making headway
I didn’t get to smoking the oysters…yet. If they haven’t spoiled (dear god let them be happy) I will try that Wednesday after work. What I did manage to do however is clear the freezer of the pork, pork fat and venison that was in there. I put the meat in the fridge to defrost starting around Thursday and also put 5 pounds of cubed pork in the fridge to cure for kielbasa on Wednesday. Saturday morning/afternoon I ground all the meat that still needed grinding and then stuffed and smoked kielbasa which came out alright. Then on Sunday I made a venison version of the Cheesy Jalapeno sausage and then smoked it. That was cool. And I also made a batch of snack sticks from the venison. You may know that we had a minor blizzard type event on Sunday so I can now add smoking sausage in a snow storm to my list of accomplishments. My biggest worries were that the low flame on the burner would be blown out and that the part of the remote thermometer that had to be outside wouldn’t like being exposed to the cold and snow. But neither was an issue so happy day for me. And finally I made up some breakfast sausage and plain ‘hamburger’ (for dad) with the remaining venison last night after work.

It was a long haul but good to get it done and we’ll have plenty of goodies to bring to PA this weekend. I didn’t touch the moose meat yet however, so that will be waiting for another fit of motivation. And mad props to Reen for (once again) being a great sport as I dirty up the kitchen and fridge with ground meat and fat everywhere, and permeate our home with the aroma from the smoker for two days.

You may notice a new feature in the sidebar. I found it difficult to do all the math of adding up the sausage made from last year, so I thought I could just keep a running total here. I’m confident that if I put my mind to it I can break the century mark.