I stopped eating store-bought meat nearly four years ago, and have since lost the will to cook (is it really worth all the trouble to feed one or two?). The only time I enjoy cooking is when I'm preparing for an event such as a Bookworms Anonymous meeting, when I can make enough gourmet vegetarian fare to feed at least 7 and hopefully have some leftovers for lunch the next day. Choosing and preparing one meal for seven people once every six or eight months is so much easier than doing it for one or two people every night!
Tonight, though, we are having a family dinner together at home like 'regular people'. The menu? Venison, fried with onions, potatoes (also fried with onions), baked beans, and cherry crisp (I have fresh-frozen pitted cherries from last summer waiting in my freezer, each bag containing the proper amount for one cherry crisp recipe). We even have strawberry sorbet in case anyone wants their crisp served ala mode.
Just knowing what to prepare, and knowing we will sit down together and eat, motivates me to run home and start marinating the meat. A normal evening at our house finds me preparing a crazy pasta-vegetable-shrimp/soy meat dish while my husband cooks steak and potatoes for himself. My daughter then has her choice of menu, sometimes sampling both, but we rarely sit down together because nothing is ready at the same time.
If I believed in New Year's Resolutions, I suppose I could resolve to prepare a family meal every night, plan menus and shop accordingly for a month or so, then revert to the way I do it now. Luckily, I don't believe in NY Resolutions, so tonight's perfectly normal dinner will be viewed as a special occasion in our house. Maybe I'll even light a candle.
Venison Marinade:1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 TBLS ketchup
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder (I'll use freshly minced garlic)
1/2 tsp onion salt (I'll use shallot salt)
Put marinade ingredients in a plastic zipper bag; mix well and add meat. Let sit out on counter for twenty to thirty minutes, then cook meat in skillet at med-high heat. Serve with fried onions and potatoes.
Cherry Crisp Recipe:4 cups pitted cherries
3/4 c sugar
4 TBLS flour
Topping:
1-1/2 cups flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup butter
Combing cherries, white sugar and 4 TBLS flour. Pour into 9"x13" baking dish. In bowl, combine topping ingredients, cutting in slightly softened butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over cherries.
Bake in preheated oven at 375 degrees F for 45 - 50 minutes. Topping should be golden brown.
Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: A Memoir of Food and Love from an American Midwest Family by Kathleen Flinn
