Venison

Disclaimer: I do not hunt but everyone I know does so I am spoiled and get a ton of free meat each year.

Venison, the meat everyone should be eating. I am not joking at all when I say this. It is the best lean meat and honestly I like it better than chicken flavor wise. Some people dislike the game flavor of the meat (Mom if you read this you are wrong it is fantastic!)

What is it exactly?
Per Wikipedia the land of knowledge-
Venison is a general term pertaining to the meat of a deer. It can be used to refer to any part of the deer, so long as it can be consumed, including the flesh and internal organs. Venison, much like beef, is categorized into specific cuts, including roast, sirloin, and ribs.



Now that we know what it is you have to figure out what to do with it right. Like I stated before it is super lean since a deer is a wild animal and gets a ton of good exercise in the forest. The last batch of meat I was given was from my brother (Erik) and he had his meat processed. Here are some quick ideas for how to use this healthy/tasty meat.

1. Ground-- This is an easy way to use less desirable cuts of the meat. I used 2 pounds of this yesterday to make tacos. You can sub in venison for most meat you use regularly. The only recommendation I have is if you use this for burgers you may need to add a little more fat to the burgers (mix in some beef) to get a good patty.
2. Roast-- Man there is nothing more tasty than throwing a venison roast in the crock pot with some veggies and a can of coke. Sometimes I will smear a good jalapeno jelly on the roast after it is seared off before I leave it cook all day. Make sure you cook on low and no more than 8 hours or the meat will dry out and be gross.
3. Tenderloins-- I mean how can you go wrong with a lean delicious cut of meat like this. I will sear this cut of meat and throw it in the oven until it reaches the best level of done. 350 degrees and check the temperature till it is to your liking. Treat it like beef for the level of done you want.
4. Hot sticks-- I mean who does not love a good beef stick? Now imagine it is made if deer instead and packs more deep flavor.
5. Jerky-- Most people have had some sort of jerky in their lives. This is another way to use up scraps of meat that are not fit for roasts etc. It really is fantastic and I like to take some with me hiking as a snack.
6. Sausage--This is a really popular thing to make scraps with. Most of the time you mix in some beef for added fat. Ringed bologna style and hot dogs are a good way to have venison.

If you are a hunter or know someone that hunts I am sure you know of all these things already. Most hunters will get their meat processed  at a location that charges a fee to do this. Some people I know do it themselves which is rare but impressive.

I hope you give venison or game meat in general a try. It is healthy and a good substitute for beef/chicken and even pork.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Tree/Elephant Mural

Yesterday I spent some time painting a mural for a friend's nursery. My mom painted the cute little elephants and I painted the tree. I think it really turned out good. As you know I have a love of painting so it was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

Word to the wise, don't use oil based paint it is a pain in the butt to clean up!

Mom doing some final touches.

It took us about 3-ish hours and we were lucky to have all the paint already so it cost us nothing to do this besides our time. It really turned out fantastic and we cannot wait to see it when the babies room is all done.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Minestrone Soup

I am so glad I made this soup this week. With Ryan being sick something packed with this many veggies is good for him. This soup has a ton of vegetables in it. I was rather happy with how it turned out in the end and we have lunches all week now.


What you will need~
Cannellii beans drained & rinsed, 1 can     

Carrots diced, 2 cups
Celery diced, 1.5 cups
Garlic diced, 4 cloves
Green beans drained & rinsed, 1 can
Kidney beans drained & rinsed, 1 can
Potatoes diced, 2
White onion diced, 1
Zucchini diced, 2
Veg stock, 4 cups
Seasoning (Mrs. Dash), 1 tbsp
Pepper, 1/2 tsp
Salt, 1 tsp
Water, 2 cups
Pasta ,1 cup
V8, 1 can
Tomato juice, 3 cups
Bay leaf, 2












Once you have prepped all your ingredients add the tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, celery, white onion, garlic, seasoning, pepper, salt and bay leaves into the crock pot. Add in your veggie stock, water, V8 and tomato juice. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

15 minutes before you want to eat add in the kidney beans, cannellii beans, zucchini, green beans and pasta. Turn to high and cook for 10-15 minutes until your pasta is tender.

Adding in the extras at the end!

Done and it looks so tasty.

Passed the taste test!

This made an almost overflowing crockpot full of soup and it warms up really well for leftovers. I picked up some lovely bread to eat with it from Breadsmith. I will be making this again in the future for sure.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Travel Adventures: The Lebrewski Cruise

I have been MIA for over little a week due to going to the Bahama's on a music cruise. I am going to try to piece together some of my favorite things and moments for you each day to give you an idea about our fun filled trip. This was one of my favorite vacations we have ever taken and I have traveled a lot.

FYI-- I was sick this entire trip with a pretty crappy cold.  

Day 1 Chicago to Miami--Norwegian Pearl ship
We started this day off early having drove to Chicago the night before after work. Our hotel the Loews Hotel Chicago offers parking there if you stay with them plus a really fancy shuttle service to the airport. Highly recommend staying there. Chicago O'Hare International Airport was extremely well organized and we were able to breeze through check-in and security with enough time to grab a yummy breakfast sandwich before boarding our flight. The flight was good overall because I always take dramamine while flying. With my head cold my ears where not so happy though and continued to pop all night. Arriving at the Miami airport we found our bags and headed over to the ship via another shuttle service Norwegian has. Ryan and I have cruised on the Norwegian Pearl before he actually proposed to me on this ship so it was fun to come back to the ship. They have renovated it in 2013 so a lot has changed in the layout of the ship.

Here is the ship out a sea. Pretty big ship. We decided as soon as we were on the ship we would only take the stairs the whole time on the ship. The ship is 13 floors. Needless to say we got a good workout in on the ship. 



Once on the ship we ate lunch and roamed the ship to figure out where everything was. We caught our first show of the night and managed to eat dinner too. 

Food hightlights-
Lunch I had this watermelon salad with basil and olive oil. It was simple but so refreshing. I had my first drink of the trip a Miami vice (half daiquiri/half pina colanda) it was yummy but at $28 for two we limited our intake for the rest of the trip. 

Music highlights-

Kyle Hollingsworth (The String Cheese Incident) sailed us from port with some good ole funk music. 

Later after dinner we rocked out with Tyler Bryant and The Shakedown. 








Day 2 New Providence (Nassau)
We forgot that everything in the Bahama's runs on island time so we had to wait for the tourist office to open at 9 even though we disembarked at 8. Once we had our trip to the Clifton Heritage National Park  all sorted out with the wonderful Kathleen, Joey and Vernita. Joey was our driver and car guide explaining how the island and Bahamas work. Vernita was our guide at the park showing us amazing rock formations and art along the way. The trip was $60 a person and included a 45 minute drive to the park, guided tour of the park and lunch. We paid extra for snorkeling but that was worth it to see the sculptures.

When we got out of the water I noticed giant globs of crude oil all over Ryan. I had some all over the bottom of my suit. Come to find out they had an oil spill and the ropes around the statues were covered. Getting back to the ship we rushed to change out of our beach wear and get to our first concert of the night. I scrubbed those suits clean of oil for a long time first. I got them clean and now we can laugh about our brush with a oil spill.

Food Highlights-
The chicken at lunch supplied on the beach had the most delicious seasoning on it with steamed veggies. It was perfection. Grabbing an ice cream from one of the many soft serve machines on the way to see O.A.R. Yum!
We went to the first beer tasting and there was some really outrageous flavors such as pineapple in beer. Our favorites that night were from Cigar City Brewery.  

Music Highlights-
O.A.R did not disappoint. They were fantastic live and the theater was hopping.
Stolen Rhodes was fun surprise on this cruise. These guys are seriously talented and sound just like their records.

Hollis Brown oh how I love this band. There was a light breeze and I danced my tail off. The lyrics in their music are so deep and they sure know how to make you dance with their songs.






 Day 3 Day at Sea
We started out the morning having some fruit because I almost always did that on this ship. Then we found a quiet little spot to read the morning away. So relaxing. We went and had a light lunch then decided to go to a beer and food tasting with Chef Terry French. Terry was a special chef who was plastered drunk and talked more about himself than the actual food that he was making. It was like a train wreck you could  not stop watching. We started our concert watching for the evening after a beer tasting and dinner.

Food Highlights-
For Breakfast I had these little figs and they were amazing. I proceeded to eat them at every meal if I could. I also had a really interesting beer at the beer tasting it was a belgium wheat. Lastly, even though I learned nothing that the beer/food demo the food that came out for the tasting was amazing. The little buns the sliders came on were divine.

Music Highlights-
Had to catch some more O.A.R and do some dancing!
Young Dubliners brought some fun energy to their set and had all the people dancing the "stick person dance".
Alpha Rev was one of my favorite bands on this cruise. Their music is fun yet has some intense lyrics. They really loved pulling other artists onto the stage to do little cameo appearances which was a blast.

Day 4 Great Stirrup Cay 
We ate a quick breakfast and got onto a tender boat to go to shore. I am pleasantly surprised I did not get sick on the boat to the island. It was a rather overcast day and windy. We decided to take a little trolley to the lagoon on the other side of the island for some reading in the AM. Later in the morning we walked over to the main beach for a tasty cook out and some music. The sun was out full force at this time in the PM. After this fun beach day we got some dinner and watched more music into the AM. I finally managed to locate a mojito after a day long hunt for one!

Food Highlights-
Star fruit and passion fruit on the island with lunch and all the little salads they had where fantastic. I had a ton of beer at the tasting. One of them tasted like straight up coffee. We decided to get some dessert this night and I loved these little fudge balls they had.



Music Highlights-

See the guy in the red shades? That is Ryan!!!

Andy Frasco. O.M.G. I would fly to one of his shows, swim, run or crawl. Ryan and I agree our favorite concert of all time and we have seen some damn good shows. I mean I was dancing HARD and so was everyone else. Band members would jump down into the sand with saxophones and rock out with us. "Superman" the bass player climbed on the speakers and rocked out. Andy danced and sang with us in the crowd. At the end of the set we crowd surfed him into the ocean!

We used this day to make sure we saw all our favorites one last time. Alpha Rev, Hollis Brown and Tyler Bryant and The Shakedown were amazing. We ended the night watching some really fun karaoke.

Day 5 Norwegian Pearl- Miami


We disembarked around 10ish and took an interesting taxi ride to our hotel. Once checked in we decided to walk 3 miles to Little Havana. This was a perfect overcast day for walking and there was a slight breeze as well. Miami is such and interesting mix of cultures and I found a lot of the signs in spanish which was strange when trying to find your way around when you speak broken spanish. When we arrived we ate at a little cafe and had the best cuban sandwiches. We then roamed around for a bit and started our long walk back to the hotel. We took a different way back that was a better route and we stopped at a little cuban bakery too. We had an early night after dinner due to our early flight.




Food Highlights-
So many on this day. Between the cuban sandwiches, fresh squeezed lemonade and OJ, guava filled puff, croquettes and three types of guacamole (corn, bacon and pineapple) with dinner it was fantastic. 

Guac with dinner.

Croquettes, guava puff and fresh OJ.

Day 6 Miami- HOME
I have never in my life slept through an alarm. Until this day when I was supposed to get up for 4:30am for a 5am shuttle and slept till 5:30am. It was a bit of a mess and we had to take a taxi but we made our flight okay. I even got a kale smoothie from an angry lady at the java place before we  took off. Ryan caught my cold and was feeling icky the rest of the way home which was a bummer. We did stop in Milwaukee at Trader Joes my favorite and I managed to get  home to watch the very last episode of Downton Abbey ever.

Food Highlights-
Chicago popcorn is where it is at. I got some in the airport and munched on it all day. It is a mix of cheese and kettle corn and it is fantastic!
Five guys-- Their fries are my favorite and they always give you a ton of leftovers.
Pasty's-- Ryan's step mom makes the best and we stopped to get some for dinner. So good.

In closing. We had the best trip. It really was something that I would do again in a heart beat. I wanted to get this post out in the world before I forgot all the details. I took some pictures on the trip as you can see (my phone) or I snagged them off of the cruise site. When I upload my camera pictures I may add some more here as well.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Mexican Chicken

Sometimes one is lazy and throws some stuff in the crock pot. This was the perfect storm of creativity and yum! Throw all of the ingredients in the crock pot and forget about it for 8 hours. Make some rice to eat with it and you have one great meal for hardly any work at all.

What you need~
Can of rotel
Can of salsa
3 chicken breasts
Can of black beans
1 cup of corn
1 onion
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
4 sweet peppers
cumin, cajun, salt and pepper
Black olives and cheese for garnish

Go ahead and add the chicken to the pot. Season it rather heavily as shown.

Add the chopped onion and peppers on top of the chicken.

Gather these things and pour them on top. Make sure you drain the black beans and wash them first. Add the corn to the mix too.

MMMM... Looking tasty. Make sure you season this as you go dumping things in the pot. Put it on low for 8 hours and forget about it.

Make some brown rice or white... or whatever you have. Put that in the bottom of a bowl and laddle this yummy mix in the bowl. You can top with cheese and olives if you wish. Need more heat add some hot sauce or cool down with some sour cream. This makes a ton of leftovers.

I will be on vacation next week so no new posts for awhile. HELLO warm weather in the Bahamas!

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Delicious Spaghetti

I think most of America know how to make this dish. Taking it to the next level so it is not boring canned sauce thrown on some noodles is a whole new animal though. I like to pump mine up with some special ingredients that I will share with you today. Here are my tips for the best spaghetti of your life.

1. You need to add fresh produce to cut through the canned tomato sauce taste of the jarred sauce. 
I always add onion, garlic and basil to mine. I use one entire yellow onion, four garlic cloves and a half a handful of basil. I grow my own basil and freeze it to use year round. If you do not do that then pick some up from the store.

2. Use decent meat. 
What do I mean by that you ask? You do not have to use boring hamburger when you make spaghetti all the time. This time my grocery store had hot sausage on sale. It was fantastic!

I had browned the onion/garlic/basil mixture and then added the meat to brown.

3. The sauce is key!
As a short cut I use 1 can of original whatever is on sale jar sauce. I add this to the meat/veggie mixture and shimmer it down. After about 5 minutes I add my secret weapon......

This jarred tomato juice we canned as a family this year. This is my secret weapon. I am sure you do not have a bunch of this laying around so you can buy canned tomato juice to add. I always add half of a mason jar to the sauce.





4. Have you been seasoning as you go? 
I know I stress this in a lot of my blog posts but I cannot stress seasoning things enough. I cannot tell you how having bland food is the WORST. In this recipe here is the times and what I used to season.
In step one I seasoned the veggies while they cooked down with (onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper)
In step two I seasoned with (Worcester sauce, fennel, parsley flakes, dried oregano and Mrs. Dash)
In step three I tasted the mix and decided it needed more salt and pepper.

Always make sure you taste what you are cooking to make sure it is balanced. We like our sauce a little spicy and I did not have to  add anything due to the hot sausage. Usually I add red pepper flakes or cayenne to heat things up a bit.


5. Noodle are important too!
Everyone always buys some boring old noodles that are cheap and frankly most of the time gross. Why not try a specialty pasta or something fresh?  This time I made carrot/tomato noodles and they were amazing.(Random FYI in case you are wondering what is with that fish-- Ryan bought that to add iron to our lives. Find out more information on this little guy HERE).

As you can see the pasta is really orange from the carrot and tomatoes added to the pasta. It was really good. I am also a fan of wheat pasta.

Yum!

Have to add some cheese.

Getting fogging from all that steam.

I hope these tips are helpful to you the next time you are making "boring" old spaghetti and you turn it into something truly delicious.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Baked French Fries

I know people reading this are thinking "Emily there is no such thing as a good baked french fry." That is why they are called FRIED right? Whelp, you  are wrong my funny little friends. It has take some time but I have managed to make crispy yet light and fluffy fries in the oven. Let me tell you all my secrets.

What you need~

4-5 Potatoes (I used yukon gold)           
Olive oil
Mrs. Dash
Sea salt







Pre- heat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. 
Cut your potatoes into long fries. I like to use yukon gold potatoes because they have a natural buttery texture to them and they bake really well.

Once the fries are cut place on a baking sheet. Lightly coat in olive oil. Be careful not to over oil as then they will be greasy and not crisp. I would say you need no more than 2 tablespoons of oil. Once you have tossed and coated in the oil season the fries with whatever you like. This time I used Mrs. Dash and sea salt. 

Place in the oven for 20 minutes and then flip the fries. Look at how crispy they get!
Cook them for another 20 minutes and then turn on the broiler on high. This is how they get extra crispy. The time you leave them under the broiler will depend on how crispy you like your fries. This was after about 5 minutes.

Trust me when you have this healthier version of french fries you may never go back to the traditional french fries ever again.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily