Cookin' Up a Storm

"Go outside and get me every goose or duck you can find."

It's just about guaranteed that I will speak this sentence the first or second weekend of hunting season. Grumpy Guy will be resting after a great day of hunting when I will realize that I have absolutely NO room in either the outside or inside freezers. Something must be done.

I have a "hoard" mentality. It's not that I doubt my faith in my husband's excellent abilities in the hunting/gathering department. It's not that I doubt Chip, the Wonder Lab's excellent retrieving abilities. I guess I have this fear of being faced with a charity game supper for 12 or 20 and looking in the freezer and having NO GAME to serve. So I mete out our vast game supply throughout the non-hunting season like Scrooge handing our gold pieces.

I had conserved well. Ducks and geese thawed, along with several "what is this?" packages (GG often gets back from hunting with a rather tepid response to cleaning the spoils and packaging them up- most go under the thought of "I'll remember what this is..." and have no label) and I had a whole mess of waterfowl.

(note to Yankee friends- Gawd knows I have described what "a mess of" something is to you before. THINK.)

One day later, and we have the following

1- a gi-i-i-i-normous pot of duck and sausage gumbo

2- ringneck (yes, ringneck) breasts ready for sauteeing

3- goose legs salting, ready for making confit. (oh, heavens, if you don't know confit, you are missing one of the best things in life...trust me.)

4- wood duck breasts marinating for grilling

Wish you were here for supper!!