Goodbye Gamey Taste: Marinated venison steak

This is the first of a series of posts on cooking venison, aka deer meat. In particular the deer that my husband got while hunting a few weeks ago. I'll post one recipe a week and then rank that recipe on how well it got rid of that wild game taste that so often accompanies, well, wild game. I'm not a fan.

That said, venison is a very lean meat and because of that is a great alternative to beef. There's also something to be said for using the meat that comes from a successful hunt. On the other hand, I admit it would have been better had I not seen Bambi before he was taken in for processing.

40 by 40: How am I doing?

Since I do not yet have 40 items to do before I'm 40, I'd say I'm not doing that well. But in realizing I hadn't updated that part my blog in awhile, I decided to take a look at where I'm at in reaching the goals I have set.

1. Complete a Master's Degree - I finished that right before I set the goal. It's a good confidence-building method.

2. See a Beatle in concert. - Ditto.

40 by 40: No. 25 – See the Great American Landmarks

I'm running a little behind in getting up to 40 things to do before I'm 40. At this rate I might not finish writing the list before I'm 40. So let's get to it. Here's No. 25.

No. 25: While traveling to every state, see the country's most amazing landmarks.

I had marked a link awhile back to America’s Most Beautiful Landmarks, as chosen by Travel+Leisure magazine this summer. I’ve seen some of them, but not all, and I absolutely love to go to the places everyone talks about whenever I travel – however tourist-y they may be. Most of the time, it’s worth it. So why not aim to do so while attempting to hit all 50 states before I turn 40?

The places on the list I have already been:

Adventures in Pork: Fifth time's a charm

Thanks to my father, I finally know how to cook pork. I'll just consider my first four tries at cooking this meat practice.

When I went home to Nebraska to visit this fall, we went out and bought a pork loin to cook for dinner. The idea was that he would walk me through how to do it properly.

I learned the following tips:

Finally, the courage to fly: Ziplining in Maui

One of the platforms at Piholo Ranch. In the end the
suspended bridge up to the platform was
scarier than ziplining itself.

“1, 2, 3 …”

I stood there – or rather hung there in my harness – with no intention of letting go and flying. I had just watched three other couples fly down the zipline, but somehow my feet wouldn’t leave the platform.

“OK, let’s try again,” the 20-something leader said. “1, 2, 3 …”

Nope. At this point I was shaking. I comfort myself that I was not the only one terrified. One of the girls who went before us was scared, and she’d gone skydiving before. Not even tandem. Said it was nothing – and yet she was scared of ziplining. Made me feel better and worse at the same time.

I was up on that ziplining platform at Piholo Ranch in Maui because my husband badly wanted to zipline while we were in Hawaii. I had always wanted to zipline, as well, per my 40 by 40 goals, thinking it was a good way to face my fear of heights and my fear of falling without having to skydive or bungee jump. Because I would be tethered to a cable via a harness, I felt it was the activity that was the least likely to go awry.

Catching up on recipes: 4 that worked for me

My recent cooking has not been a total disaster. Not everything I make is under- or over-seasoned. Here are four recipes that worked ... mostly. It's all relative.


1. Bacon-wrapped chicken breast. Because really, everything is better wrapped in bacon. Even the bananas I had at a fancy restaurant once. This particular bacon was left over from a pack of fresh bacon I bought from the meat counter, and we wrapped some chicken with it. Thick, juicy bacon. Yum.

Shots from the Trail: Picture Rock

Mountain biked Picture Rock Trail this weekend near Lyons, Colorado. I love fall riding!

It was a solo ride, which I needed. It was nice to get out of the house. And one of things I like best about mountain biking is that I have to focus on the biking, and therefore can't focus on anything else. It's a great stress reliever.

Here are a few shots I took with my cell phone during my ride.

Beautiful views!