Got Venison?

Yesterday I was thinking about what to cook for Sunday, game day.  Taking stock of what we had on hand all I needed was a package of fresh mushrooms to whip-up a pot-full of venison stroganoff.  As near as I can figure it has been more than a few years since I made this dish.  And, again, as it turns-out I shouldn't let so many years pass as this is one of the best comfort foods on the planet. 

This also happens to be one of those meals that impresses with its complex taste profile under the guise of thriftiness.  Doesn't matter if you're feeding your family tribe, throwing a dinner party, or like us - cooking for two and don't mind leftovers; this happens to be a recipe that stretches your valuable grocery dollars.

VENISON STROGANOFF 

Directions- 

Fetch a couple of packages of venison steaks or a roast from the freezer.  Because this is a low and slow stove-top braise you needn't use your best venison; a roast works really well. Thaw and cut into strips, cubes or chunks – you pick.  Be sure to trim every last vestige of silver skin and tallow from your cuts.  Season generously with fresh cracked pepper and cracked sea salt.  Dredge in flour and set aside.

 

 

Assemble a couple cups of beef base, half of a chopped onion and chopped garlic.  

 

In a cast-iron Dutch oven heat olive oil to screaming hot and brown your venison in shifts so that the oil stays hot. 

 

 

Remove the browned venison and set aside.  Add the chopped onion and sweat for a minute or two.  Add the chopped garlic.  

 

 

Deglaze your kettle with a bunch of red wine (I prefer Merlot) to get all the browned bits of goodness off from the bottom of the pot. This step is critical. 

Return the venison to the pot along with enough beef base to cover the meat.  Cover, and simmer 2 -3 hours.  Check periodically and taste for seasoning.  

 

 

Add the sliced mushrooms, cover and simmer a couple more hours.  Add more red wine as needed. 

Remove the lid and continue to simmer over medium heat while the sauce reduces.  Start another large pot with salted water to boil.  This is for the noodles. 

 

 

After the stock has reduced to your satisfaction stir-in sour cream slowly to create a silky-smooth result.  Sour cream is totally personal.  When it is right for you, turn down the heat allowing it to continue to thicken. The flour used to dredge the venison should be sufficient; however, If needed you can thicken it further with slurry of corn starch and water.   

When the pot of water reaches a boil add your noodles of choice – we chose egg noodles.  Following the package directions cook your noodles until done.  

 

 

Serve your venison stroganoff over a bed of noodles in a bowl along with dinner rolls, unsalted sweet cream butter, maybe some garden peas on the side.  Red wine or an Oktoberfest beer is a terrific pairing to wash it down.  Throw your low-carb diet out the window and dig-in.  This is damn good chow if you can get it.  And it won't cost you a king's ransom.

Pro-Tip -  If you're feeling ambitious or you have an extra hand in the kitchen, substitute mashed taters or German spaetzle for the noodles.  No venison?  Substitute stewing beef.

The Least I Can Do

Turns-out my pal, Braumeister, has a Level Two charger in his garage just like I do.

If I have to travel to the Naked City and stay overnight if he and the missus are in town I might be able to score a spot on the fold out couch and top-off my battery overnight.

If he's reading this he might get a chuckle from the title... 

 

Remember The Old Electric Car?

 

In keeping with the electric vehicle theme there is this.

1909 Fritchle Electric Car. 100 miles on one charge. 

Low Price of $2000.

That is the equivalent of $69,000 in 2024 dollars.

Nobody Drives A Green Sports Car

This piece of click bait has been floating around social media.....

I have no solar panels or a wind turbine.

I get my power from the grid like most everyone else - 89% of which in Wisconsin is generated by burning fossil fuels.  I did plant 40,000 trees decades ago; consequently my carbon foot print is likely smaller than most folks.  My conscience is clear.

My daily ride is a Ford Mustang Mach-E. I love the advanced driving technology and performance capabilities. My AWD Premium with extended range battery is rated at 346 hp and 428 pounds-feet of torque.   0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds is likely faster than most folks.

GM’s Corvette E-Ray has a 495 hp mid-engine set-up and an electric motor that sends 160 hp to the front wheels for an unfair advantage of 655 hp and 0-60 in 2.5 seconds.

Luring buyers to an electrified Vette or a racy EV isn’t a green pitch.  Nobody calls these “environmentally friendly” sports cars. They’re purchased because consumers are looking for performance, innovation or value.

A fully electrified Corvette is the next frontier. Porsche has plans to replace their Boxster and Cayman ICE models with EVs next year and Ferrari expects release of its first EV in 2026.

Daniel Pund, editor in-chief of Road & Track magazine, put it best; “many consumers previously drawn to fast, fashionable cars have shifted to luxury sport-utility vehicles or electric vehicles.”

And yes, they're expensive.  Get over it.

Saving The Planet

Earlier this year, and 2200 miles ago, we took delivery of a battery electric vehicle - a BEV.  It is a Ford Mustang Mach-E; a sporty number that is capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 in about 3.9 seconds.  If it weren't for all of the driver assist features you could rack-up some serious speeding violations in reasonably short order.  

Hands Free Driving

That aside, my acquisition of this vehicle is not going to save the planet.  Why is that you ask?  It's a consequence of my reliance on the grid.  Without a solar array or wind generator I get my electricity the same way most of my readers do - from the power company.  And the brutal, honest truth is only about 11% of the electricity generated in Wisconsin is from renewable sources.  The remaining 89% is generated by the burning of fossil fuels. 

It should come as no surprise that according to a report issued by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) that this year's most environmentally friendly automobile is the plug-in hybrid electric Toyota Prius Prime SE.  This vehicle can travel up to 44 miles on a battery charge before switching to hybrid mode.  When you factor-in the carbon emissions from both manufacturing and daily operation you have a winning combination.

And while the sale of BEVs continues to rise, the pace of growth has softened a bit as consumer tastes for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) also grows slightly faster.  As a long time shareholder this likely explains the run-up in share value as Toyota Motor has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the popularity of plug-in hybrid vehicles.  (ADR ticker TM).

So, is the EV dead on arrival?  I don't think so.  For a segment of the marketplace such as commuters who want a second vehicle and those who can afford them; an EV remains a solid choice.  Speaking for myself, it is near optimal for local use easily making a round trip to Green Bay, Sheboygan, Manitowoc and Sister Bay.  With a Level Two charger in the attached garage I plug it in before going to bed and it charges overnight during off-peak hours.  As a daily ride an EV is sublime.  Would I drive it to the Gulf Coast to visit the grand kids?  With some planning I could.  Yet the notion is unappealing as the Honda Odyssey minivan is a more practical choice.

Another interesting thing I've learned is that adopters of a battery electric vehicle rarely go back and replace it with an internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV).  I suspect that battery technology, and consequently range, will continue to evolve.  The price point will likely also move with the export of mass-produced, lower cost EVs from China.  An unknown factor is Donald Trump.  Demonstrably hostile to electric vehicles if he wins reelection this fall I suspect that the sale of BEVs will suffer.

Meanwhile, the sale of BEV and PHEV units will likely continue to rise as automobile manufacturers seek to improve the fuel efficiency of their fleets.  Ford, Kia and Toyota are going to continue to expand their selection of hybrid options to appeal to consumers who are not quite ready for a fully electric vehicle.  

In conclusion, is an electric vehicle or a hybrid better for the environment and save the planet?  The answer is complicated because battery manufacturing is a dirty business.  There are plenty of carbon inputs in the assembly of both.  And where I live the grid doesn't offer much in the way of renewable energy.  Factors such as range anxiety, personal preference, daily use, attraction to new technology and affordability probably play an outsize role.  I like my Mustang Mach E more than I enjoyed driving the 5.0L fire-breathing Mustang I owned between marriages.  It's a fast and sporty drive and other than my neighbors who drive Chevy Corvettes or race on the local dirt tracks I have one of the fastest rides in my small community and virtually none of the maintenance.  Besides, our family presently owns three additional ICEVs, a 4-wheeler and side-by-side powered by gasoline, a diesel tractor and a boat with a couple of two-cycle motors.

Bottom line, I'm not saving the planet. Big deal; so what.  Now, get off my damn lawn...

Venison: Medium Rare to Raw

We try to eat venison at least once a week.  Why, you ask?  Unless it's been made into delicious fresh or smoked sausage it's exceedingly healthy.  It is free-range and all-organic.  It is local. It is also plentiful.  And it is renewable.  Just recently I was looking out the kitchen window to the east before sunset and I stopped counting at twenty of the number of whitetails congregating in my neighbor's hay field.

Anyway, one of our favorite meals is grilled venison(rare to medium rare) with a side salad and baked tater with all the fixn's.  Good eats!

The dog found a fresh coyote kill in the woods recently and scored some nibbles and a bone.  Raw but palatable because of the cold temps.   

Good eats.  

If you're a dog..... 

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*By the way, it's a Leap Year this year.  My pop was a Leap Year baby.  If he was alive today he'd be the ripe old age of 25.  Happy Birthday, dad!

 

Game Day

 

Game Day brat fry this evening. 

If you are a regular reader you can probably guess who made the principle contribution to this juicy deliciousness...

EV

 

 

Electric vehicle technology is not new.

It's been around for awhile....

Scorched Earth Policy

Three weeks post-burn and things are greening-up rather nicely...

 

Door County Basics

 

IEI General Contractors, Inc.

Door County's Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) and Emergency Services (EMS) are located on 14th Avenue adjacent to the County Fairgrounds in Sturgeon Bay.  If you pay a visit you will note that it is indeed a slick repurposing of a much older building.

Constructed of native dolostone blocks and engineered wooden roof trusses if you cast your gaze upwards the structure still sports an overhead crane.

IEI General Contractors, Inc.

This is a consequence of the building's pedigree.  From 1934 to 2004 this was the main shop for the Door County Highway Department.

When the highway department moved to new quarters on Duluth Avenue in 2004 the building sat mostly vacant or was utilized for storage.  The county Board of Supervisors contemplated alternately demolishing or repurposing the structure.  When it became apparent that County EMS had outgrown their leased facility the board initiated discussions with outside consultants in 2015 the costs of repurposing a structure that they already owned.

Plans were eventually drawn-up to remodel the building and locate the county's Senior Center in one part of the building along with offices for an Aging and Disability Resource Center.  30,000 of additional space adjacent would be upgraded for garaging ambulances and provide living space for on-duty paramedics along with offices for County Emergency Services Department.

Work began in 2016 with EMS moving into the facility in 2017 followed by the grand opening of the ADRC in January of 2018.

IEI General Contractors, Inc. has a nice collection of photos and a story about the project on their home page.

IEI General Contractors, Inc.

Greenwashing

The process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how something is more environmentally sound. Greenwashing is considered an unsubstantiated claim intended to deceive someone into believing that a product, plan or decision is environmentally friendly.

I have blogged about this subject before.

Now it seems the United Nations is getting-in on the game and is scolding businesses to stop greenwashing.

Between you and me I don't happen to think this falls within the bailiwick of the UN to become the world's Eco-Nanny.

Nevertheless, it is becoming clearer to me that appearances are important and if gullible individuals are going to believe that a corporation with a big, filthy-dirty carbon footprint has all of a sudden gone green then I suppose that gullible people are free to be suckers.  I'm not falling for it.  PT Barnum had a term for this.

Anyway, you read more about the snit over this here.

You're welcome. 

 

Stove Wood

By my estimate I have set-aside roughly three and a half full cords of stove wood.

Bring on the cold weather....

Stove Wood

Over the last couple of weeks one of my pals and I cut a ginormous pile of ash harvested from our forest into stove wood lengths.

Last weekend our wives joined-in on the fun and we split and moved in two trips (by rough estimate) about three full cords of wood.

It's a start for our two families as we both supplement our winter heating needs with wood burning units.

Like I said it's just a start.

Stay-tuned.

Locavore

Recently a spent an afternoon at Waseda Farms for a visit and a tour.

According to their webpage the Waseda operation dates back to 1933 in Pulaski, WI.  Thomas H. Lutsey worked on the family farm as a youngster.  

Thomas founded Gold Bond Ice Cream in 1946 with a novel idea to manufacture ice cream and sell it from milk trucks during delivery times.  One of his inventions was the Paddle Pop - ice cream on a stick, dipped in chocolate and covered in nuts.  

The Gold Bond Company operated for decades under Lutsey's leadership until sold to Good Humor-Breyers, who owned the Popsicle and Klondike Bar brands.  

In 2008, son Tom Lutsey acquired the current Wasda Farm in Baileys Harbor, which had previously been owned and operated by the Priests of the Sacred Heart.  To this day their cattle are referred-to as Holy Cows but I digress.

Following a cancer scare Tom Lutsey directed farming operations in the direction of sustainable, certified organic production and the rest is history.

The name was retained from the prior Jesuit Order and remains a mystery as there is nothing on the interweb to suggest the origin.

Tom's children Matt and Jeff continue to run day-to-day operations.

Tom

Grass-fed beef

Chicken and egg production

Baileys Harbor farm market 

You can lean more about Waseda Farms here.  

Be sure to visit.

You are what you eat.

Wildflower Walk

From our walk recently there was this....

Joe Pye Weed taller than I am.

And the most spectacular Blue Vervain.

It is important to note that both of these native plant species arrived here without any known human help.

We didn't plant them.

Lesson:  Build native habitat and they will come....

The Garden Chronicles

Kermis is coming-up at the end of the month - a celebration of the bounty of the harvest by the Belgian settlers around these parts.  We've been enjoying quite harvest from the garden over the past couple of months.  Four crops of radishes, a couple of spinach, English peas and four varieties of lettuce - all cooler weather crops that were planted early spring.  The radishes, spinach and peas are done for now and the lettuce is beginning to bolt (although we're still picking enough to salads and sandwiches.)  A second sowing of the preceding will be attempted this month for a fall harvest as the weather cools.

In the meantime green beans, cukes, beets, a couple of varieties of cherry tomatoes and sweet peppers have made a strong showing.  As a matter of fact a dozen 'family-sized' bags of green beans and a bunch of sweet peppers went to a local food pantry at Holy Name of Mary church in Maplewood for distribution today.  I canned seven pints of pickled beets today and they are already stashed in The Bunker.

From the past week there has been this:

Pickle cukes

Detroit Red beets

Blue Lake #274 green beans

What we keep on the counter is "Garden Candy" and it is replenished daily

Romaine lettuce

Sweet peppers

All of this fresh produce is indeed a blessing and something we're going to miss in February when Ma Nature is slinging frozen sleet at the kitchen windows.  Having two kinds of vegetable dip in the fridge at all times is indeed a first-world problem.

Vive le Jardin Magnifique!

Over-Engineered

An engineer dies and goes to hell. After a while, the engineer gets dissatisfied with the level of comfort in hell and starts designing and building improvements. After a while, hell has air conditioning, flushing toilets, water fountains and escalators - making the engineer a pretty popular guy.

One day God phones Satan up and asks with a sneer: “Hey buddy, how’s it goin down there?”

Satan snickered back, “Things are going great actually. We’ve got air conditioning, flush toilets, escalators and the works. Hell, there’s no telling what this engineer guy is gonna come up with next.”

God replies, “What? You’ve got an engineer? That’s a mistake - he should never have been sent there; send him back up.”

To which Satan replied, “No way dude. I like having an engineer on staff, I’m keepin him.”

God retorted, “Send him up here or I’ll sue.”

Satan laughs loudly and answers, “Yeah, right. And just where are you gonna find a lawyer?”

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Last year I gave one of my homemade nest boxes to my cousin who also happens to be an engineer.  And just like the engineer in the whimsical (but true) story a basic nest box wasn't sufficient.  It would appear that the level of inspection protocols for this cedar birdhouse was insufficient.  As a consequence he designed and installed improvements.

At the recent Conclave of the Cousins and annual summer Rib Fest a couple of weekends ago I was witness to this:

Yes, that is a nest box built of my own hands - now sporting a solar array.

It also has a skylight designed to allow a diffuse soft light to enter.

And a remote video micro camera.  A nest cam so to speak.

Nobody took-up residence in the box this year although a bird did leave an "offering" of nesting material likely in hopes of attracting a mate.  So, you'll have to be patient and await the arrival of some avian tenant to take-up residence next season.

Stay-tuned....

 

Reduce Reuse Recycle

Spizella passerina commonly known as chipping sparrow is among the most common sparrows in North America. They are summer visitors here and can range as far north as Alaska. They are both winter and year-round residents of Central America and the southern states.

Fairly tame, this bird takes its name from the sharp chip call it makes as it hops and runs on the ground foraging for seeds and insects.  It takes flight in short, rapid bursts. 

Field marks include a rusty crown and a dark eye line. 

The female constructs a cup nest low to the ground in dense shrubs and is usually lined with animal hair.  This bird fledges two broods per year.  Both male and female feed the young. 

After brushing Blonde Dog it is common to observe mama gathering dog hair for her nest. 

 

Reduce, reuse, recycle.

 

Eat Your Greens

All I can say is that not only is gardening great zen but it tastes good too. 

I went out my back door and picked fresh greens today: spinach and three kinds of lettuce (Jericho romaine, red salad and black-seeded Simpson). 

 

Add cooked chicken, bleu dressing (with crumbles) toasted croutons and a fresh baked baguette. 

 

Tomatoes need to ripen and the circle will be complete. 

My pal New Guy says this is really good with grilled venison. Medium rare.  Capital idea.  I'm gonna try that.

And if I do that would come pretty close to totally self-sufficient backyard homesteading…..

 

Death to the Invader

Last Friday brought another bad day for phragmites, reed canary grass and woody invasives out back in the prairie planting.    

Following our controlled burn in early May of 2020 we invited a field team from Robert E. Lee and Associates to return in late summer last year to perform follow-up chemical treatment.

We've done this before and now we're on a twice a year cycle - spring and fall.  This is their first visit of 2022.  

If you're wondering why I don't just do this myself the short answer is that I probably could - but I'd be breaking the law.  Because the work is performed in a delineated wetland habitat only licensed applicators can pull a permit from Wisconsin DNR and perform the work.  You know me - I'm all about doing things on the up and up. Pulling, cutting and treating other invasives located in less sensitive locations remain my responsibility.

Death to the invader! 

You can learn more about NES Ecological Services here