Lisa's Log: Nothing to See Here. Move Along.

Hello there. I haven't posted anything since our trip cuz there wasn't anything happening that was worth writing about. And there still isn't. But just so you know I'm still here..........

While we were gone up north, we came home to find evidence that we had visitors in my garden again. My broccoli and Brussels sprouts were thoroughly chomped on.

Thankfully, I still had some Brussels sprouts to pick, and the moose actually saved me some work by eating all the big leaves and branches off.

I also got a pretty good crop of carrots this year.

Chuck was nudging me to get them in the freezer, but they were all eaten up quick enough. They are so good, we eat them like candy. I only regret that I didn't plant more.

Also picked the rest of my rhubarb.

This picture doesn't look like much, but believe me, it was a LOT. I waited until Chuck got home from work so he could help me with them.

And of course, there's my blueberries. It took me a week to get them all in the freezer which is now CRAMMED FULL with blueberries and rhubarb. We already enjoyed a blueberry pie. Goes real good with a cuppa joe. And rhubarb ice cream.

Okay, that's all boring stuff. Let's get off this gardening subject, okay?

Have you ever had bear meat before?

Me neither, but I've been wanting to try it for a long time now. PW's boyfriend's dad came up over the summer and (apparently) went bear hunting cuz he offered us some. I didn't have a clue what to do with it or how to cook it, but I know a few people from church who hunt and eat bear, so I asked them a lot of questions. A few weeks later, a friend presented me with this:

He said it was "really good". So I tried it. You're supposed to use the whole pack for 3# of meat, but I used the whole thing even though my meat chunk was only about a pound and a half. Whether or not that was a mistake, I don't know because I've never had bear meat before and I didn't know what it was supposed to taste like. Anyhoo, I decided I was gonna make carnitas with it. So I let it stew in the crock pot all day. When I took it out, it was real tender and shredded apart very easily.

I baked it in the oven for a bit to get it a little crispy, and then assembled my carnita.

My first bite - I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. It was a bit on the salty side, I suppose I should've used only half of that flavor packet. But it also seemed to have a slight fishy taste. (I don't like fish.) I think if someone served it to me and didn't tell me it was bear meat, I probably would've thought it was beef, and I probably would've thought it was good, but I knew it was bear meat, so psychologically, I was having a hard time enjoying it 100%.

Justin made himself two carnitas and ate them. I never told him what it was, and he still doesn't know he ate bear meat.

I had a lot of shredded bear meat left, and I felt pretty sure I didn't wanna eat it all carnita-style, so I made a big pot of bean soup and decided to dump the rest of the bear meat in it.

Most of the bear flavor was masked, but I knew it was still bear meat, which gave me psychological reservations about eating this soup, even though it was good. Thankfully, I'm not the only one eating this soup, and it's almost gone now.

Justin eats this soup and still doesn't know he's eating bear meat.

Now, what to do with this?

PW's boyfriend's dad also gave us this bear meat to sample, too. But I was tricked. Why, oh why!? do they put the meat in a bag that says "Italian Sausage" if it's not sausage? I thought it was bear sausage, so I was planning on using it on a pizza, or maybe in a breakfast casserole. So yesterday when I was getting ready to make a pizza, I took it out of the freezer to get it fried up. But when I opened it, it did NOT smell anything like sausage. It just smelled like fresh ground beef. So, now that I know it's not sausage, and it's already opened, I'm gonna have to use it up within the next couple days. So today I made some hamburger buns, and I am going to mix the bear meat up with another pound of regular cow beef, and make sloppy joes with it. I'm pretty sure the sloppy joe sauce will cover up any fishy bear taste. Chuck didn't think the other bear meat tasted like fish, but since I don't like fish, that's probably why I noticed it. He just didn't notice it cuz he likes fish. That's my theory, anyway.

Strangely enough, Justin likes fish too. But I still won't tell him that the sloppy joes will have bear meat in it. Better to leave well enough alone, I say.

Here is one of the first signs that Halloween is coming.