Wild Life!

Thinking of Ben, my friend at work gave us some deer baloney. Thanks, Tammy! Once Ben laid eyes on it in the fridge, I knew he would remain agitated until we had a plan for its consumption. 

That Saturday morning, like usual, he began clamoring for “special breakfast.” What is “special breakfast,” you ask? Well, it usually happens on a Saturday, it often is made by Phil, and it can’t be poured from a carton into a bowl of grain that has been puffed, flaked or extruded. It must involve meat. 

I told Ben that we would just have to settle for a regular breakfast because we had no bacon or sausage.

With no further “special breakfast” obstacles in our way, we made a deer baloney, potato hash with fried eggs on top. This ended up being a quick, hearty, delicious breakfast, and it held up well as leftovers. 

Deer Baloney Hash

2 pounds potatoes, scrubbed, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1-3 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 pound deer baloney, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Eggs (1 per person)

1. Move to central Pennsylvania and make friends with hunters who are willing to give you some of their deer baloney.
2. In a saucepan, place cubed potatoes in salted, cold water to cover. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer, and cook until potatoes are tender, but not falling apart (about 8 minutes.)
3. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon oil in large non-stick sauté pan. Add onions and sauté until translucent. Add deer baloney and cook a few minutes.
4. Drain potatoes and add to pan. Stir and cook a few minutes. Deer meat is very lean. If you want the potatoes and baloney to brown, you may need to add extra oil. Baloney tends to be salty, so we didn’t add any extra salt, and it was perfect.
5. In a separate pan, fry eggs.
6. Serve hash topped with a fried egg.

Serves: 6-8

Total Preparation Time: 30 years and 30 minutes

Preparation Time if you skip step #1: 30 minutes

All fueled up by the deer hash breakfast, I took a great bike ride over hill and dale and wasn’t even hungry for lunch when I returned. Now, that’s a serious breakfast!

As I was heading out of town on the bike path, I came to a section where I had to slow down and dodge what had to be hundreds of snails.

Of course, since I’m always thinking about food, seeing the snails made me wonder what magical steps it would take to convert those critters on the bike path into escargot. (I mean, I wasn’t planning to harvest and eat them. I was just curious.) What do you think happened when Ben first tasted escargot at the Herdic House years ago? Of course, in about a minute they were escargone!

Venison is a very common food in this area, but you have to be a hunter or have connections. I have never seen it in grocery stores. Whether you consider it an exotic food or not, I think we can all agree that Ben is an adventuresome eater. Have you tried everything Ben has eaten?

1. Snails
2. Mussels
3. Oysters*
4. Crawfish*
5. Eel
6. Squid*
7. Octopus
8. Rabbit*
9. Goose
10. Duck*
11. Lamb*
12. Goat*
13. Deer*
14. Elk*
15. Bison

Phil and I have had all of the above, and I’m sure that if Ben would have been with us, he would have joined us for:

1. Frog*
2. Alligator*
3. Wild Boar*
4. Horse

Are you wondering what the asterisks are for? A few years ago, Ben made friends with Chef Jay Ducote (Google him!), and Jay was a guest chef at John Ryan Brewery last week. His po’boy sandwiches  were awesome, and we were super excited to have him sign his cookbook, Louisiana Outdoor Cooking, for Ben. After careful perusal of the cookbook, Ben settled on blackened alligator nuggets for this week’s menu, and sighed with disappointment when I told him we would have some problems sourcing alligator. Anyway, Jay has an amazing array of Cajun recipes in this cookbook, and recipes for every * item above is featured in the cookbook!

Looking to live a wild, wild life? We recommend you start with deer baloney, and let it roll from there!