Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Thanksgiving for Two - A Pleasant Pheasant! Plus, return of the Ticked-Off Turkey.

Very excited about Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. We'd been planning on a quiet Thanksgiving together here in Brooklyn for some time; I think it was originally at my request since I was travelling last weekend, but it's working out particularly well since he started a new job working for the city parks department out in the Rockaways over the summer. As you may imagine, Sandy has left a huge amount of work for him and his colleagues; days off have been a little up in the air, so my plan to stick around Brooklyn for turkey day ended up working out really well. It does turn out that he has tomorrow off, so we'll get to cook dinner together, which we always enjoy.

And since even the smallest turkey is way too much for two, I thought it would be fun to try a pheasant! I've never cooked pheasant before, but we've both had it and liked it, and I thought it would be fun to try! Steve H., aka the "Paddling Chef", works for D'artagnan and was nice enough to order a bird for me when the folks at Dean and DeLuca proved to be oddly clueless about pheasants, and I've had a great time looking up various things to do with pheasants. I'm thinking a brine or a marinade, and then some bacon strips on the breast and roasted in TQ's Dutch oven (which does an incredible job of keeping thing moist).

If I manage to ruin the bird, we should have leftovers from the pot of venison chili I'm making tonight! It's game week here at Frogma's lilypad! And in case I don't make it back online tomorrow, here's my favorite home-made angry bird, stomping around in my foyer to wish you a happy Thanksgiving. Or something.

6 comments:

my2fish said...

I love that you're willing to try something out of the ordinary with the pheasant.

Back in high school, I tried to hunt them a few times, but was never successful (with no bird dog, I didn't really stand a chance).

One day driving home from high school though, we hit a pheasant with our minivan. We took it home, plucked its feathers, cleaned it, and ate it for dinner! [honest confession: that's the 1 and only time I've ever done something like that.] I don't really remember it, though - I'm sure we roasted it similar to how you would a chicken.

Good luck with the cooking, and happy thanksgiving!! Cheers, my2fish

Baydog said...

Yes, shingle on the bacon. And you may want to tuck some fresh herbs between the skin and the breast meat. When done, throw the pheasant away and eat the pheasant-flavored bacon. Only kidding. Great idea for a bird for two. I love the fact that you love to eat meat, of all kinds. You gotta let us know how it comes out, maybe with some photos please!

Pandabonium said...

How to cook turkey using pheasant.

Don't forget the wine. It has to be not too sweet, not too rancid, but just right! Go check 'em, it'sh importan', go check 'em now...hic.

Baydog said...

You're flagged PB!

bonnie said...

Don't worry PB, I check 'um, I check 'um, you wait while I write 'um down, yeah?

Baydog, camera's a-charging. Venison chili came out great but I do have hopes that between marinade/brine and TQ's Lodge cast-iron dutch oven, the bird will be edible.

My2Fish, what a perfect Michigan story!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

O Docker said...

It's got to be better than groundhog and Cheez Whiz.