Homemade Venison Bacon and Breakfast Sausage

For Christmas Jamie wanted some seasoning packages from Cabela's for gifts.  So the kids and I went ahead and got him one to try to make homemade Venison Bacon and homemade Venison Breakfast Sausage.

Jamie took most of Monday and decided to make both.

First he started out with the cut up venison and then added some cut up pork since venison is so lean you have to add some fat back into the meat so it won't dry out.

Cut up Venison & Pork

Next Jamie took the cut up venison and pork and ground it up. As usual he did two grinds to get it nice and fine in texture.

Jamie grinding the venison & pork

Jamie then took this mixture and split it in half.  Half went to the Bacon and the other half went to the Breakfast sausage.

I'll write about the sausage first since it isn't a long process.  At this point Jamie mixed in the seasoning packet from Cabela's real well until it was all combined.  He then just packaged it up for future use.  We can make sausage & gravy with biscuits which has become one of my favorites for breakfast or make it into patties.  We decided not to make links because it's quite a bit of work. Maybe next time we will try to make links too.

Breakfast Sausage ready for packaging, you can see all the seasoning

End Result was 16 Pckgs of Breakfast Sausage (bulk)

Of course we tried to Breakfast Sausage and cooked up a little.  It was delicious, tasted just like breakfast sausage and was seasoned really well.

Onto the Venison Bacon

With the other half of the meat mixture, Jamie mixed in the bacon seasoning and cure.  He then needed to press it tightly into two pans and put in the freezer for 3 hours to completely firm up.

Meat mixture ready to put in freezer to become firm

Once the mixture is firm, Jamie took it out of the pans in 1 piece and put onto wire racks that we then put onto tinfoil lined cookie sheets to catch the drippings while it cooked.

They both went into the oven at 200 degrees and cooked until a meat thermometer read an internal temperature of 142 degrees, approximately 4 hours.

Once it was finished in the oven, it was put back into the refrigerator to cool down overnight.  Thankfully our friend Jeff has a meat slicer and was nice enough to let us borrow it.

The next morning we sliced up the Venison Bacon and packaged it up.  We ended up with 7 packages with 12 thick slices in each and 3 packages with 10 thick slices each.

Of course we had to try some too. 

Cooked Venison Bacon

The Venison Bacon does not taste anything like pork bacon.  It does have the same texture as turkey bacon but I actually think it tastes exactly like pastrami.  I took some of the above cooked Venison bacon and melted some cheese on it and had it as a sandwich for lunch.  It was very tasty.  We are also going to try to dice some of it up, add in some onions, peppers and potatoes and make some hash for breakfast with it.  Either way we all tried it AND liked it so it will be eaten one way or another.



Honey Marinade

This is a marinade recipe that Jamie & I got over 10 years ago.  The recipe comes from our good friend, Debbie Rogers dad Bob Gosnell. 

We use this marinade often and love its sweet taste.

Recipe if for approximately 2 1/2lbs of meat but this recipe doubles and triples very easily.

1/2 Cup Soy Sauce

1 Cup Oil

1/2 Cup Red Wine Vinegar

1 Onion Sliced

2 Tbls Ginger

2 Tbls Garlic Powder

1 Cup Honey

Mix all ingredients well and place meat in and marinade for at least 12-24 hours.  The longer you marinade it the sweeter the meat taste.  We have used this marinade with beef and venison and it works well with both.  I also have an Internet friend who has tried it on goat and was told that it was delicious too.

Sorry for no photo, this was a last minute post.

Freezer Inventory

With hunting season over in 3 days and thinking that Jamie is not going to have anymore time to get out and hunt, I decided to take inventory of the extra freezers we have.

Jamie has been busy this season hunting and we have made lots of different things to eat with the venison.

All meat from the freezer

The picture above shows all the meat we have that I took out of both freezers to reorganize so i know where everything is and I'm not digging for a certain thing that I want for dinner.

Left in the freezer was Veggies and Goat's milk

Shredded Zucchini from our summer garden

Green & Yellow bean from our summer garden

Frozen Goat's milk for cheese making

So after pulling everything out I made piles of each type of meat and then did a count. All the venison products we have are made from deer hunted by Jamie or friends in TN.

The following is a list of the inventory.

3 Whole Chickens (our own)

4 Pckgs Chicken Legs & Thighs (our own)

1 Pckg Chicken Legs (store bought)

1 Pckg Chicken Wings (our own)

1 Pckg Chicken Tenders (our own)

2 Steaks, Beef (store bought)

4 Tenderloins, Venison (best cut)

10 Backstraps, Venison (2nd best cut)

25 Pckgs of Steaks, Venison (3rd best cut)

3 Cube Steak, Venison

18 Pckgs Ground Venison

18 Pckgs Venison Breakfast Sausage

14 Pckgs Venison Italian Sausage Links

11 Pckgs Venison Chorizo Sausage Links

5 Pckgs of Venison Chorizo Bulk (loose) Sausage

10 Pckgs Venison Bacon

12 Pckgs Shredded Zucchini (our garden)

10 Pckgs Green/Yellow Beans (our garden)

3 Pckgs Strawberries (local farm)

6 Gallons Goat milk (our own)

Hailey & Jamie helped me organize everything back into the freezer's.

Small freezer organized

Large Freezer organized

As you can see in the above pictures, there is not much room left.  We still have 5 meat chickens out in chicken coop and yard that still need to be butchered, but can wait a while since they aren't overly large.

The next issue with freezer space will be when we have the two pigs butchered around February.  Jamie is thinking we will need to buy another Large freezer since we will be getting back approx 340lbs of pork.  170lbs will be ours and the other 170lbs is for our friends, Rob and Wendi in NH, which we will need to keep for them until they come and get it or we make a trip home.

Thankfully Jamie & Hailey will eat anything and love all types of venison.  I really like all types of the venison sausage we have made and I am starting to like the steaks as long as it has a honey marinade we use often at home. (I'll post this recipe in another post) Drew has also started liking venison which is good since he doesn't really eat much meat to begin with.

Whimsey & Windy are Expecting!!!

Whimsey (front) & Windy (back) 12-11

In my previous posts about Whimsey & Windy, I told you that they are sisters born in March of 2011.  In November we tape measured the girls for their weight and they were large enough to breed.  So we went ahead and had both girls go on "dates" with our buck Brady.

Whimsey spent time with Brady first and then Windy spent time with Brady a couple days later.

The girls have now missed 2 heat cycles so we are hoping that they are expecting.  As I wrote in a previous post before the only true way of knowing if they are pregnant is by doing a blood test and sending it off for pregnancy results.  Instead of doing this I am just going to wait.

I did what is called hand breed the girls.  This is where you pay close attention to the doe and when there is evidence of heat you put them in with the buck, stay for a bit to make sure things are going the way they are suppose to and witness the deed.  Some people will take the doe out right away but I left mine in for the morning, about 4 hours.

Whimsey 12-11

Windy 12-11

Can't forget a picture of the daddy

Brady 12-11

Whimsey is due April 8, 2012 and Windy is due April 10, 2012.

We are really looking forward to having babies here at Russell's Ridge.



Christmas

I'm going to start with Christmas Eve since I won't be doing 2 posts.  Christmas Eve started off just like any other day with morning chores, feeding and watering all of the animals.  Then the rest of the day was spent cleaning up the house, relaxing watching movies with the kids and tracking Santa on Norad.  The kids helped Jamie and I separately finish up the wrapping for each other and then they carried all the presents down to put under the tree.

Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve

The kids were extremely excited this year and by bedtime they were both off the wall.  We finally got them settled down and in bed around 9:30pm.  Jamie & I then enjoyed the peace and quiet for a couple of hours and went to bed ourselves knowing the kids would be up early.

Christmas morning came with Drew waking us up at 6am.  Very unusual for him to be up that early and to be the first one up too.  Growing up, my parents always made sure that all of us were awake before any of us could come downstairs so we have decided to carry on that tradition with our kids. 

We had Drew go back to bed for a bit while Jamie got up and went downstairs to turn on the lights and to get the fire going in the fireplace and the wood stove and also turn on the Christmas music.

Finally at 6:30, Hailey woke up and we let the kids come downstairs.  It was so nice to see them so excited and of course wanting to dig right into the stockings, which they always open first.

Hailey with her stocking

Drew with his stocking

Next we opened presents but we always take turns so everyone can see what each is getting.

Drew & Hailey Christmas morning

The kids got great gifts this year.  I was very happy to see that they got just the right amount, unlike past years where we got them too many things and they lost interest in them quickly.

Hailey got a camera with a scrapbook and scrapbook supplies, American Girl outfits for her doll, some crafts supplies to make hair bows, books and lots of clothes and shoes, her favorite.

Drew got his hard drive for the xbox along with 2 games, a Patriot's sweatshirt and sweatpants.  He also got an Under Armour cinch sak for a new school bag, new sneakers and a couple of books.

Jamie got lots of hunting stuff, a new calendar and some new shirts for work and I got some new shirts, a gift card for my Kindle Fire and of course my new 2012 doxie calendar that I couldn't live without, since we have such crazy schedules with appointments and sports.

Here are some pics of the us opening our Christmas gifts.

Drew with his xbox game

Drew & Hailey with Jamie opening a gift

Hailey with her camera and scrapbook

Drew with his hard drive for his xbox - can you tell he's excited

Hailey with some of her new clothes

Drew with his new nutcracker from Gramma & Papa

Hailey with her new nutcracker from Gramma & Papa

The rest of the day was spent doing the morning and evening chores, cleaning up and putting things away, the kids playing with their new toys and Jamie going to help a friend drag a deer out of the woods.

Christmas dinner was delicious. We had venison wrapped in bacon, Honey marinated venison with sauteed onions and blue cheese, mashed potatoes, eggs noodles, asparagus and corn, a little bit of everything.

Drew, Jamie & Hailey -Christmas dinner

At dinner we did something called Highs and Lows, which is when we go around the table and say what the high of the day was and the low of the day was.  Every one of us said the high of the day was that we were thankful to be together in our house and had a wonderful Christmas spending time with each other.  I was surprised the kids didn't say presents but I really think spending 5 months apart last year and having Christmas in a hotel put this year's Christmas into perspective for all of us.  It's not about what you get for presents or how many presents but being able to be with the one's that are most important to you during the Holidays.

 

Bruschi a Silly Boy!!!

I thought this was too cute and just had to post this.

Brady & Bruschi 12-11

I decided to go and visit the animals an extra time today. While I was out I took some pictures.  I thought I would post this one here because it shows Bruschi's personality to a t.

Bruschi is Brady's companion since goat's don't like to be alone.  Bruschi is called a wether because he can not make any baby goats.  With being a wether he doesn't go into rut and get all crazy. He usually is always acting like a little boy goat instead of a buck.

He is silly and loves to run and kick up his heels when running.  He also loves to have his pets, hugs and scratches.

Bruschi 11-11



Turning 37

This past Sunday, December 18th was my birthday.  I turned 37.  I know it is a funny thing to ask for on one's birthday but I asked Jamie to clean out the pig pen for me, really clean it out.  This was a big job and with not liking going in the pig pen too much now that the pigs are getting big I was really happy that he said yes and got it done.

So that is how my day started off, morning chores as usual and then the rest of the morning was done by cleaning the house.  I had been slacking off and it was getting bad.  Got the house cleaning done and then hung around the house for the day with the kids watching the Pats game, which they won.  Woohoo!!

Present time this year was the best!!! Jamie and the kids got me a Kindle Fire for my present.  I love to read and had been wanting a regular kindle for a while now.  We did have some issues with the Kindle Fire loading Facebook, so I ended up returning it and got another one which thankfully works great and has no issues like the first one.  I really can't tell you how well it works personally because Hailey and Jamie have been playing games on it since I got it.  When I do get a chance though to use it, it's great and runs really fast.  I was able to download my new book that just came out and hopefully will get to start reading it soon.

When I was younger and my birthday would come around I thought that the day should be all about me.  Always doing what I wanted, going out before we had kids, going out to eat for my birthday dinner with the kids.  Now I find that when my birthday comes around it's still a special day but in a different way.  I still can't believe that I turned 37 this year.  I really don't know where the time has went.  I do know that the time has been filled with creating and making my dreams come true.  Like getting married to the love of my life, having two wonderful kids and watching them grow and having the best quality of life we can create for ourselves. 

This birthday has opened my eyes and has shown me that my birthday is not about just me and it wouldn't be a special birthday at all if I didn't have the people I love to share it with.

Christmas is almost here!!!

This past weekend we went out to get our tree.  We always have a real tree and thankfully found a Christmas tree farm close to us.  It didn't take long for us to find a tree and have Jamie cut it down and load it up on the car.

Once home, we put it in the stand and let it sit over night because by the time we got home we needed to do the evening chores, have dinner and finally relax for the evening.

Naked Tree

Sunday, the kids and I took out all the Christmas totes to start decorating.  Jamie was in the middle of cutting up the deer that he had gotten Friday night.  The kids were so excited to pull everything out of the boxes and look it over.  First we got the tree done, lots of lights, ornaments and of course the candy canes for the kids to eat all month.  We then went ahead and decorated the fireplace. 

I'm really excited to have a real fireplace to have a Christmas morning fire in and not just have the Yule Log on the TV while Christmas music is playing as we have done in the past years.

Christmas tree and fireplace decorated

With having the fireplace mantel space to decorate we had some room on the wine hutch to decorate. I asked the kids if they would like to put their nutcracker collection there to display.  Drew and Hailey usually get a nutcracker from Jamie's parents every year for one of their presents.

Drew & Hailey's nutcracker collection

I got all the greenery and bows up on the windows like we have in the past.  We had some extra greenery left over this year and also some new ribbon I got and made a swag for the entrance from the living room to the dining room.  I wrapped the greenery with lights and some of the ribbon and then made 3 big bows from the leftover ribbon to dress it up.  I really like it and probably will add a little more to it when I get to the store again.

Homemade swag I made

The kids also wanted to decorate our little tree from last year.

Little Christmas tree

Last Christmas was a very hard time for us.  Jamie was living in TN and the kids and I were living in MA.  We did come to TN for Christmas and school vacation to be togethor.  I was thankful last year that we could spend Christmas togethor even with it being in a hotel.  This year is much different.  The kids are really excited for Christmas to be here. The kids were even singing Christmas songs while decorating the tree togethor.  We are looking forward to having our first Christmas here in our home.  I am very thankful this Christmas that all of us are togethor under one roof and won't have to be seperated ever again.



Pigs turn 4 months!!!

Pigs 4 months old, picture is deceiving, the boy is not really that small compared to the girl.

This past weekend on Sunday the pigs turned 4 months old.  Jamie went ahead and tape measured them for their weight.  I didn't even try this time because they are starting to get big and a little intimidating even though the pigs don't realize it.

The girl pig is very friendly and loves to be patted. She loves to run over to you for her pats and of course her brother follows right along. Both pigs like to jump up at the pen opening when it is feeding time because they get so excited for food.  One day the pigs pushed their food bowl too far out for me to pull in with the shovel, so I had to go in and get it.  As I said the pigs love to jump up so Jamie nailed a board across the opening that measures knee high on my legs.  Well I climbed up on the board and waited until I could jump over the pigs.  I jumped, then ran and picked up the food dish before the pigs could get near my hands.  I then had to run around a bit to get the pigs to follow me so they could get away from the door of the pen so I could run over and jump up onto the board to get out.

I know that I looked absolutely ridiculous but honestly it was kinda fun.  I was quite proud of myself for getting the bowl out without the pigs getting me or slipping in the mud.

Girl pig

Boy pig

They are both eating really well, now that they have turned 4 months old they are eating 4lbs of pig feed and oats 2 times a day.  Rule of thumb is to feed your pigs 1lb of food per month of age per pig.  So if you have a pig that is 2 months old it should get 2 lbs of food per day.  Since our pigs are 4 months they eat 8lbs of food since there is two of them per day.  I just split it up into two feedings.  They also are getting the rest of the pears we stored from our pear trees and any leftovers we can find for them.  They still get milk every now and then but not often since Priscilla is slowing down with her milk production and will begin being dried off for her new babies that we are expecting.

The pigs also love to burrow in the hay.  It is actually great since we really don't have any waste.  We shake out about a 1/2 bale of hay for them to sleep and burrow in to keep warm.  Once that hay has been ground into little pieces from the pigs using it so much we use it to put in the corner where they go the bathroom.  YES, pigs usually go the bathroom in one area which is great for cleanup.  Every few days their "bathroom" area is cleaned and put into the compost pile which then in turn will be tilled into our garden come spring to help all the veggies grow.  This in my mind is a true way to farm,  using what you have and having as little waste as possible.

Pigs, 4 months old

The pigs have grown well in the last month.  The girl now weighs 120lbs, with a gain of 48lbs and the boy weighs 101lbs, with a gain of 46lbs.  Like I said before we need for them to weigh around 230lbs to 250lbs for them to be ready to be butchered.  We are hoping to have them ready around February.  We may just not have both of them done at the same time if the boy doesn't catch up to the girl with his weight over the next few months. We will just have to wait and see.

Check back next month to see how much bigger they have gotten.

Girl pig for her close up

Boy pig coming to say hello

Priscilla is Expecting!!!!

We are going to have babies!!!!!!

Priscilla 11-14-11

Don't you just love that face?  She is always so curious when I have the camera out taking pictures.

Onto the reason for this posting.  All the girls came into heat this past weekend and Priscilla DIDN'T.  This means that she is pregnant.  If she was not expecting she would of came back into heat with all the other girls.  I made sure to keep a good eye on her for the past week to see if she came back into heat and nothing. 

I will still keep an eye on her for the next heat cycle that would be due around the beginning of December just to make sure she really is expecting.  There is a company that I could send some of Priscilla's blood to and do a pregnancy test but I don't know how to draw blood yet. I really wish they had a goat pregnancy test like a humans pregnancy test so I could just get her to pee on a stick, that would be easier.  Instead we will just watch her real close.  I'm glad I decided to do individual breeding's this way I know just about to the day of when she will be due.  Goats are pregnant for 150 days. 

Priscilla's due date is March 20, 2012.

Below is a picture of Brady, the daddy.

Brady 11-14-11

Even with being in rut, he's still a sweet boy and wants to have his pats and scratches.

As Brady has begun to mature he has gotten more black hair.  Mostly on his chest but some markings on his face as well.  I'm very interested in seeing what Brady and Priscilla's babies will look like.  Brady's mom was a spotted doe and having Priscilla's previous babies here on our farm, Abby & Maddie.  I know that she can have babies with large spots or at least large markings of different colors on the body.

I guess we will just have to wait and see when she gives birth.

Whimsey & Windy Go on Dates

 Whimsey and Windy are sisters here at Russell's Ridge Nubian's.  They are twins even thought they don't look anything alike and were born on March 3, 2011 at 10:30pm.  They are now 8 1/2 months old.  Last week the girls went into heat.  They are old enough to breed now but I wanted to make sure they weighed enough.



Whimsey 11-14-11

Windy 11-14-11

Weighing the goats were very easy.  You just take a soft sewing tape measure and place it a few inches behind the front legs around the goat's body.  This is called the goat's heart girth.  Then you just take the measurement figure, find it on the dairy goat weight chart I got off of the Internet and it will tell you how much your goat weighs.  Both girls heart girth measurement was 29 1/2 which brings the girls weight to approximately 83 lbs.

The book Storey's Guide to Raising Dairy Goats by Jerry Belanger & Sara Thomson Bredesen suggests to breed your goats when they reach 70 to 80 lbs which is usually at 8 months of age.  All information I''ve read suggests to breed by weight not age.

Whimsey 11-14-11

Whimsey came into heat first on Thursday.  I found her at the fence talking away calling to Brady and really wagging her tail flirting with him.  I could tell she was in heat immediately because Whimsey is very quiet usually.  I went ahead and brought Whimsey over to Brady and she spent 9am to about 2pm with Brady.  Of course I stayed around watching for a bit to make sure to witness the deed a few times before leaving them alone.  I have full confidence in Brady to do his job since he has finally figured out what he is suppose to do with the girls when they come visit him. Whimsey was very happy to spend time with Brady and was rubbing her neck on Brady's back and standing really close to him.

Windy 11-14-11

Windy came into heat on Saturday.  She was also wagging her tail more but wasn't too vocal to Brady.  She is also a very quiet goat.  I brought Windy over to Brady and of course he was very happy to have some female company again.  Windy also enjoyed spending time with Brady as she also stayed really close to him and was smelling him.  She stayed in with Brady from 9am to 2pm.  I also witnessed Brady doing his business, so I decided to leave them alone.

Of course I couldn't leave the daddy out so below is a picture of Brady.

Brady 11-14-11

We are hoping that both girls are bred and will be able to be a comfort to each other during their first pregnancy.  We will be watching closely to see if either girl comes back into heat, which will be in about 21 days.  That would be about December 2nd.

Check back in a few weeks to see if we will be expecting babies from Windy and Whimsey.

Our First Fish Fry

Weeks ago at football I was having a chat with our new friend Jeff.  He was very surprised to find out that I have never been to a fish fry or have not tried any southern food including, fried fish, hush puppies, fried okra and some other foods that are common down here in TN.

Jeff and his wife Sonja offered to have a fish fry at their house and kindly invited us.

Jamie & Jeff

Saturday night we all headed over to Jeff and Sonja's house.  The guys had two portable fryers going outside and where cooking up a storm.

Trace cooking on one of the outside fryers

Their was so much food made and I tried it all believe it or not.  The guys cooked up the following in the fryers.

Fried Fish - I believe Walleyed and 1 other type

Fried Hush puppies - dough with peppers, onions & seasonings

Fried Frogs legs - yes they taste like chicken

Fried French Fries

Wild Turkey

we also had yummy coleslaw, white beans, BBQ Green Beans and Apple Dumplings. 

I'm normally a very picky eater and not so open minded with trying new food.  I decided to go with an open mind and try everything, especially with everyone working so hard cooking.  With that said I tried everything except the white beans and the apple dumplings, not for not wanting to but because I was so full.

The fish was cooked excellent, yummy breading and not fishy tasting at all.  Drew even tried some fish and liked it. The hush puppies I would have to say were my favorite.  Although I would love to figure out something to dip them in because its fried bread and I think it would enhance the flavor.  Frogs Legs took a little longer to try but with some persuasion from Jeff and Jamie I tried it.  It tasted alot like chicken especially with it having the same texture.  I only had a small piece, Hailey on the other hand gobbled up a whole leg.

Hailey eating her fried frog leg

French Fries were yummy and the Wild Turkey was good too.  Sonja made some homemade coleslaw which I need to remember to ask her for the recipe since it was delicious.  I also really liked the BBQ Green Beans, which were green beans baked in BBQ sauce and pieces of bacon.

The kids had a great time playing with their friends, running around in the dark, playing tag, hide & go seek and any other games they made up.  They had so much fun that the night continued for the kids at our house.  Troy, Ian and Orry ended coming to our house and sleeping over and spending the morning at house.

Jamie & I had a great time too and are so thankful we have met and made a great group of friends.

Thanks so much to Jeff, Sonja, Trace, Lisa, Rodney and Carmen and all the other new friends there for making our first fish fry a great experience.