Woodchuck for Dinner

Our oldest son had been noticing some woodchuck damage and decided to do something about it.  Last year we had such an infestation of various rodents so he wanted to make sure he had an early start.

He caught one on the first day after setting his auction buy trap.

I knew then that I would have to "adjust" our weekly menu.

All the boys have been waiting to eat woodchuck (or groundhog - but the word groundhog makes me bitter because he said that it would be an early spring and it is supposed to SNOW this weekend.).  Friends I shall leave unmentioned (but drive a blue bus because their family is so large - 16 kiddos from one mama and one daddy and only one set of twins) had assured our boys it was tasty.

As they are known as being tricksters, I was slightly leery.

The school called as S1 was headed back to the house withe the rodent and I had to run in to get S2, who was feeling sickly.  I was so in shock over the fact that I was actually going to be making woodchuck for dinner that I had to share this information with the school secretary.  Oddly, she didn't seem shocked.  I think this should concern me.  

S2 arrived home to watch S1 cut up the meat.  I was quite thankful that crock pot liners have been invented because they were surely being used on this meal.

We had been told that cream of mushroom soup would make the meat more tender, so we added that as well.  

It wasn't looking very tasty.

However, every single time I get a chicken ready to bake I swear I am not eating one because I think they look so disgusting but I keep making them for dinner and we keep eating them.  So I wasn't so quick to judge.

The longer it cooked, well, it didn't smell very good either.  We kept waiting for a good cooking scent, but it never happened.

When I drove into our little hometown to pick up yet another sick boy (it's been a rough week, but we can't blame the woodchuck, it hadn't been eaten yet), I stopped to talk to Alicia at my amazing work place, the heart of our town, the library.

"There's a woodchuck in my crock pot," I told her.

"What?" she spit out.

I repeated what I said.  "That's what I thought you said but I didn't want to believe you," she answered, shaking her head.

When I arrived home, the woodchuck wasn't smelling any better.

I started frying bacon.  Bacon always smells wonderful. Waffles and bacon had never sounded so delicious for dinner.

The meat cooked up dark, nearly black.  My husband began to get a little hopeful. "Bear meat is black and it is some good eating," he told us.  He began dreaming up plans if it tasted as good as prime rib and how we would raise the woodchucks, becoming a woodchuck farm, hitting the jackpot on an untaped market and the recipes I could sell and the money we could make.

All the boys started asking for me to make them a waffle.

But S1, bless his heart, cut up pieces for everyone and was sure that with Sweet Baby Ray's, anything can be tasty.

He was mistaken.

"All this hard work for it to taste this bad!" he moaned dejectedly. 

And it was bad bad.  So bad that when they cleared the table, they wouldn't even give the leftovers to the chickens.  That is bad, folks.

I was ever so thankful for that crock pot liner!

S1 emailed the Visser's the people who told us it would taste good, and they told us you have to boil woodchuck first and then cook it.

It's going to take a little while to get over this, but I am pretty sure that we are going to be trying this meal again.

Lucky us.

I would like to add that days later, they are still bemoaning the fact the woodchuck tasted so tough and terrible.  My husband still laments, "If it only it had tasted good, think of the money we could have made!"

This, people, is my life.

I cannot make it up.

Three Crock-pot Recipes for Four Ravenous Boys

Back in October, at the height of football season, I bought this cookbook....

But because it was, in fact, the height, of football season, I sorta didn't try any recipes.  Oh, I looked it over at practice, when I was stuck in the suburban during a rain storm, waiting for a game to begin....

The boys went through and chose a few recipes (aka, full page pictures) they thought they would like to eat.

Since then I have made the oatmeal recipes and one potato recipe and one dessert from this crock-pot cookbook.

How sad is that?

Well, lately we have been in this terrible rut for dinners.  It goes something like lasagna, tacos, pizza, roast or chicken and potatoes, shepherds pie, chili or goulash, grilling. 

When my dear friend (who happens to be my boss) said she was taking the week off of work (as she well deserved) I knew I was going to have to get creative with dinner since I would be working every day.  As I have mentioned before, the boys have to know what they are having for dinner when I drop them off at school.  If I am not sure, they get a panicked look in their eyes.  

What if, what if I forget to FEED them?

The horror!

So I picked out three recipes and picked two other days to make a "normal" meal.  I thought that would be a good balance.

I told my friends what I was doing and promised I would give them the boys ratings.  And here I am, doing just as I promised.

The first day I made this Beef Stroganoff.

I cannot spell stroganoff to save my hide, just so you know. 

I was pretty sure this would be everyone's favorite.  My husband thought it tasted like hamburger helper, and he has a thing against hamburger helper because we lived on hamburger helper our first year of marriage and if you talk to him for any length of time he will tell you this.  

I made it up the night before and stuck the entire crock-pot in the outdoor fridge of which I do not speak of.  It is currently not filled with worms (everyone is now clicking the link in the highlighted words to read of the worm fridge now....I just know it) so the entire crock-pot fit right in there which was amazingly handy in the morning to just pull it out of the fridge and plug it in the kitchen.

Do not tell my husband this - that the fridge on the porch could have been a brilliant idea.  He doesn't need to know this, I am still thinking bitter thoughts about him telling everyone how much he hates hamburger helper.

 The meal turned out perfectly.

It got so so reviews.  Jake, as I said, didn't like it much.  Not that it was bad, it was just bland.

And it was bland.  But the boys all said they would eat it again so I consider that a win.

Please notice S2's hat.  We had to wait on this photo just so he could have his hat on.

After dinner I made up the meal I was a little worried about.  Again, we stuck the whole crock-pot in the fridge and when I got home with the boys at the end of the day, dinner was ready.

You just can't beat that.

It looked a little iffy, I stirred it and it looked delicious.

My husband absolutely raves about this Cheddar Vegetable Sausage Casserole.

S1 didn't like it but the other's seemed to like it quite well.  They said I could make it again.  (It should be noted S1 does not like vegetables...which is tricky when your family is vegetable farmers.)  I had this the next day at lunch, it was even better the next day.  I doubled the recipe and I am so glad I did.

Because I was using crock-pot liners, clean up the crock-pot simple easy and I got the next meal ready to go.

By now the boys were thinking I may be using "new" meals as a form of punishment.  "What's wrong with the food we like?" they whined when I told them it would be a new chicken dish for dinner.

This recipe, Golden Mushroom Chicken, is in the book but I cannot find it on the Crockin' Girls site.  If you have the cookbook, it is on page 261.  I could not find golden mushroom soup so I just used cream of mushroom soup.  This recipe I doubled as well and then crossed my fingers and hoped it would be good.

They nearly licked the pot clean.

Well, except for S3 who had had it with new food and refused to eat anything but cereal and pretzel sticks.  

Normally, that would bother me but this was sooooo good we didn't care.

I made up two packages of Knorr creamy chicken rice and I should have made three bags of it.  Jake said it was good and I could make it again but the polish sausage dish was still his favorite.

But anyway you look at it, I have THREE new dishes to put into rotation at our home.

And they are all so super easy I could make them at night when I was tired from work and not even stress it.

Feeling rather confident in my cooking skills, I decided to try another new recipe on our taco dinner night. 

During the week, I had gotten an invite to All Recipes magazine and was about to toss the offer when I noticed they included recipes in their request.  And one of those recipes was for lemon bars.  And lemon is the color of sunshine and I miss sunshine and I happen to love lemon bars.

So I made these Lemon Pie Bars. 

They were just cool enough to eat when the boys arrived home from school.  S1 was upstairs in his room doing school work and his nose led him downstairs just before they arrived home and he gobbled up three of them.

I wasn't sure if the boys would like them.

Think they did?

They were amazingly simple to make so I may have to make up a whole new pan of them.

Seriously, even I who make (I think) good food but not pretty food noticed they looked rather sunshiny pretty....

And they made a full 9x13 pan...a must in our household, obviously.

So what will I be making next week?

I think I will torture the boys and try a few new recipes again. :) It was such a nice change!

And...get this...my husband actually THANKED ME for making dinner.

Okay, maybe I am not as bitter about his hamburger helper stories......

The Crockin' Girls have no idea I am writing this post.  I bought the cookbook out of football mom desperation and I am thinking it was a brilliant move on my part.  Check out their website to learn more, follow them on facebook and twitter or their blog to get new recipes.  They seem so chatty and sweet and real on twitter, I am sure you will enjoy following them too!

We Are Eating Road Kill for Dinner

Groan.

I am actually writing this.

The only reason I am even sharing this story is because tomorrow the boys are going to school and sharing it with everyone so I might as well do damage control now.

Yes, tonight we are having road kill for dinner.

This was on the Today show a year or so ago and it made me laugh.  Didn't think it would come true.

Here is how it happened.

S1 and I were returning home from a run to the little town next to us for feed and a few groceries.  As we were pulling into the driveway, I commented on the squirrel that had been hit and was now dead in the road by our mailbox.

S1 has been wanting another squirrel tail and I told him — can you believe I said such a thing? - "It's fresh so go grab it."

So I am in the house cooking the chili I plan on having for dinner when S1 comes to the door, big limp squirrel in hand.

"Mama, I know this sounds really redneck and I know it would be a blog post and all that, but, well, this squirrel is really fresh.  Like still warm.  And it only got hit in the head here.  It's a big one and it sure would be good for dinner.  I know it would be road kill," he shrugs, "but it's good road kill."

So what did I do?

I got out the crock pot.

When his brothers arrived home from school, the thought we were joking when we said road kill was for dinner.  And when they finally believed us, they went whooping and hollering through the house.  

They are truly ecstatic.

I, for one, was not going to share this story with the world.  But looking at these four boys drooling over the cooking squirrel in the crock pot, I figure I had better get it out there now.

I am literally hanging my head in my hands not believing I will be publishing "publish".

Also, I will be having chili for dinner.  Made from store bought meat.