Blackened Fish, Chicken, Pork, Steaks and Other Meats

 

My wife and I are on a low carb diet which means you are on a high protein meat eating diet for the most part.  Being a long time carnivore this is not a problem for me at all.  The problem is beef and fish are expensive.   Pork and chicken are not quite so high, but breaded and chicken fried won’t cut it on this diet; so I keep trying to find other ways to cook fish, pork and chicken so that I will like it.  I have found a way to prepare meats that I enjoy almost as much as chicken fried with cream gravy which I absolutely love.  I have started blackening everything and making a horseradish cream sauce to go on top.  It works with the low carb diet and allows me to have a meal with full flavor that does not even hint that it is diet food.  This week I have had blackened tilapia, chicken breast and sirloin.  The side dishes were smashed cauliflower with cheese, sautéed fresh green beans and sautéed fresh asparagus.  The sautéed vegetables were simply tossed in a pan with hot olive oil until done and seasoned with sea salt.  The cauliflower was cooked and then mashed with a potato masher and melted cheese stirred into it along with salt and pepper for seasoning.  The sauce was about 1/4 stick of butter melted into about 1/2 cup of Half and Half Cream until blended and hot.  Then stir in a heaping tablespoon of prepared horseradish until smooth.  Pour this sauce over your blackened meat or serve as a dipping sauce on the side.

The rest of this article should be called blackened meat as you can use this seasoning to cook most any kind of meat.  Be sure that you cut the meat in thin enough strips to cook it to the temperature or doneness you prefer.  I butterfly things like chicken breast or pork chops. I like the meat to be no thicker than a half inch except for steaks which I like thicker so it ends up blackened on the outside but medium rare on the inside.  Instead of buying blackening seasons I mix mine as I like my spices to be as fresh as possible.  If you wish to buy a prepared mix help yourself, but this recipe will be better than most you can buy and a lot cheaper.  Here is my basic recipe for blackening seasoning and you can change or add to it as you please.

2 Tablespoons of Paprika

1 Tablespoon of Garlic Powder

1 teaspoon Cayenne Powder

1 teaspoon Dried Parsley

1 teaspoon Dried Thyme

1 teaspoon Dried Oregano

1 teaspoon Kosher or Sea Salt

1 teaspoon Black Pepper

½ teaspoon Allspice

Mix the spices well and coat your meat with them.

I place a little olive oil and a pad or two of butter in a large cast iron skillet and get it really hot.  I do not use straight butter as it burns too readily.  As soon as the pan is hot, I lay the meat in the skillet and cook until blackened well then turn and blacken the other side.  Be sure and run a vent fan or open some windows as the smell of the blackened meat cooking will permeate the house if not vented.  Plate the meat; add side dishes and sauce and you will not believe your taste buds.  This is now my favorite way to prepare venison tenderloin and I hope to try it on sheep and goat tenderloins in the next year.  This method can change a chicken breast into a gourmet feast.  Do a little experimenting and I am sure you will create your own special dish, Wild Ed

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ruger 10/22 Takedown

 

I have owned at least one model of the Ruger 10/22 rifle most of my adult life.  I have bought, shot and traded several of the .22 long rifle models.  I have had a 22 magnum model which I should have never sold and even an experimental .17HMR model with a nice laminated stock that I wish I had kept.  My last 10/22 was mostly just a Ruger 10/22 receiver with after-market trigger, barrel, target optics and stock.  It is a tack driver and both of my girls grew up learning to shoot targets, along with bull frogs, in the stock pond with those guns.  I spent lots of time loading magazines for those two girls to rapidly empty out of those guns along with cleaning a number of frogs for the pan.  I feel for the parents that will not have the memories we made shooting in those days.  If you get the opportunity to shoot with your kids take advantage of it and cherish the time.  I recently taught my oldest granddaughter to shoot with a Ruger .22 and she is already asking when we can do it again.

 I have long wanted a small gun that would break down for backpack carry or to throw in my bags on a trip just in case we were able to work in some small game or varmint shooting.  When Ruger came out with the new light weight takedown model I had the wants real bad.  Along with the current shortage of .22 long rifle ammo there was also a shortage of Ruger 10/22 rifles.  I have been searching for this model for almost a year at some sort of reasonable price.  Thanks to Guns Galore in Killeen, Texas (If you live in the area around Fort Hood or Killeen be sure and stop by Guns Galore it is quite an impressive Gun shop with very helpful and knowledgeable staff) I was able to purchase the new 10/22 Takedown along with a few cartridges to put it through the test phase.

The stainless carbine comes in two pieces with a fiberglass stock in a padded carry case.  Included was a ten round magazine and a scope base that will take weaver style or tip off rings.  The case has enough room to hold optics, ammo, extra magazines and even a small pistol if desired.  The instructions were very clear and the little rifle went together with no problems.  My first test is not a precise accuracy test as it was just a plinking session.  I was able to bust small rocks and shoot cactus apples off of prickly pears out to 50 yards, so until I get a chance to shoot from the bench it will do for ranch work.  I then showed my wife how to assemble/disassemble the rifle and handed it off to her.  She proceeded to annihilate the middle of a cactus pad twenty five steps away.  Upon finishing she looked at me with an ear to ear grin and asked if I was going to get one of the little rifles for myself too? This rifle only weighs a little over 4 1/2 pounds and is a joy for women and kids to handle. I am not sure when I will get to do a full accuracy test from the bench at a measured yardage as I will now have to borrow the rifle to finish my testing. 

There are at least a hundred videos on YouTube about the Ruger 10/22 Takedown so you can go there and learn all you wanted to know and more.  It is always an education to watch all the different reviews, tests and opinions recorded there.  I am amazed at the information available to us on products these days.  The following is taken from the Ruger website where you can get downloads, watch videos and shop for some neat accessories including the BX-25 magazine.  The little rifle is typical of a Ruger 10/22 and will most likely outlast most of us.  There are all sorts of after-market add on products to please most anyone.  It looks like we may leave this one just like it came open sights and trigger as its purpose is a pack or truck rifle that will fit in a small place.  I will leave all the add on stuff for our target models.  All in all I am quite pleased with the little takedown carbine and it for sure made my wife smile.  Wild Ed

 

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE: RGR) is proud to introduce the Ruger® 10/22 Takedown™. Readily separated into two subassemblies, the Ruger 10/22 Takedown offers a convenient transport and storage option for the popular Ruger® 10/22®. As reliable and accurate as every 10/22, the Ruger 10/22 Takedown makes it even easier to keep America's favorite rimfire rifle by your side.

 The barrel and for end of the Ruger 10/22 Takedown are easily separated from the action and buttstock by pushing a recessed lever, twisting the subassemblies, and pulling them apart. Reassembly is the reverse of takedown, and is quick and easy. The friction fit lockup of the assembly joint is simple to adjust, but will rarely need re-adjustment after the first assembly. The lockup is secure and repeatable, ensuring an accurate return to zero, even when receiver-mounted optics are used.

 The Ruger 10/22 Takedown is shipped in a ballistic nylon backpack-style case that features internal sleeves which hold the subassemblies. External pockets with MOLLE webbing provide storage for magazines, ammunition, and other accessories. Multiple attachment points for the padded, single shoulder strap offer different carrying options.

 The 4.67-pound Ruger 10/22 Takedown is 37" long when assembled; each subassembly is less than 20 1/4" long when disassembled. Utilizing the standard 10/22 action and ten round rotary magazine (one magazine is provided), the Ruger 10/22 Takedown offers legendary 10/22 reliability in a compact and portable package.

 For more information on the new Ruger 10/22 Takedown, or to learn more about the extensive line of award winning Ruger firearms, visit Ruger. To find accessories for the Ruger 10/22 Takedown, like the 25-round Ruger BX-25® magazine, visit ShopRuger.com.

Sweet Birding on Sugar Creek

A vista along Sugar Creek Road, Fayette County, WV.

Among the many trips I've lead over the past ten springs at The New River Birding and Nature Festival, the one we call Sugar Creek is right at the top of the list. There are three warbler species that are the most sought-after birds at this annual West Virginia birding event: cerulean warbler, Swainson's warbler, and golden-winged warbler. Sugar Creek has many breeding pairs of the first two species, which makes it a sell-out trip most every year.

In this post I'm going to take you along on our Sugar Creek field trip from this spring.

 Sugar Creek Road has some big timber. The road itself is about 1.5 car-widths wide and gravel. It is cut into a steep mountainside and at places the road is so narrow that the school bus driver and the folks who drive the vans and buses during the white-water rafting season call out their positions and progress on CB radios to reduce the chance of a head-on collision on a blind curve—of which there are many.

The severity of the landscape is what makes this road special for cerulean warblers. And it's one of the few places where you can see tree-top-loving warblers (like the cerulean) in the tops of the trees BELOW you on the mountain.

Looking down on a flitting warbler.

My strategy for Sugar Creek is to walk the roadway as much as possible. Birds we are seeking are often heard before they are seen, so we ask our bus driver (usually Hank, a veteran driver on this road) to drop us at the top and meet us at various spots as we walk down the mountain toward the bottom where the Gauley River rages.

 

 

This past spring I got to guide the Sugar Creek trip with New River Birding Festival co-founder Geoff Heeter. Guiding with Geoff is always fun and rewarding for a number of reasons:

1. He speaks the native tongue.

2. He knows where the birds are each year.

3. He's mighty handy in a pinch.

4. He cracks a good joke.

5. He always dresses for birding success:

Fresh off the runway from the birding fashion show: Geoff "Hotlegs" Heeter.

This year my Sugar Creek trip also had Katie Fallon along. Katie is the world's most passionate fan of cerulean warblers. In fact, she wrote a really great book about them called Cerulean Blues. You should buy and read this book immediately—especially if you love warblers and appreciate good writing.

Geoff Heeter (in plaid Bermuda shorts) points out a treetop cerulean warbler for Katie Fallon.

Male cerulean warbler.

 

 One of our two primary target birds on the Sugar Creek trip: the singing male cerulean warbler. We found at least a dozen territorial male ceruleans along the route.

Female American redstart nest building.

We also saw lots of nest-building activity during the field trip from a variety of species including American robin, American redstart (above), blue-headed vireo, wood thrush, and worm-eating warbler.

There are other glorious things to see along the way. Hooded warblers are thick in the roadside woods.

We found some morels right along the road as we neared the bottom, but we left them in place for the local folks to harvest if they wanted to...

Ernesto Carman (in the orange hat above) was super fast at finding birds in his scope. He's had years of practice birding in the rainforest of Costa Rica and it shows. He generated a LOT of smiles with his scope-wielding talent.

  Down at the bottom of the mountain, Sugar Creek Road goes through a scattering of small houses and takes a sharp bend to the left when it reaches the Gauley River. This area is owned by one of the rafting companies, so it's not normally open to the public. And this is where we get our very best looks at the Swainson's warbler!

As I got off the bus along the river trail, I heard a Swainson's singing and, after getting everyone else off the bus and ready, I slowly walked forward to see if I could spot where the male was perched. It's always best to find birds doing their thing naturally, without having to resort to song playback, pishing, or bushwhacking to find them.

And there he was, left of the trail, about 35 feet up in a tree. Singing. Preening. Oblivious to the 35 gasping bird watchers who were focusing about $20,000 worth of optics on him.

Male Swainson's warbler.

After a session with the Swainson's, we headed to the end of the trail and had a picnic lunch, followed by a stroll back out to a spot in the river where a collection of giant boulders makes a perfect setting for a photo.

 

The Sugar Creek Birders along the Gauley River.

A big thank you to my expert fellow guides! I'm already counting down the days until next year!

L to R: Ernesto Carman, BT3, Katie Fallon, Geoff Heeter.

Do It Yourself

In making the move to our place in the country my wife and I have been taking on some projects as of late in which we have absolutely no experience.  We recently decided we needed a water trough for livestock, deer and turkeys close to the barn and house.  We did not want a standard looking rubber or galvanized metal trough since it would be visible from our front porch.  We priced some custom concrete and rock troughs and almost had a stroke when we got a couple of bids.  The only answer was to build our own limestone water trough, so we read some books, watched a few YouTube videos and bought the materials.  After framing the forms and putting in the drain pipe we mixed the concrete by hand and poured the slab.  Next we mixed mortar and laid the bottom layer of stones.  Today we finished laying the top layer of stones. We now have a very healthy respect for those that handle heavy pieces of limestone and cut the rocks by hand.  I got better as I laid more but it still looks pretty rough.  I still need to plaster the inside and hook up the water but it looks as though it will work just fine.  I really don't think the wildlife and livestock will mind the looks at all when they stop by to get a cool drink of water. We get to have the pride and satifaction of saying we built it all by ourselves. 

The second project is a unique door for the walk in pantry in our new home.  It will look and work like an old time barn door.  I am making it out of laminated pine that will match the ceiling and trim in our great room.  The door will hang on a wrought iron bar with rollers in front of the walk in pantry.  The door will simply roll out of the way to enter the pantry.  The placement in our home will make the door one of the centerpieces of our great room.  It will be stained to match the ceiling and finished in a satin gloss to bring out all the wood grain and laminations.  I am about two thirds of the way through with the glue up and will sand it down on the next work day.  It will be cut to the proper height and the top piece installed after we get the wrought iron hardware up so we can hang the finished door at the optimum height. The final width is forty six inches and the height will be somewhere just over seven and a half feet tall.  The handle is a massive piece of wrought iron hand forged by a Blacksmith friend of ours, Chris Smith.  I will try to post some pictures when it is complete and hanging in the house.  The top picture of this post is similar to what we have planed for this door when it is finished and hung.

 

Try a new project of your own.  It might even surprise you what you  are capable of creating.  You could even discover a new talent.   My next project is to wrap the water storage tank with cedar and build a top, weld up a livestock transport pen for the trailer, rewire the trailer lights, dig all the post holes and build a new east line fence, construct the sheep pens, grub up and poison the cedar and mesquite in the pasture, install a mailbox up on the county road, put in an automatic gate opener, restore the old fishing boat we bought, plow and plant the food plot, build the poultry coop and pen, construct a walking path from the house to the barn, burn all the brush piles, build and hang bluebird and screech owl boxes, move the deer blind, build a shooting bench and set up a shooting range, design a rainwater collection system for the house and barn, construct a pond, build a hog pen, cut and stack all the dead trees from the drought, grade the road, and..........Wild Ed

 

Visitors to the Feeders

My brother was up at the place this week and changed out the SD cards in the game cameras at the feeders.  It is nice to see some new additions to the deer herd.  Some of the does are still showing and should finish dropping fawns real soon.  The bucks are in velvet and starting to show a hint of what kind of antlers they will be sporting this year.  An ageing gobbler with a long beard is hitting the feeder on a regular basis along with a hen.  We have not seen any turkey poults and are wondering if there was a hatch this year.  The jack rabbits, squirrels, scrub jays and road runners are daily visitors as they come for a hand out or to hunt the smaller creatures drawn by the corn and grains. It is almost as much fun as hunting to see what pictures we get of wildlife on the game cameras each trip.  I do a lot more game watching than game shooting these days so the cameras work into our game management nicely.  I thought you might enjoy seeing the pictures so they are posted below.  If you get the chance to feed some wildlife and help them make it through the summer please take advantage of the opportunity, Wild Ed