Culinary adventures

As a hunter I've been faced with the dilemma of, "I've killed it.  What do I do now?"  Luckily for me, I'm an adventurous eater, and I love searching for new recipes.  However my dear wife, she's not as adventurous.  She's a good sport, don't get me wrong, but often she'd rather not think of what is now on her plate, was once walking around. 

So I was placed in a pleasant conundrum just the other day, when I realized I had accumulated 5 rabbit legs in the freezer.  Why 5 and not 6?  Fair question.  2 of the legs were from a rabbit I shot with my bow.  He had spent just too much time dilly dallying around my tree stand, and the archery deer season overlaps with small game season here in PA.  The next 3 were the result of my uncle having the great idea get some rabbits, but the unfortunate mistake of not separating out that buck he had.  The following spring another uncle was called in, to handle the population growth, and I was pleasantly surprised by a Ziploc bag with 3 rabbit legs. 

On another tremendous blog by Hank Shaw (http://honest-food.net/2012/12/04/hasenpfeffer-recipe-dumplings/) I rediscovered a classic German recipe:  Hasenpfeffer.  Literally, Peppered Hare.  The name is a result of the extended marinating time with many many spices.  After the marinade, the rabbit pieces are braised in the strained marinade for about 2 hours, making the meat wonderfully tender.  In Hank Shaw's blog post he paired his Hasenpfeffer with some delicious looking semolina dumplings.  Now I'm a big fan of dumplings, myself, but I decided to give my Grandfather's Spaetzle recipe a try.  Spaetzle are simply small dumplings made by passing a very loose dough through a colander over boiling water.  The resulting drops of dough are instantly turned into tasty bite sized noodles.  After a cool rinse I like to pan fry them with butter, salt, pepper, and garlic.

I decided to strip the braised meat from the bone, giving the entire dish more of a stew appearance.  And this worked, to help my wife to get past the idea that these were rabbit legs in the pot.  The meat was very tender, but didn't get that dried out texture overcooked meat can get.

After pan frying the Spaetzle, everything was served together.

The rabbit meat has now been marinated in red wine and red wine vinegar for 48 hours, then braised in that marinade for 2 hours.  The resulting gravy had a very tangy kick that wasn't unpleasant, however it wasn't quite what I was looking for in my dish. Should I ever have a couple rabbit legs laying around again, I might play with the recipe a bit to cut down on the tang in the finished product.  However the Spaetzle recipe was perfection.  My 2 year old probably ate over a cup and a half by the end of his meal.

Happy Hunting
Scott M

Light and Color

Is there really anything else more important when capturing an image with a camera?

Sure you can snap off picture after picture, but will your finished product be something that someone wants to see? 

I grew up around cameras.  My father and two of my uncles all had nice cameras and they have always enjoyed snapping pictures whenever possible.  So naturally when I started writing about the outdoors, I was very aware of the need to invest in a nice camera to capture the places I was talking about.  After messing around with some lower end point and shoot models I recently made the commitment and upgraded to the Olypus E-pm1.  This model falls outside of the DSLR category, and into the newer category of Micro Four Thirds cameras.  Despite the unwieldy name, the camera has been so much fun to shoot with.  I won't pretend to know the ins and outs of the technology, but the goal of the system is to offer both the usability of a camera with interchangeable lenses and the quick handling of a digital point in shoot.  This is accomplished in a more compact body by taking advantage of increases in digital technology.  While playing around the day after I bought the camera I captured this image of a Brown-Eyed Susan in my garden:

Nice color and sharp focus with minimal experience handling the camera. Being digital, it has auto focus features, which can be set to conform to certain styles of shooting. However, the auto features can be shut off allowing the user to play with the image themselves.

A couple weeks after that photo, I capture this one in a corn field near my favorite hunting spot:

Here I really tried to focus on the composition of the photo.  It was setting sun light, so I was able to almost eliminate any shadow on the front and our left of the ear of corn.  The green leaves and stalks created nice contrast, helping the yellow kernels really come to the front of the picture.

Take time to enjoy the details,
Scott M

Welcome!

Hello, and Welcome.
My name is Scott Messenger, and I'm a Outdoor Enthusiast, Freelance Writer, and Photographer (among many other things) living in Northwest Pennsylvania.  My family and I, hunt, fish, hike and camp as often as possible exploring the splendor of the great outdoors.  I also write and photograph our adventures, sometimes selling articles to our local newspaper The Erie Times-News (www.goerie.com).  My intention with this blog is to share information about the great outdoors, and to broaden my audience outside of Northwest PA.  I will be uploading photos and links to my articles.  High quality copies of my photos will be available for sale, please e-mail me for pricing.  As a freelance writer, my skills are also for hire.  I've written about hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, and outdoor adventure travel, just to name a few of my most popular topics.  In my 9-5 life I'm a technical writer for GGS Information Services.  So my writing and editing skills are wide and varied.  Please don't hesitate to contact me for a quote on any writing you may need completed.
Thanks and Happy Hunting!
Scott M