Bacon Wrapped Canadian Goose

So the weekend after Valentine's Day Mike came down to my place to hang out for the long President's Day weekend.

It was a relaxing weekend that took us to Cabela's where Mike was attacked by a random little girl who was insistent on tickeling him with her dolls hair. This was entertaining to watch but then made us wonder why parents would let their children tickle a random man trying out a layout blind in the bargain cave. Maybe I shouldn't question some folks that shop at Cabela's.

Mike found some turkey decoys he really wanted for turkey season, since he now has a connection for that as well. I have to work on getting my hunters safety class done as well as figure out which permits I need for each season I want to hunt in. Yay money! -_-

Speaking of hunting, I pulled out the last of the Canadian goose breast and marinaded it in a whiskey marinade we have used before for "Whiskey Tango Steak Night."

So in honor of using what I had, I had 2-lbs of carrots sitting in my fridge just begging to be turned into carrot souffle. This is by far the best way to get veggie haters to eat veggies. Mike has even said it's good enough that it could be a dessert and that when we have kids, this is what should be dessert so we can sneak in vegetables. Of course if they are anything like us, which they will be, they will like just about everything that is put in front of them.

And in recent discoveries I have taken full hold of the fact that Walmart does price matching to any current grocery store ads. So I took full advantage of it and got center cut bacon 1/2 price thanks to Price Chopper's sale on meat. So then, we wrapped the goose in bacon to give fat and flavor, seared on both sides in the cast iron and then finished in the oven at 350 degrees until it was medium rare, about 45 minutes. We cooked it for an hour and it came closer to medium. But was still tasty.

Then we had to have a starch, which Mike wanted rice, which then turned to risotto which then evolved into wild rice mushroom risotto made with chicken stock. This didn't quite turn out like a risotto. Basically you start with 1 cup of water and cook the rice, then add more water after the first batch is absorbed and repeat. Then do it one last time and that's risotto. Or at least the way my mom does it, hers tastes pretty good. Ours turned out a little on the salty side but still edible.

This is the final product, again, closer to medium than medium rare, the risotto was a bit salt and not quite as soft as it could be but it was overall a success and a good meal. I think we will try a different marinade next time, this was a very subtle taste, we even used Jack Daniels, the good stuff.

But this is what cooking is about, learning what to do differently when you don't quite hit a home run and figuring out what works best with what type of protein, vegetable, and grain.

Live and learn then go out and cook.

Canada Goose with Sweet Chili Sauce

Oh yes, the mighty hunter has gone out and provided the house with goose a plenty. Mmmm, free meat for one, and two it's pretty tasty when cooked in a delicious recipe such as this.

Yesterday Mike went out with his buddy Cameron and another guy from Cameron's job and went to a farmer's field and pond to set up and await the goose hunting. He left the house at 6 am and was done hunting by 11. He returned around 4 pm to clean geese and package them in baggies. I now have about 4 breast halves in my freezer awaiting a delicious recipe.

That is the decoy spread from the layout blind. I guess some of the geese were very upset and one was attacking Cameron's decoy. Had to chase it off, that's bizarre, crazy birds.

They took Goose out, yes the dogs name is Goose. He evidently didn't do anything since ice freaks him out I guess. So he just chilled out in the layout blinds while the guys took on the Canada's.

Cameron

Mike

Mike & 'Goose'

Here we have the mighty hunters with a two man limit (6 birds) they had a total of 9 due to having three men in the hunt so all in all a good day for the men. Not such a great day for 9 of the geese out there. Oh well, they tasted delicious :)

We made Canada Goose in a Sweet Chili Glaze. Put a 1/4 cup ish of EVOO into the pan and sauteed the onion and garlic until translucent. Then added the goose meat, about 2 breast halves cut into 1/8 inch strips. Then we added about 1/2 a cup of sweet chili sauce to it after cooking until just to rare (that way we didn't overcook), - ok, MIKE cooked the goose, but followed the recipe I found. :)

Oh my my my, this smelled SOOOOOOO good and looked pretty amazing too. So simple.

Also, about 1 hour prior to starting the goose I decided I wanted carrot souffle. I first discovered this mouth-gasm at Piccadilly's Cafeteria when I was a teenager and it was oh so delicious but I could never find a recipe that even came close. I found this one and for the next time I need to make sure I have a food processor to really mash up the carrots to a finer consistency, either way it was delicious.

2 lbs of carrots and a potato masher later we had that delicious souffle of sweet carrot goodness. (Not my any means super healthy but it tastes good and all things in moderation right?)

So when all was cooked and done we had this lovely dinner, sweet chili glazed Canadian goose with a side of carrot souffle and brown rice. Perfection in a meal. Mike and I agree, we cook well together as well as coming up with great ideas to cook.

So for those that would like to try, you can buy goose at your local supermarket, you may have to ask the meat counter, or if you're a hunter - you know where to get goose. Otherwise, substitute beef or chicken as you please. Experiment - have fun.

Canada Goose in Sweet Chili Sauce
via: allrecipes.com

**Note, we doubled the recipe**

Prep: 15 min Cook: 10 min

1/4 cup olive oil, evoo
1 small sweet onion, diced
2 tsp minced garlic
1 (8 oz) skinless, boneless, goose breast half, cut into 1/8-inch slices
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup sweet Thai chili sauce (kikkoman makes a really good one)

1. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir onion and garlic in hot oil until fragrant. About 2 minutes.
2. Season goose with salt and pepper; add to hot oil. Cook goose breast slices in hot oil for 2 minutes, flip, and continue cooking until evenly browned, about 2 minutes more.
3. Pour chili sauce over the goose; reduce heat to medium-low and cook at a simmer until chili sauce thickens, about 3 minutes.

Serves 4

199 calories, 16g fat, 18mg cholesterol, and 6g protein per serving


Carrot Souffle (like Piccadilly's Cafeteria)
via: allrecipes.com

Prep: 15 min Cook: 1 hour 15 min

1 3/4 pounds carrots, peeled and chopped (we used 2lbs worked just fine)
1 cup white sugar (if you look at the recipe on the site, people say they were cutting the sugar in half, why? I don't know, I would think it would take away from the original intent of this recipe, it's fine this way - sub your favorite sugar sub if you like though)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup butter, soft
2 tsp confectioners' sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)
2. In a large pot of boiling water, cook carrots until very tender, must be able to mash. Drain, and transfer to large mixing bowl.
3. While carrots are warm, use an electric mixer to beat with sugar, baking powder, and vanilla extract until smooth. Mix in flour, eggs, and butter. Transfer to a 2 quart baking dish.
4. Bake 1 hour in preheated oven, or until top is golden brown. Sprinkle lightly with confectioners' sugar before serving (we baked for 1 hour 15 min and it worked fine, I have a gas oven).

271 calories, 13g fat, 79 mg cholesterol, 3g fiber, 307mg sodium, 3.4g protein

All in all, not a totally unhealthy dinner, brown rice balanced it out perfectly. Could also serve with mashed potatoes or baked potatoes. Soo good, can't wait for leftovers.

Go out and cook!