When Marvin and I were dating I knew he was a hunter; I loved that he was an outdoorsman, maybe because I was born and partially raised in the Tennessee mountains and all of my uncles and my papa were rugged, talented mountain men who knew how to do just about anything including spinning a yarn and making you believe it. I was also, however, an animal lover (did I say was)…. I AM also, however, an animal lover who had, up to that point, never actually been presented with the ‘kill’ for the purpose of having to prepare it myself; so, when Marvin brought home that first deer after we were married, I cried. I cried to him. I cried to my best friend. I cried like a child and all but refused to touch the meat. Eventually I settled down and realized that it was, after all, a humane and legal hunt for food in order to provide for our family (which at that point was just him and me). In time, my tears turned to determination to learn how to do the very best I could in preparing this wonderful, healthy, organic, free-range, grain fed, hormone free, antibiotic free, inexpensive, red meat—Venison!

That, my friends, was well over 30 years ago and venison is still our staple meat. Every year we do our best to stock our freezers with as much ground burger, round steak, butterfly steak, cube steak, whole loins, and roasts as we can. The amount of money we have saved over these years from not having to pay grocery store prices must be astronomical, especially if compared with any accurately equivalent organic red meat.

Countless people have eaten my meals made from this extremely clean protein and, with very few exceptions, have loved every bite. Many friends who have their own opportunity to use venison have also asked me to teach them how to cook with it. I always say, treat it just like beef, but that’s probably not exactly true since it has more flavor and less fat. So, I’ve decided to include among my blogs some simple techniques that I use in the preparations of various cuts of this meat. Today I did a very simple preparation of Ground Venison Pumpkin Chipotle Cheese Tortelloni Pasta – haha – just typing that name made me laugh because it makes it sound so elaborate. Wait until you see how simple this is to make…. and, of course, it can be made with any ground meat you choose to use (beef-turkey-chicken). So follow along as I show you one of the ways I prepare ground venison and…

Let’s Grow Together!