TOPIC: What you got growing ?

I went on down the hollow a bit and got two more...

That was all I needed to make a batch of my squirrel stew.. so I went on back home them.

I will take you thru my recipe for squirrel stew in case any of you want to give it a try.

If I kill young squirrels (1/2 grown, to 3/4 grown) I fry those up like chicken (my wife does)... but older squirrels like these I make stew out of them.
Dumplins are good too, but I am not a big dumplin fan myself.

Below is what they look like after being cleaned and quartered...

Below is a pic I took of them in my slow cooker...



I put half a stick of butter in the slow cooker and had it set on High Heat... Once that melted a bit, I added chopped onions and celery, and two cloves of garlic minced.
I let that cook for 20 minutes or so, until the veggies had softened and caramelized some.

I then seasoned the squirrel pieces with salt and pepper, and some McCormics seasoning... and placed then in the pot...

I added 1 pint of homemade bone broth (I make my own).. and that near covered the meat. Perfect.

I let it cook on high 1 hour, then turned down to low, where it just simmers... and let it simmer for another 4 hours.

after 1 hour of high heat adn 4 hours on low... the meat was very tender and just fell off the bones easily.



I removed the squirrel pieces from the pot, took the meat off the bones and added the meat back to the pot.

Then I added potatoes, carrots, 1 pint of my homemade canned tomatoes, a little broccoli and chopped green onions and some pasta - seasoned with salt and pepper to taste... letting all that cook a while longer until the veggies were nice and tender.

Here is the end result..



A bowl of that with some cornbread and you have got it made.

It fed 5 people last night and we have about one more bowl full left over in the fridge... which I will eat today, if my son does not beat me to it.

Hope you are all having a good Weekend.

TNHuner

We normally wait until we have a frost because of the wolves in the neck of the squirrels..did you see any when you
cleaned them?

ive killed 36 since aug.1st. seen one with a warble in it.

We always called them Wolfs ... and they are nasty looking things.

When I kill a squirrel with one, I just leave him for the foxes, owl's, yotes.

I have seen them in the neck area, but also on the back and hind quarters.

Early season I might see 1 in a dozen squirrels.

I looked them up on youtube and looks like they are officially called a bot fly larvae. They are a parasite and once you kill the host (squirrel or what ever)... they work their way out.

Below is a youtube of a chipmunk that was killed that had 3 of the things... and one works his way out on the video.



Nasty !

But you can easily tell if a squirrel has one (active) or has had one in the past (once skinned).

Only eat the healthy ones.

TNHunter

Well I considered going seng hunting this morning on my day off, but after researching prices some online... decided to go fishing instead.

Caught two bass, one large mouth (pic above) and one smallie, and 5 black perch.

Absolutely beautiful morning, and early it was a little on the cool side too.

I won't be able to stand it too long - will have to go and dig a few roots. But fishing is a good alternative when the price is looking sad.

PS.. notice how fat that bass looks. I thought it was full of eggs or something.. but knew it was not right time of year to have a full roll of eggs.

When I cleaned that thing it had a huge ROCK in it's belly and several craw dads. That rock was as big as a golf ball or bigger, but rectangle shaped.

No way he could have passed that thing. Even with a belly full of rock and crawdads he still hammered my topwater bait (Rebel Pop R).

TNHunter

Love catching, killing, growing, etc... my own food.

Had a fine meal off that ole Bass.

1.. Bass Filet blackened (fried in a little olive oil and a lot of butter). Coated in a mix of Paprika, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, salt and pepper. Oh Man !

2.. I pan seared some broccoli in that butter mix too.

3.. Oven baked spicy fries. (they have some of that blackening spice on them too), coated in olive oil and butter and baked in the oven.

Now that is a fine lunch right there.

TNHunter

good looking meal