I am coming up for air for a few moments! Somehow no matter how long I do it, retail takes over your life during the holidays. Add to that its dark out so early and gets light so late I almost feel like I come and go in the dark. I left work at 4 ish today and ran to do some errands landing in the house sometime after 5. Michael is doing a home buyers seminar tonight (did I mention he is the BEST Real Estate agent in the entire world?) so I put away the things I bought and put a pot of chili on the stove. We were truly excited when a friend gave us 10 1lb packages of venison sausage. Now it is just up to me to figure out what to do with it! It is loose, not in casings, so one night last week I made a meat loaf and tonight there is Venison and Black Bean chili on the stove. I had never experienced venison before a visit to a wonderful restaurant downtown and now I am in love!
I need to digress for a moment. Thanksgiving was a wonderful crazy day. I think our friend out did herself as always preparing a the de-boned turkey wrapped in prosciutto. Fantastic is the only word to describe it and my husband had the forethought to hide it from most of the people there! When you have 30 people over for dinner it is a feeding frenzy. The soup turned out great but I don't think it was the right crowd for it and I wound up bringing about half of it home. I took it to work and pawned it off on some of the folks there who have now asked for the recipe. I guess it was a winner. We went over to the same friends house on Sunday to help her eat some of the leftovers. I don't think I have ever had turkey wings and legs simmered slowly in gravy but...I will definitely have to eat that again.
The lunch was a major hit at work this weekend with enough food (except for the meatballs) to last through the entire weekend with a little left for Monday. The staff gave me a wonderful card and gift basket with a wine I have been dying to try, I think I may have to save this one!
Now for the Venison and Black Bean Chili
1 med onion chopped
1/4 green pepper chopped
1 lb Venison
1 Tbl Cayenne pepper
1 lg can crushed tomatoes
2 cups water
1 Tbl tomato paste
a glug of Pace Picante Sauce
1 Tbl Olive Oil
Heat the oil in a fairly large pan over a medium heat, when hot add the onions and peppers. Saute until soft, add the venison, stirring to break up and brown. Add the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil and simmer for about 2 hours or so stirring occasionally.
All the food sounds marvelous. I am very intrigued by the prosciutto wrapped turkey!
ReplyDeleteNow, you need to tell us the wine they bought you, and how great it is when you finally drink it!
Also, you can use the uncased sausage like "normal" sausage by wrapping it (tightly) in plastic wrap and kinda boiling it for a while. Gives you the links-shape, holds up well, and just needs a bit of frying to get the outside crispy.
ReplyDeleteAlternately, you can make it into patties. Dunno how it's spiced, though. Could diy egg mcmuffins.
Juju,
ReplyDeleteI finally tried the wine and it was fantastic! It was an Old Vine Malbec by the name of Martino. Sadly, I don't think we have anymore.
Jen,
I don't know about wrapping food in plastic and boiling it...perhaps I might give it a try!