream Cheese
Green Pepper in Large Slices
Bacon cut into small strips
Tooth Picks

Mix all ingredients for the marinade (ingredients marked with asterisk*) and submerge the terderloin into it for at least 30 minutes. Once the meat is done marinating, set everything out to assemble the meal. First put cream cheese on the seasoned meat, then add the pepper, wrap in a small piece of bacon and secure with a tooth pick. Grilled for about 10 minutes on the BBQ. It should be slightly pink inside so that it is still tender. Yum yum yum.

 

White chukar chili -

just a warning, this is not a very healthy recipe

*chicken can be substituted

Ingredients:
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 cup flour
1 cup butter
4 cups half and half
1 1/2 cups of chicken broth
4 cans white beans (navy, great northern, or garbanzo), drained and rinsed
2-3 (4 oz) cans chopped green chilies
2 pounds of chukar or 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts cooked and sliced into small pieces
2 cups grated Monterrey Jack cheese
1-2 tsp. Tabasco sauce
1-2 tsp. of chili powder (depending how spicy you want it)
1 tsp. cumin
1 cup sour cream (optional)

Instructions:

I cooked the chucker a day ahead in the crock pot on its own since it still had bones. I just put it in the crock pot with chicken broth for about 3 1/2 hours on low until it would shred. We shredded the chukar and removed all the bones.

Now to start the chili...Cook onion and garlic in a couple tablespoons of butter until soft, not brown. Set aside. Make a roux by melting the butter and whisking the 1/2 cup of flour in. Boil for 3 minutes stirring constantly. Add the onion and garlic to the roux.

Add the half and half and chicken broth. Simmer 3 minutes or until thick.

Pour mixture into a crockpot then add the white beans, chilies, chicken, cheese, Tabasco sauce, chili powder, and cumin.

Simmer 20 minutes. Right before serving add salt and pepper to taste and sour cream (optional). Garnish with cilantro.

This recipe is based on the one I found on The Girl Who Ate Everything, I just substituted chukar.

Let me know if you try one of the recipes!

-Court