Meatballs

We eat a lot of wild game at our house.  I’m sure you could figure that out from Captain Y’s year in review post.  We have successfully substituted venison, elk and axis meat into just about every beef recipe we like – except meatloaf, I’ve yet to make a successful venison meatloaf.  But, venison enchiladas, venison tacos, black buck sloppy Joes, they are regulars in our dinner rotation.  This year we had one of Captain Y’s conquests made into smoked sausage, delicious!  Another was made into boudan (Cajun sausage made with rice) and has quickly become another family favorite, though in my book nothing tops crawfish boudan.  We have very few “venison” recipes, or recipes that started out calling for venison.  But below is one of these; probably our favorite.  I’m not sure where it came from, like many of my recipes it’s scrawled on a piece of scrap paper and stuffed inside my recipe binder.  So, if you ever find yourself with some ground venison, give these meatballs a try.  They have a little kick and great flavor. 

Venison Meatballs with brown gravy served over egg noodles

1 lb ground venison (you could use beef if you want)

¾ cup bread crumbs

½ cup onion, minced (¼ cup for meatballs, ¼ cup for gravy)

1 egg, beaten

3 cloves garlic, minced (2 cloves for meatballs, 1 clove for gravy)

3 Tbl Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbl yellow mustard

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp Cajun seasoning

Extra virgin olive oil

Butter

2 packages brown gravy mix

Egg noodles (I use whole grain)

Place everything listed above olive oil into a large bowl.  Mix gently until everything is incorporated, but try not to mash the mixture too much, over worked meatballs can be tough.  I typically use my hands to mix.  Roll meat mixture into walnut sized balls.  Heat a skillet to medium and add butter and olive oil.  Sauté meatballs in batches for 10-20 minutes or until brown on the outside and just cooked through. 

Meanwhile, cook ½ lb of egg noodles according to the package directions.  I prefer whole grain but use what you like. 

In a sauce pan sauté ¼ cup of onions in 1 tsp olive oil over low heat until translucent, add 1 clove garlic and cook until fragrant.  Add 2 envelopes of brown gravy and 3 cups cold water.  Cook according to package directions.  You could probably make your own gravy or use a jar if you prefer, but this is the way we do it. 

Pour gravy over meatballs and serve over cooked noodles.  I typically steam some carrots and add them to the meatballs and gravy and serve the whole lot over the noodles. 

Makes great leftovers for lunch. 

Enjoy!

Framed

Our home décor tastes are pretty simple here at the Y house.  We tend to go for earth tones and solids, maybe with some textures and a few patterns thrown in for fun.  Of course we do have a purple wall.  Like they say, the exception proves the rule!  Also, we don’t change things up much.  Once we find something we like, we stick with it.  There are a few larger projects we would like to undertake someday (New kitchen floor?  Yes, please!) but, these things can wait. 

Recently, I have found that I have a weakness for craft and home décor blogs.  I love to look at fun ideas and ways to repurpose items, but most of the time I think “that’s nice but I would get tired of it and then I would have to change it again, so what’s the point?”  I’ve decided we need to embrace change in one small little space!  I created a frame that will change with the seasons/holidays/time of year/my general mood.  So many blogs offer free “printables” that you can well, print and use for free J  So, I found an old brown frame lying around the house and decided to spruce it up and use that to change things up.  My original plan was to paint it black or sliver.  But I couldn’t find either of those in the paint cabinet.  I know we used to have both colors – I have a black mirror frame and silver shelf as proof – but I can’t find either of them now.  Alas, I was left to choose from dark green, blue, brown, and white.  After 24 hours of indecision I consulted with Captain Y and went with blue.  Is that really a surprise?  It’s both of our favorite color.  A couple coats of paint later, this is now sitting in the living room with a Valentine’s Day theme print. 

My plan is to post a new photo every time I change up the contents of the frame.  Now we’ll see how often I manage to change up the frame and post about it!

Free printable found here:  http://www.oneprettything.com/?p=13532

Eight Years

Many moons ago in a land where the waters are still, before Captain Y dreamt of driving a shrimp boat, when Plant Girl was still a Plant Student, a girl and a boy walked to class unaware their lives were about to change.  Captain Y entered the room and choose a seat by the door.  A few minutes later, Plant Girl entered the same room and sat down in the desk right beside him.  They did not talk that day, or the day after, or the day after that.  Captain Y solicited the help of the other boys in class to gather information about Plant Girl.  He learned that she played basketball, just like him, and decided this was his way into her heart.  Her joined her in the lab one morning running chlorophyll samples and asked “would you like to go play basketball sometime?”  Plant Girl answered with a non-committal “Sometime, sure” and he responded “How about Thursday?”  Plant Girl agreed and that is where it all began.  Basketball led to dinner which led to a movie which led to meeting the parents, a ring and a wedding.  They adopted Sasha, moved to Texas, got jobs, and a house.  They continue their adventures everyday; sometimes together, sometimes apart but always in love. 



Then




Now



Plant Girl

Jerky Blasting

Have you ever made jerky?  If not, you should because it’s remarkably easy!  Over the weekend Captain Y thawed out a couple of white tail quarters that he froze before Christmas.  There was just too much going on to process them at the time so he wrapped them up and froze them whole.  Now, the time had come to do something with them.  As we cut, ground and bagged up hunks of meat, Captain Y started talking about jerky.  We had some seasoning packets in the pantry so we figured, why not?  Six pounds of ground meat was mixed up according to package directions and stashed in the fridge over night.  Then, it was time to break out the food dehydrator and of course, the jerky blaster! 



Captain Y blasting out the jerky





Dehydrator loaded and ready to go





Delicious spicy dried meat goodness



We have only had our dehydrator a couple of years but when I look at the box I wonder how long it’s been around.  Dehydrator manufacturers, I think it’s time to update your boxes because these hairstyles, they make me laugh! 

Ten Things

Ten Things you may not know about Captain Y
1.  He had pet pig growing up
2.  He holds the state record for the jolt head porgy fish
3.  He loves Dr. Pepper
4.  His favorite movie when he was a little boy was On Golden Pond (Thanks Mom!)
5.  He has successfully hunted deer in three states
6.  His favorite movie is Gladiator
7.  He likes the house to be clean, and helps keep it that way
8.  He has traveled to Europe 4 times and visited 5 different countries
9.  He loves going to rock concerts (floor seats if possible)
10. He drives a shrimp boat

Ten Things you may not know about Plant Girl
1.  She eats her pizza with a fork
2.  She wants her iced tea UNsweet thank you very much
3.  She gets sea sick, very, very sea sick
4.  She wiggles her toes in her sleep
5.  She eats way more popcorn at the movie theater than Captain Y
6.  She does NOT like Dr. Pepper
7.  She likes the bed made everyday
8.  Her favorite flowers are sunflowers
9.  She had never caught a fish until she met Captain Y
10. She knows a song for every occasion and situation and is not afraid to sing them

So Long 2010

I was planning to write a month by month recap of 2010 but then I realized that I can’t remember January, February, March and even part of April!  Uh, I think I need to start taking Ginko biloba or maybe just keep better track of things.  So instead, here’s a quick recap of what we can remember…

Visitors: The Y boys (three of Captain Y’s uncles and a couple of cousins, yes all at one time); Grandma, her brother, sister and a friend; Josh and Amber made the trek down from Abilene; Mama Y and Papa Y; Sorry if we’re forgetting someone! 

Shows and Concerts we saw:  Tom Petty and ZZ Top; Mary Poppins; Shrek; Young Frankenstein; Barenaked ladies with Juke Box the Ghost and The Daylights; Muse and Passion Pit; Blake Shelton (yeah, it was a free ticket to the rodeo, we just went for the mutton busting!);

Fishing (It’s Captain Y here):  Well, I had another successful year of fishing and hunting.  I caught my first of many Wahoo in February on an offshore trip on the big boat.  We caught over 500lbs of Wahoo that time.  In June, 3 of my uncles from Oklahoma and Washington came down to go offshore fishing, along with my cousins Micah Bailey and Johnny.  It was a little rough (5-8 foot waves), but turned out to be one of our best trips.  We caught numerous snapper and amberjack that gave all of these greenhorns something to talk about and some sore shoulders to boot!  In August, we did a few overnight trips out in the gulf and found a honey hole where we pulled out over 1500lbs of amberjack off of one spot in one week.  The last of these trips I hooked a solid fish on a live bait that weighed over 5lbs alone and knew that it was a good one.  About 20-30 minutes later up came this monster aj that exceeded our guesstimates on weight.  We were only ~5lbs off the state record, ours weighed 116.5lbs.  With the oil spill in the gulf a lot of our usually great tuna fishing spots were either off limits or were not producing any fish.  The tuna fishing was not happening this year, so hopefully 2011 will make up for it! :-)

Hunting (Captain Y again): On the hunting side of things, back in March  we were lucky enough to find a guy doing axis hunts near San Antonio.  During our hunt at the Nuluv ranch we were given the opportunity to lease part of the ranch for hunting.  Well, this brought on an onslaught of work getting our cabin up to date, building blinds and installing feeders and cameras and all of the necessities of hunting in Texas.  But in the end we have one of the nicest places to hunt in all of Texas, Thanks Trey and Jonna!  We had some really great hunts this year since we got the place.  There were some really big deer taken along with some nice axis and blackbuck antelope and a few pigs here and there, although I am still looking for my first one.   Hopefully 2011 will bring even more exciting stories from the deer lease!

Other Big Stuff:  We got a new Brother-in-law when Captain Y’s baby sister got married in May!  And of course, Gaston joined the family. 

We spent Thanksgiving in Missouri with the Plant family, Christmas in Oklahoma with the Y family (where we caught the oven on fire, no big deal) and New Years in Texas at the deer lease (apple pie, fireworks and in bed before 11pm). 

And now, our resolutions for 2011.  Ha, ha, ha, resolutions, ha, ha.  Yeah, like either of us make those.  Instead, we're going to set one goal:  keep up with this blog!  That way a year from now when we're trying to recap 2011, we have some idea what we did J