Redneck Coq Au Vin aka Goose Stew

Well here is our other delicious recipe. As you all have found out, Mike hunts. He hunted a lot this week. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. That's a lot for him in one week.

So Monday he went out with his buddy Cameron and went hunting for geese. Well they sure found them.

They got the daily limit each before 9 am. WOW! As you can see, he's a happy hunter. If you look really close you can see the lone duck they shot in between the middle geese. Cameron's connection paid off. In the end I also reaped benefits from this because I got to enjoy the food that comes from the hunt.

Cameron has a recipe for goose that he and his wife said was good. So if Jaime says it's good, I guess I can trust that because a lot of women seem to shy away from wild game.

From what I was told about this recipe, it sounded pretty good, it would marinate the meat overnight and then slow cook it for 8 hours. Simple and hands free. My kind of cooking as of late. I'm falling more in love with my slow cooker and bread machine. Makes cooking and baking easier.

So Tuesday night we enjoyed goose stew or as a friend aptly named it, after Mike and I had been calling it "Redneck Boeuf Bourguignon " "Redneck Coq au Vin" since it has a bird/fowl in it as the protein and not beef. Though i must say the meat looks close to beef than chicken when cooked.

So what did we do to create such a dish? Well Mike took the meat and marinated it in Jack Daniels and Worcestershire sauce overnight (flipped once). Then the next morning my job was to mix the packets and beer and add the goose to the crock pot and set for 8 hours.

So I took one packet of brown gravy mix (like McCormick's) and one packet of onion soup mix (that recipe starter stuff that can make onion dip too) and then whisked into a large (thinking 24 oz bottle) of Budweiser beer.

Mike said he wanted to use Guinness but couldn't find just A bottle/can of it, so he went St. Louis style and got Budweiser.

I then whisked the ingredients together and then added the goose meat and discarded the marinate. Set the crock pot on low for 8 hours and promptly drove myself to work while Mike was out duck hunting that morning. (No real luck Tuesday for hunting - got 2 ducks which he let Andrew have since he hadn't been out until Tuesday for the season).

So when I got home, Mike had literally JUST gotten back from hunting, still had Goose (the dog) with him.

He was starting to work on potatoes and onion. Of course I walked in and had a bit of a sinking feeling about this "stew" we were making. It smelled a lot like our botched attempt at boeuf bourguignon that we had done in the crock pot a few months ago (it was absolutely TERRIBLE). It smelled the same and was a bit worrying to me. It smelled good but smelled the same. So when it came time to eat, I was, understandably, a bit leery about the taste. Come to find, it tasted fantastic - to me. It was good. It was not gamey tasting at all to me, didn't taste like chicken folks. It tastes like goose. Mike had cut up some onion and potatoes and we placed that in the crock pot, after taking the meat out - leaving the juices, and cooked those for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours while we ran around and took Goose - the dog - back home.

We served the goose and potatoes and onions with homemade white bread that was buttered. Mmmm perfect for sopping up the juices.

Of course did I take a picture that night? No, grr. I just ate some for lunch too and forgot to take a picture, so here is one I took when I got home.

So go out and cook something new guys. You can use this recipe with any protein source you like, quite honestly. It doesn't have to be duck or goose, though I am thinking I will thaw some duck meat and do this with that.

RECIPE:
Goose Stew aka Redneck Coq Au Vin

1/2 goose breast or whole breast, sliced - can't really tell you how much he used - was plenty
1 cup Jack Daniels Whiskey
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

Marinade meat in whiskey and Worcestershire sauce overnight, make sure to flip at least once.

1 pkt onion soup/french onion dip mix
1 pkt brown gravy mix (like the kind by McCormick)
1 (24 oz) bottle Budweiser beer/Guinness

Add packets and beer to crock pot, whisk to blend well. Add meat, discard marinade.

Cook on low for 8 hours.

You could put the potatoes (we used red) and onion in the crockpot at the same time and not worry about it.

Flavors of Fall: Homemade Apple Butter - In your slow cooker (crockpot)

Since we received the foodie pen pal box and since the day of Rugged Maniac and eating at Cracker Barrel with mom I have been dwelling on apple butter.

Our lovely foodie pen pal was gracious enough to make apple butter and send it our way - sorry honey, I didn't share.

Hers was smooth and creamy. Delicious too. Cracker Barrel tends to have a more grainy texture to it, not much though, still delicious.

I've always enjoyed apple butter but can never really justify the cost to buy a small jar of it. Well no need to try and justify the cost now.

Find apples on sale - like 88 cents a pound from your local grocer (or local apple orchard) and use ingredients you already have in house probably (ground cloves, apple pie spice, cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla) then add to your fabulous crock pot and fo-get about it! (done in my best Brooklyn accent I can muster).

So to google I went to find a recipe. I searched and searched to find one that didn't contain 10 bazillion cups of sugar or required me to buy applesauce, I mean, that's cheating right? I want to make it myself not use Mott's applesauce to help me. Gosh, I will buy the apples - especially during apple season and when they are dirt cheap. Of course I'm that anti-box mix baker usually (not that I don't use boxed mixes on occasion).

So after searching and still modifying I found one over here at My Baking Addiction. A lovely blog if I do say so.

I still ended up modifying her recipe, which you will see here shortly.

First I had to go buy some apples - and by some, I mean about 15.

Then I had to prepare to peel, core, and slice. Of course do I have an apple corer? No, so old fashioned knife and wood shop made cutting board (from high school days) it was.

That's my apple army if you couldn't tell. They were taking over my counter space (what little my kitchen has - I hope to one day have a big kitchen with more room than I know what to do with. One day)

I ended up using 5 different types of apples - I wanted variety and something more than just a monotone flavor. I wanted depth, sweetness, tartness, and appely. Yes, appely - it's a word now.

So after peeling - which seemed to take forever and a day - my father called while I was doing so to congratulate me on my costume win at work.

After peeling for forever I finally was able to slice them up into pieces and add them to the crock pot.

Then it was time to cover in the cinnamon, cloves, spices, and sugars.

At this point it looks like I'm making apple pie filling.

So in all it took about 14 hours to make. You have to stir a few times, no biggie really - this turned out fine without excessive stirring (I slept through the first 10 hours of this cooking).

The recipe is as follows:

Slow Cooker Apple Butter
6 1/2 lbs apples - peeled, cored, and sliced (about 15-16 medium apples)
1 cup granulated sugar (I only used 1/2 cup)
1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed (I only used 1/2 cup)
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp vanilla extract (pure tastes best)

1. Place apples in slow cooker. In a medium bowl combine spices and sugars. Pour mixture over apples and mix well.
2. Cook in slow cooker for 10 hours, stirring occasionally (or like me only stirring AFTER 10 hours because I went to bed), until the mixture is thickened and dark brown.
3. Use an immersion blender (if you have it - or use a potato masher like I did) and puree apples until smooth.
4. Spoon mixture into sterile containers, cover and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks or freeze.
5. Serve on whatever suits you - breads, muffins, sweet potatoes, pork chops, or even just eat straight up with a spoon (like I do)

NOTES:
---I cut back from 1 cup of each sugar to 1/2 cup of each due to the variety of apples I used. If your apples aren't as sweet you are more than welcome to add more sugar.
---My apples included, 3 gala, 3 braeburn, 2 golden delicious, 4 granny smith, and 3 Fuji. You are welcome to experiment with whatever suits your fancy.

And here is the final product, I used cans that I have collected from foodie pen pals and friends who can. I do not. I don't have the materials to can quite yet, though Mike and I would love to have a garden and do so.

Yum! This is a bit grainier due to not having an immersion blender to use to smooth it out. Oh well, tastes great anyway even when mashed with a potato masher.

That is all my friends. This proves you don't need to buy most things, you can make just about anything you find jarred, canned, or packaged at the store.

Now go out and cook!

Oatmeal and Oat Obsession

Ok, so I have had this oats obsession this week. Absolutely been OBSESSED. Much like Julie was with Julia in "Julie & Julia." One of my favorite movies by the way.

Julie & Julia Quote:
Julie: I'm totally obsessed.
Eric: She's totally obsessed."

So, to move forward - what did I do with my oat obsession? Well I made oatmeal, naturally. Crock Pot oatmeal no less. I could have made cookies, oat bars, etc. But I settled for something healthier and delicious to boot and would be ready for me to eat as I shuffled through the kitchen at O'dark thirty in the morning. Now that I do not NEED to exercise in the mornings before work I give myself the benefit of eating in bed in the wee hours followed by drifting back to sleep before my second alarm sounds or, depending on the day, I will talk to Mike while he is finishing his last hour of work. Which I do enjoy my morning phone calls with him :) Start the day right.

So first we will start off with a dangerous oatmeal that I found the recipe for and thought would be a good idea to make for Mike and myself last weekend. Well, anything that is buttered and bruleed is probably not a good idea to eat when trying to be healthy. Hmm, noted and I should know better. So we have "Oatmeal Brulee with Brown Buttered Pears and Cinnamon Ginger Cream." Sounds delicious, no? Well it was quite delicious, however, dangerous in the calorie department. AFTER eating it I plugged all ingredients into my phone and discovered that it had a whopping 605 calories!!!! Holy butter balls Batman!!! Yeah, not making that again, even though it was quite yummy - minus the burnt bits of pear - oops, my bad honey! ;)

Lovely, yes, delicious, yes. Healthy - far from it. Granted, anything with cream, butter and sugar is going to be not so great for you. I told Mike the calories and even he was shocked. So having to put up with my desire to make oatmeal for us for breakfast he soon was rewarded with a toy.

 

A layout boat for duck season, of course we finally get it to where it's going to be stored and it has to be tested. Rightfully so - Mike gets out to the middle of this pond and starts saying "take a picture! take a picture!" Hehe, like a kid in a candy store. He's a happy man, so this lady is happy too.

So after our layout boat adventure and our lesson learned from bruleed and sugared oats the weekend ended and I headed back home to work :(

So this week I have made two different types of crock pot oats. Pumpkin pie oats and banana oats. I found the recipes at Sugar Free Mom's site. These are SUPER easy to make and just add your desired amount of sugar once everything is cooked. That way everyone can add what they like instead of having one taste for all. I added honey or stevia to mine. Brown sugar to the pumpkin pie oats though. Yum yum yum.

Before cooking

After waking up

After stirring

After adding brown sugar and cinnamon

These are quite filling and quite low in calories. Even though Sugar Free Mom says not to use old fashioned oats, I did. I don't like spending more on something if I don't have to so I stick to my old fashioned oats and save a buck. I came up with 195 calories per 1/4 recipe of the Pumpkin Pie type and 125 calories for 1/4 of the banana oatmeal.

Banana oats with cinnamon

The basic recipe is:
1 cup oats, old fashioned in my case
3 cups water
1/4 tsp salt

Cook on low for 8 hours.

For banana oatmeal: add 1 banana, 1 tbsp butter, 1 tsp vanilla extract, & 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon.
For pumpkin pie oatmeal: add 1 cup canned pumpkin puree *not pie filling*, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice.

Obviously you can customize this oatmeal however you feel compelled to. I've thought about apple spice, cinnamon sugar, peaches and cream, or just about any combination you could possibly find in the store you could easily make overnight in your crock pot for a better price and better quality and known ingredients. Sounds good to me.

I have eaten these for the past 3 days and it's probably a great way to start my day since I have entered month two of insanity. Monday afternoon I was scheduled to do the Fit Test as well as Max Cardio Conditioning Circuit thingy - well to say the least I cursed, griped, hated, loathed, and told Shaun T. where he could go and how to get there while doing this set of workouts. I then looked at my hat on Tuesday when I did Max Plyo and went for a 2.5 mile run PRIOR to Insanity. This is what my hat looked like.

Can we say DRENCHED? Yes, drenched. I sweat a lot during insanity to begin with and this is why it is recommended to have a towel handy while doing these workouts  - but my goodness gracious. I probably would not have noticed had I just taken the hat off and tossed it to the side but I went in the bathroom and looked up in the mirror and saw this. WHOA!!! Time to hydrate for sure! Mike is doing the Insanity program as well and is a week behind me. He's in for a treat next week. Though I truly believe  month two is where the big changes start to happen. Believe me, I've been cursing Shaun for a week now in month two but I know things are changing. Anyway, enough of about this, I'm not getting paid to endorse a program - hmmmmm ha ha, just kidding. I won't do that to y'all, this is about food right?

Right -

So go make some oatmeal and get creative. Go out and cook!