It's The End of the World As We Know It . . .

. . . and I feel fine.

Does anyone know - was the world supposed to be kaput by the time we all woke up this morning or do we all have to awkwardly wait around for the end today ala Seeking A Friend for the End of the World? If the world happens to not ex/implode before midnight, does that mean we'll be living in a post-apocalyptic world for now on?

Since this is the third time (I think) in less than two years that the world was supposed to end, I'm developing a rather flippant attitude towards the impending doom. I'm sure you are too. Admit it. And honestly, I think anyone who survived the Y2K boondoggle is apt to apply a grain of salt to any forecast of doom and gloom. (I'm not sure how we'll be explaining the Y2K hysteria to our grandchildren. "Well kids, lots of people were really worried that the world would end because the computer chips in our coffee makers might not work. Oh humanity!)

I was talking about the apocalypse du jour with my dental hygienist last week (because that's the sort of thing you talk about with dental hygienist . . . am I right?) and she pointed out that she doubted the world would end today because she still had an unpaid credit card bill. Well played! I have a feeling that fate is not so kind that I'm going to escape my current holiday credit card bill. Ah well, better to pay up and face another day than to have both bill and myself obliterated. Besides, if I really thought the world was ending today, I wouldn't have gone to the dentist's! ;)

There is one thing that I know for sure about today: it's the winter solstice and the official start of winter. Hooray for days getting ever so gradually longer!

Not only was yesterday the last official day of autumn, it also marked the end of deer season at the cabin. At long last, all the venison from this year's deer has been processed and/or turned into sausage. Tonight we'll package up the last batch of sausage, squeeze it into the very full chest freezer and then we are done! *excitement!*

Usually we just make bulk sausage (Italian, wild rice, etc.) that can be used in lasagnas, egg bakes, etc. But because we had so much sausage meat this year, not to mention a snazzy new meat grinder, we actually tried our hands at stuffing sausage into casings. The process requires some patience, but really, we made a massive batch of potato sausage (tres Scandinavian, yah) in short order last night.

 

Here's an approximate breakdown of what our deer turned into this year:

20 pounds potato sausage
21 pounds wild rice sausage
16 pounds Italian sausage
6 pounds Chorizo
8 pounds breakfast sausage
Assorted cuts: roasts, round steak, ribs, sirloin

Hmmm, I wonder what everyone's getting for Christmas . . . .


 

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The Wild Rice Venison Sausage Recipe

Happy Monday y'all! It's another sunny morning in the Northwoods and it looks like it's going to be a warm one. Andy mentioned last night that if this warm weather keeps up, we're going to have four cords of firewood left at the end of the winter. I'm not going to complain about that, but this unseasonable weather does make me think I should be starting seeds any day now. Unfortunately, my friends, that day is still a long ways off.  *sigh*

This morning, I had an email waiting for me, asking if I ever found a recipe for wild rice venison sausage. I sure did!
In fact, we're just finishing up a batch of Northwoods pasties, made with a pound of the wild rice sausage we made back in November. I'm not sure how my Cornish ancestors would feel about "Northwoods pasties" which are definitely a departure for the traditional Cornish pastie, but wild rice venison sausage wrapped in pastry with potatoes, onions, rutabaga, and carrots = yummy in my book.

So I figured, no better time than now to share the recipe. Hopefully by sharing it, we'll give Google an actual useful search result for "wild rice venison sausage recipe" and spare others the frustratioof just finding a lot of web results about serving wild rice with venison sausage. (In the end, not what I was looking for.)  

Wild Rice Venison Sausage
1 lb ground venison
1 lb ground pork
2 cups cooked, cooled wild rice 
3/4 cup chopped onions
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon coarse-ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning (I used McCormick's)
2 teaspoons dried chicken stock
Salt to taste

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix until well combined. (I always just dive in with my hands, but be warned, the raw onion may react with your skin. Don't worry, the tingling will go away after a couple minutes - the sense of having an allergic reaction is only temporary. ;P ) Run the mixture through your meat grinder to further combine ingredients, then cover bowl and place in fridge overnight. The next day, after testing for seasoning by frying up a small bit, divided in pound portions. Package in freezer bags, then wrap in freezer paper, label, and freeze. Alternatively, you can package this in casings. I have never done this; for me, it's easier to just freeze the sausage in bulk and I've always found more than enough use for the bulk sausage. 

Please note: I quadrupled this recipe, so all measurements are approximate. Best practice is to measure out the amount of the spices that seem right to you (i.e. you might want to cut down on the pepper, but increase the salt, depending on your taste). You can always adjust seasonings the next day after they've had a bit of time to "marry" in the fridge.

We use the sausage in egg bakes, pasties, or just fried up in little patties. Use it anyway you like and let me know if you make improvements to the recipe.

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