Cul-de-sac Venison Cook-Off

Hello All! This is my first contribution to the blog . . . actually, it's my first blog entry ever!! Do you believe it? My husband is SOOOO proud! :) Tonight we had a cul-de-sac cook-off. Our neighbor Scott shot a deer last week (yes, I know . . . my insides cringe as well, but I'm doing my best to just go with the flow). As he butchered the deer and ground the meat on his back porch, he cooked up some of the fresh meat and Mark and I tasted it. It was my first voluntary taste of venison. I hate to admit it, but it wasn't bad. I was stupid enough to say this out loud, and Scott's immediate remark was "You know this was running through the woods yesterday." Ahh, yes, I know. So we each (Mark and I, Beth and Bruce, and Carla and Scott) took a bag of ground venison and vowed to come up with a creative recipe to be presented to a "judge" (one of Scott's friends) and eaten for dinner. The winner would be rewarded with gift certificates that Carla received through work. Mark and I decided to make Shepard's Pie . . . with a contemporary twist :) As we all know, I do not cook often, or well for that matter! However, when I do it, I do it right! I made "bowls" out of shredded phyllo dough (which looked exactly like bird nests when they were done) and cooked the ground venison in bacon grease and minced yellow onion. I made wasabi mashed potatoes with my KITCHEN AID MIXER (!!!!! My first WONDERFUL use of it! It was SOOOOO awesome!) and made gravy, peas, and corn. I burned my hand on a tray right out of the oven, so Mark was left to do the presentation of the dish while I soaked my hand in milk. By the way he (and the milk) did a fabulous job :) We layered each component with the taters on top and then sprinkled cheddar cheese on the "nests". We broiled them to melt the cheese and then added crumbled bacon as a topper. Earlier this evening I cut up radishes into flower shapes, but they didn't turn out as I hoped. However, everyone seemed to still be impressed by them :) So, anyway, everyone's dish was fabulous! Ours was the best presentation, but I'll concede the best taste to Carla who did homemade venison-stuffed ravioli with shrimp and scallop in a tomato cream sauce. Beth went the classic southern route and did stroganoff over rice which was wonderful as well. We called the evening a three-way tie and decided to all go out together with the gift certificates. We had a great time and finished out the evening with a round of Yahtzee, which has become a regular time-passer in the 'hood. So, this has been my evening of advanced meal preparation for the next few months . . . at least! ;) Nah . . . I love my Kitchen Aid too much! I'll have to think of something else to cook! One last little bit of info . . . I finally explored the realm of boxed wine! I got a 5 liter box of Franzia Merlot, and it's really not all that bad! My favorite part is filling up the wine glass where I just turn a little knob and presto! Wine! Even Mark approves :) And I promise, all my future posts won't be this long . . . damn wine! :)