Stack of Dirty Dishes

This last blog entry is dedicated to my dad. It’s become pretty clear that I come from a hunting family. My dad and brother enjoy hunting and fishing, and they have found different things that they like to make with game meats.

Unlike my Uncle Tony, my dad only hunts deer and wild turkey. Unfortunately, he is also unlucky when it comes to hunting and is definitely not someone that gets an animal ever hunting season. So when he does get a deer or turkey, we are all pretty excited.

Since the hunting group is very successful, we always end up with a few bags full of venison. The best piece of meat that we are lucky to receive is the back strap. The back strap is comparable to a pork tenderloin. It is located along the spine and is the tenderest piece of meat on the deer. Back strap is great on the grill or used in kabobs.

The year Dad was lucky enough to bag a turkey, he decided that he was going to test out the deep fryer. The turkey was great deep fried; the skin was super crispy which held all the juice inside the bird. Unlike farm raised turkey, wild turkey is mainly dark meat, because the turkeys are constantly moving.  Keeping the bird juicy is very important because the meat has a tendency to dry out.

One thing that Dad makes the some people would find weird are frog legs. When ever he makes them, he always teases that he about to fry up Kermit. I must admit that it’s odd to see little frog legs frying on the stove. For those of you who aren’t quite sure how to make frog legs, I’ll fill you in on it.

1. Wash and dry off the frog legs.
2. Dredge the legs in flour.
3. Place legs in an egg wash then back into the flour.
4. Fry in a frying pan in vegetable oil till crispy.

So I hope all of you have enjoyed our little trip into the country to see all of the odd things we eat, and I hope all of you will get out and try some new things.

Today’s blog is dedicated to my Uncle Dan. Like Tony, he is a hunter, but he is also a farmer.

Uncle Dan (bottom far right) with the hunting group in 2006.

Staying with a farming family, we learned that nothing goes to waste and every part of the animal is used. Dorothy was an amazing cook and was able to slip interesting ingredients into every meal she made us.

Some of the weird things that Dorothy and Dan are known for making are pickled tongue, deer heart jerky, and ponnus. I must admit that I never had the guts to try the pickled tongue but all of us kids loved the jerky and ponnus.

The deer heart jerky was Grandpa Koldeway’s project. He would carefully slice each heart before putting it in the marinade. The marinade was his own secret recipe, and it was a rare event for him to give it to anyone. Once the meat was finished soaking up the yummy marinade, he would squeeze all the extra marinade out of the meat. I never quite understood this part of the process. What’s the point of putting it in the marinade if you’re just going to squeeze it all out in the end? But I never questioned the master about any of his actions while making the jerky. After the squeezing process of complete, he would carefully lay the jerky on the dehydrator racks before starting the machine. The jerky would sit in the dehydrator for about 12 hours until it was ready to eat.  Poor Dorothy had the hardest time trying to keep all eight of us kids from eating it all before Uncle Dan got home.

Now on to the ponnus. For those of you that don’t know what ponnus is, it is the meat from a pig head mixed with wheat flour and other spices. It honestly reminds me of head cheese minus the nasty gelatin like appearance and texture. When some people hear about ponnus, they get a disgusted look on their face, but it’s actually really good. It’s great for breakfast or on a sandwich. The normal preparation when it’s used for breakfast is simply slicing the ponnus and frying it in a little oil. Slathered in syrup, it tastes just like breakfast sausage.

I can honestly say that if I did not grown up eating weird things like these, I probably would never be willing to try them, but I think that they have made me a more adventurous eater. So for those of you that prefer to stay in your small culinary box, break out of it and try some new things. You never know what strange things you may enjoy.

For the next three blogs, I have decided to pay homage to the hunters in my family and the weird things we eat. Today’s blog is going to be dedicated to my Uncle Tony (Mighty Hunter Man).

My uncle has been a hunter his entire life and is definitely not thinking of stopping anytime soon. He is the type of guy that hunts any and every season he can get himself out there for. This love for hunting has definitely rubbed off on his twin boys.

The twins showing off their turkey fans.

The different animals that he and my cousins have hunted are:

• Deer
• Wild Turkey
• Goose
• Duck
• Pheasant
• Rabbit
• Squirrel
• Elk
• Bear
• Coyote
• Bobcat
  

  Uncle Tony with his bear.

With all that hunting, his family has a ton of different wild game to eat. I must say that my aunt has become a pro at cooking a variety of interesting meats. There is definitely more that you can do with venison other than just grilling it. Visit Easy Wild Game Recipes for some great wild game recipes.

Since we were little, my cousins, brother, and I have always been a part of the butchering festivities at the end of deer season. My family was part of a huge hunting group so it wasn’t unusual to have the walk in cooler completely full. Since I was one of the only girls, for whatever reason they wouldn’t let me actually cut up anything… I still don’t understand that. I’m good with a knife   So I was always put on wrapping duty with the other women.

The hunting group way back when.

While we were cutting up the meat, there was always someone stationed at the grill cooking up the little pieces that weren’t large enough to actually pack. They were marinated in beer and tasted so good! Another part of the butchering process that I always found pretty gross was when my Uncle Dan would make liver sausage. The look and smell is something that I don’t think I will ever be able to get out of my mind. I just have to remind myself that everything from the animal gets used and nothing is thrown away.

For some people, eating wild game meat may seem gross or cruel, but it is something that people have done for thousands of years, and I’m not about to get into the whole hunting is cruel debate. Also, don’t knock eating wild game before you try it. It has been said that wild game meat is a good source of protein, is low in cholesterol, and doesn’t have any added growth hormones. So I would recommend trying it if you haven’t already; what’s there to lose?

What is the best way to cook on a gorgeous March day? My roommate Beth and I decided that the answer to that question was to grill out. Beth got a phone call from her sister, who also attends UWW, and asked if she and a friend could cook steaks at our apartment. Of course the answer was yes, but they decided they did not want to cook the steaks on the grill. Well, 15 minutes later, they changed their minds and decided the grill would be the way to go.  

Since the grill was already going to be in use, Beth and I magically had cravings for hotdogs. We made a quick run across town to the store to buy all the goodies we needed, then it was time to start the grill.

I can honestly say that charcoal grills are not my friend. I have never been able to get the fire started without nearly burning my eyebrows off, so Beth was officially in charge. She is a self proclaimed grill master, and she was able to show her skills at lighting the grill.

The rules for the apartment complex are that we cannot use grills on the porch so we camped out in front of our garage on the black top. We had a cute little set up with our little charcoal grill, fold up chairs, and a little table. Luckily Beth is the proud owner of a charcoal chimney so starting the charcoal was an easy task. It was a little hairy at the beginning because a strong wind had come in, so I had to play the wind barrier in order for the fire to start.

After an hour of waiting for the coals to get nice and white, we were finally able to put the hotdogs on the grill. The hotdogs turned out nice and black, just the way I like them. 

Once Beth and I inhaled our dinner, the girls finally showed up with their steaks. I don’t know if they could have gotten a larger steak. The thing was the size of a man-hole cover. Enormous! It took almost an hour to cook the steak, because it was so big. The girls were definitely proud of themselves once they finished eating. They went home with huge smiles and full stomachs.

It was another successful meal filled with good foods and tons of laughs. Hopefully we will be grilling out again soon.

The happy cooks

As promised last week, today I’m going to share my first polenta experience. For those of you who don’t know what polenta is, according to dictionary.com, it is a thick mush of cornmeal. Yes, they used the word mush. But essentially what it is, is cornmeal that is boiled in your choice of liquid and it expands and absorbs the liquid making it, as they call it, mush.

So this would be another experience cooking one of my favorite dishes from Walt Disney World. Since the pineapple bread was a flop, I was worried that this would also be a disaster.

One of the reasons I loved this dish was for its sweetness. I have a crazy sweet tooth and was surprised that the polenta was sweet. It was a nice surprise considering it was served with an insanely spicy chicken sausage. Trying to tap into the mind of a professional chef, I’m thinking he or she would say that the sweet polenta was paired with the spicy sausage to balance each other out. Who knows? Looking back on it now, I think I never ate the two things together so I couldn’t tell you if they balanced each other out or not.

Disney World serves numerous types of polenta, but the one I decided to make was called Sweet Corn Polenta. At first I was surprised at the different liquids used in the dish. The boiling liquids were water, heavy cream, and maple syrup. I never expected that maple syrup was one of the sweetening factors. An even stranger combination that I didn’t expect to go together was the syrup and the sweet corn. It just seems odd.

Anyways, back to the recipe. So the recipe starts with sautéing onion and corn together. Then the liquids are added and brought to a boil. Once this step is completed, it’s time to add the polenta. As the polenta is stirred, you can see it slowly expand, and after a few minutes, all the liquid has been absorbed and you are left with polenta mush. Unfortunately, Disney wants you to wait before enjoying your masterpiece because they make you bake it for 45 minutes. It seemed like such a long wait, especially since I have been craving it since I left Disney in January.

The wait was completely worth it. I was afraid the polenta would dry out while baking, but it was so creamy and delicious. I was very happy with the end result. Another victory for Amanda!

I highly recommend this recipe, so for those of you who want to try this tasty recipe, please visit All Ears.

The ladies having a blast in Disney!

During a recent trip to Disney World, I ate some of the best food I have ever eaten. Lately, I have been craving some of the food from our vacation, so I was very excited to find a website full of the amazing recipes from Disney.

Two of the dishes that I could not get enough of were the Pineapple Bread and the Sweet Corn Polenta. While attending a Luau held at the Polynesian Hotel, I couldn’t stop eating the pineapple bread; it was so good! Each bite felt like I was stepping into an island paradise. The polenta was served as an appetizer at the Le Cellier restaurant in Epcot. With its creamy texture and sweet taste, it balanced perfectly with the spicy chicken sausage it was served with.  It’s pretty sad if the food I ate was one of the things that sticks out in my mind of our vacation; not the rides or the experience, the food.

This week I have been craving my two favorite dishes from the vacation. After thinking about it for a while, I finally remembered the website that holds all of Disney’s food secrets. Allears.net is a great website to find not only some of Disney’s best recipes but to find all things Disney.

I was able to find both recipes at http://allears.net/din/rec.htm. After shopping for all the ingredients I needed, it was time to start cooking. At first I planned on making everything on Friday while babysitting with my little cousin Abbie. My love for cooking has rubbed off on her over several years of babysitting and now she is my little cooking buddy. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to start making the bread like I had hoped we would, so I had to put it off until Sunday morning.

It’s a good thing I waited until Sunday to start making the bread, because it turned out to be an all day process. The few times I have tried to make bread, my attempts have failed because apparently yeast and I do not get along. Every time I have tried using yeast, the product never rises. This time I beat the yeast and my bread rose. I did a little happy dance and went on following the rest of the recipe. The pineapple and coconut filling was quite watery, but how am I supposed to know that it wasn’t supposed to be that way.

The filling was to be spread over the rolled out dough and then the whole sheet of dough was folded over onto itself. After doing this, the liquid from the filling ran everywhere and made a huge sticky mess. The dough was let to rise again, another happy dance was done, and the bread was put in the oven. A failed attempt of baking the break occurred and the watery filling resulted in undercooked bread.

The outside of the bread tastes great but the inside . . . not so much. So that day, two battles were fought. Me vs. the yeast –> Victory. The dough vs. the filling –> Defeat.  Hopefully the next time I try this recipe it will be an all around success.

Next week I’ll be tackling my first attempt at polenta. I’ll keep you informed on how that little adventure turns out.

Do you ever question why you enjoy doing your favorite hobby, or who influenced you to do the activity? I was sitting around the other day trying to figure out why I like to cook so much, and I think I figured it out.

After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I come from a long line of cooks. My grandmother was the head cook for the Salem Elementary School for over 20 years. She loved cooking for the kids, as well as cooking for her family. When I was very young, my parents would take me to the school to visit her at work, and I loved sitting on the counter watching her cook.

When my brother and I would spend the night at our grandparent’s home, baking was a normal afternoon activity. Apply pie was the old standby, and I can still remember sitting at the table with my own cutting board and knife waiting for grandma to hand me apples to cut. Ever since then, apple pie has been my go-to desert.

Here is my favorite recipe for apple pie.

Apple Pie in a Bag

Unbaked 9 in. pie shell
3 to 4 large baking apples
½ cup sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
½ tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
¼ cup rum (optional)

Topping:
½ cup sugar
½ cup flour
½ cup butter, cold
½ cup pecans, chopped

Combine apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon, lemon juice, and rum. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Mix topping ingredients and place crumble mixture over the filling.

Slip the pie into a brown paper bag. Fold open end twice and fasten with metal paper clips or metal binding clips (nothing plastic). Place on baking sheet and bake at 420° for 1 hour. After baked, slit open bag, remove pie, and allow to cool.

So after my mini trip down memory lane, how did you get started with your favorite hobby? I would love to hear your stories!

After an extremely stressful Saturday, where do you think I could be found? In the kitchen of course!  

Like I said in my previous blog, I am a stressed baker. Last Saturday was stressful from sun up to sun down.  I couldn’t wait to get home and just relax. As soon as I got home, the baking began.

I decided to try a new recipe for granola biscotti. For those of you who are not familiar with biscotti, it is a very crispy cookie that is great dipped in milk or coffee. The thing I find interesting about baking this type of cookie is that it is double baked to give the cookie its crispy texture. This type of biscotti included granola and dried cranberries. My taste testers (my family) were very impressed with how great the cookies turned out. To try this recipe, please visit http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Granola-Biscotti .

Over the past few years, I have started quite a collection of cookbooks. Some of these include the Taste of Home Cookbook, Baking Book, Diet Comfort Food Book, and the Simple and Delicious Cookbook. Obviously, Taste of Home is my primary recipe source. Another source that I love using to find recipes is websites. Some great websites for recipes are www.foodnetwork.com and www.tasteofhome.com. Hopefully these sites can help you find the perfect recipe for your next meal.

After milling some blog ideas around in my head, I decided that this blog will be dedicated to my adventures in the kitchen. I spend a large amount of my time in the kitchen with friends and family, and it is not unusual for unexpected events or lessons to result from this time. Through this blog, I will be sharing the sometimes hilarious events that happen in my apartment kitchen. I hope you will follow my journey in the kitchen and perhaps it will help you tap into your inner chef.

My name is Amanda Grulich and I am a senior at the UW– Whitewater.  I am majoring in Professional Writing and Book Publishing with a minor in General Business. Throughout the majority of my life I have had a love for cooking, especially baking. Over the past year, I have realized that I am a stressful baker. Whenever my stress level reaches its max, I can always be found in the kitchen baking something. My love of baking just about anything sweet has led me to enter my creations in our local county fair. I enter in the open class and go head to head with a bunch of old ladies. I wish I could have seen their face when I was awarded an Outstanding Exhibit award on my pineapple upside-down cake. If only they knew they lost to a twenty-two year old.

The proud winner of an Oustanding Exhibit award at the fair.

My goal is to help people bring out their inner Emeril. Just about everyone can cook something, whether they believe that or not, and I want to inspire people to do what they are passionate about. My passion is cooking and I would love to share that with people. Baking is not just for old women so put on your apron and come cook with me!