Jay Angler

My family loves this with the duck legs (which tend to be tough) and I would use it with venison if I had some. Be generous with the time in the slow cooker - more is better!

Maui Muscovy Duck Legs

Ingredients
Approx. 500g duck legs (bone in) use cubed venison instead
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup cane sugar (I use 2 Tbsp of local honey)
1 garlic clove (minced)
1 tablespoon ginger (minced)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
½ cup pineapple juice
½ cup broth (usually duck or chicken, but could be beef)
2 tablespoons cornstarch (I prefer tapioca starch - *not* the little balls, the flour version available at our Asian market)

Directions
Combine soy sauce, sugar (or honey), garlic, ginger and sesame oil in a mixing bowl and stir until the sugar is mostly dissolved and then stir in the pineapple juice and broth.
Place the meat neatly in layers on the bottom of the slow cooker or appropriately sized pot.
Pour the liquid over top and set the slow cooker on high for ~2 hours then medium/low for 4 more hours, or if using a pot, bring to a boil and immediately cover with a tight fitting lid and reduce heat to lowest possible setting and cook for 4 hours (I haven't tried this - may need more).
Check to make sure that the liquid is completely covering the ribs throughout the cooking process. Add a little more broth if necessary.
Once cooked, gently remove the meat from the slow cooker or pot and then bring the liquid to a boil over medium high heat in a small pot.
Combine the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water and stir until dissolved. While stirring the boiling liquid with a whisk or wooden spoon, slowly pour the dissolved cornstarch into the liquid until desired consistency is achieved. Do not add too much at once as cornstarch takes a minute to take effect.
Serve with some cooked whole grains such as brown rice, quinoa or even lentils and some fresh or canned pineapple.

As with my earlier disclaimers on this site - I'm not good at following recipes so I only use recipes that allow for a certain degree of "that looks right" or "this sounds better" and then I note my changes in brackets. Pineapple juice is a natural tenderizer.

Venison Enchiladas

Ingredients:
2 pound ground venison (I freeze it in cubes and grind just before cooking for safety)
Finely chopped onion  - preferably Egyption walking onion greens
Enchilada sauce - recipe below or use 2-4 10 ounce cans
16 ounces sharp cheeses like Monteray Jack or a commercial "Mexican" blend
16 ounces cheddar cheese
12 (10-12 inch) flour tortillas

Directions:
Heat oven to 375F. Brown the venison and onion. Thicken the drippings by evaporation.
Stir in ~1 cup enchilada sauce and 2 cups of cheese.
Spoon meat mixture onto tortillas, roll-up and place seam-side down in lightly greased baking dish.
Pour more sauce over the top. Cover with remaining cheese.
Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until cheese melts.
Some like it served with sour cream, salsa or refried beans. I just like a side salad.
Notes - takes some of those measurements with a grain of salt. The sauce recipe doesn't line up quantity-wise with the "cans" and some people like things spicier, and some don't tolerate as much cheese. I've never tried this with corn tortillas if you're looking for gluten free.

Enchilada Sauce

Ingredients:
3 cloves garlic, finely grated
2 tablespoons fat of choice (usually duck in my house)
2 tablespoons flour (I'd try 1 tbsp of potato flour for gluten free)
1/4 cup chili powder
2 cups thick, homemade broth (chicken/duck/beef)
15 ounces tomato sauce (I use 398 ml can of sauce)
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper (or cumin if you prefer)

Directions:
In a large saucepan melt the fat and saute the garlic and flour stirring constantly
Stir in chili powder, then the other spices.
Gradually stir in broth and tomato sauce - start slow so there aren't lumps.
Simmer for 15 minutes - a little extra time on low doesn't hurt.

Marco Banks wrote:

I'm sure it's just me, but I find venison so gamey, I can't hardly eat it.

I've got two responses to that:
1) I've had strange looks from my neighbor when he was admiring the "beautiful 3 point buck he'd like in his freezer instead of eating his garden" and I replied, "no thanks, I'd like a young one - about a year old - it will taste better. There's a reason North American industrial meat chickens are harvested at 5-8 weeks old.
2) Deer have glands in their "elbow" equivalents. If they aren't harvested *very* carefully, the scent is transferred to the meat and it then tastes "gamey". Now some of this is genetics - I just don't like cilantro because I've got the taste buds that make it taste like soap - but I would try some "young deer" "carefully processed" (read not while the hunters are pickled with beer) and possibly with some of the recipes I'm going to post below, and then make your decision.

The last time we got a deer I cubed the meat in 1 or 2 pound packages. I would put it through my meat grinder frozen. One favorite was Venison Enchiladas. Now that I've got Muscovy ducks who live to reproduce, I've not much motivation to try and get and process a deer, but I use a similar approach.  Once it's ground I feel I can substitute it for anything where ground meat is used - chili, spaghetti sauce and by adding a little bacon and cheese, burgers.

Part of it is the audience. It was hard to get a roast "just right" and the cheep seats weren't keen on the stew, but once I just used it as extra, extra lean ground, the complaints disappeared.

I can post specific recipes for "Maui'i Duck", "Venison Enchiladas" and "Duck Burgers" if you want to try any of those.

I recognize that a big advantage of plastic is that it generally nests better than glass bottles, but for *really* keeping stuff fresh and dry in a damp climate, glass with a metal lid is the way to go from my experience. The plastic basket below came with Christmas Mandarin Oranges in it - we got several and they are soooo... helpful for keeping things organized. The jars in it came with relish in them and we've had them for years. Being narrow, they don't have a big footprint which makes them great for home-dried herbs. I don't like to crush my herbs until ready to use them, as that also keeps them "fresher", so I need a bit more space than a commercial spice jar gives. These jars have being used for over a decade. I suspect that a plastic alternative would have gotten brittle by now.

Amy Francis wrote:

I just came across this vid '40 creative ways to recycle washing machine drums';

That's my queue to put on my "safety nag" hat. Please don't build anything that is sealed (like a refrigerator) that uses a lock mechanism that only operates from the outside! Children have died climbing into a decommissioned front-load washer, somehow managing to get the door closed and then suffocating. I don't know if a closed dryer has sufficiently restricted air flow to cause the same thing to be a risk. If you need a closing mechanism, either ensure there's good air flow, or replace it with a magnet like they do with modern fridges. This, of course, is why if you're saving a bunch of old equipment up until you've got critical mass, make sure it's stored safely. The excuse "the kid was trespassing" doesn't make the kid any less dead or the family any less devastated, so please put safety first.

Now back to the fun part of the program! I really like the ideas of using them as storage footstools or side tables! If you're using parts from the frame, you can incorporate the cool little leveling feet so if you're on an uneven floor, things are stable.

Pearl Sutton wrote:

Jay Angler wrote:
1. Using the top of a top loader washer as a chicken pop-door between different paddocks. We'd have to add some sort of a latch, but that shouldn't be too hard.  

Pearl Sutton wrote:
Dryers already have a latch on them. I'd use a dryer front face for that.

Yes, but I was given a free washer top - beggars can't be choosers!

The sifter is cool - could it run off a chain or belt from a stationary bike or would that be too much work?

It actually sounds a little dangerous - I'd start thinking of cool stuff to do and make my list longer! I'd have to learn to be very zen in that hammock - no thinking allowed space.

John F Dean wrote:I am using peat pots with starting soil.  The are in an indoor tent with temps at 75f.  Yeah, I know. I should have bought a BMW to grow them in.

I don't consider myself an expert, but 1) cabbage family like less acidity than some plants, so I'd try toilet tubes or coir pots over peat pots, and 2) they're a cool weather plant, so I'd try to get the 75F down to 65-70F if you can. Maybe some of our more expert growies will add their thoughts! (Actually, if peat pots are all you can access, dried and finely crushed egg shells on top and watered in might help with the acid level. In my climate, traditional wisdom was to add lime to the soil, but there are pros and cons to that one as there are with every choice we make.)

The subject came up in another thread about how many broken or unwanted washers and dryers there are in North America. I've been told that in the US, if they're sent for scrap metal, it's shipped offshore which means the energy and raw materials that went into building them is lost to us.

Sooo.... let's come up with wild and wacky ideas to reuse and upcycle the parts!

1. Using the top of a top loader washer as a chicken pop-door between different paddocks. We'd have to add some sort of a latch, but that shouldn't be too hard.

2. Cutting the front and side panels into rectangles as giant "shingles" for roofing - if you had lots you could even create an interesting colour pattern for a larger roof.

3. I've seen parts of the drums used as planters.

4. I've seem parts of the clear doors on front-loading washers used as weird windows in a small shed.

Who can think of more ideas? Don't be shy!