Slow Cooking Quail and Other Thoughts on January

January Uses for a Deer Blind and Slow Cooking some Quail

Lonely Sentinel From Season Past

 Linda and Caron wanted me to write about what to do with deer blinds during the “off” season.  They said that the inspiration for the topic came from a conversation with Ron and Lauren Cox during Chrsitmas break.   So, I am left to think of the uses, and I will admit that not many things came to mind;  however, since I always do what my sisters tell me, here is the result.  

 

1.       You can watch birds

 I think you could see turkeys, field larks, and an occasional bobwhite quail.  After that, you would have to draw a bird on a paper and hang it outside the window to look at.  I am not an ornithologist, and could use some schooling on this topic.

2.        You can have a sleep over

If you are in Adrian’s blind, you can put a cot, a table, and a heater and have some friends over, but in the rest of the shelters, it will be you alone, curled up in a corner with a blanket with hand and foot warmers tucked into your clothing.

3.       You can listen to the night sounds

This is an extension of the sleep over idea.  Depending on your imagination, this would be intriguing or scary.  There would be the lowing of cattle, the rattling of such things as raccoons and possums, the oinking of feral hogs, and the howling of coyotes.  This is really kind of a good idea unless you get to thinking of all the things that you could not see or might not hear that are sneaking up on you

4.       You can watch the stars

This could best be accomplished by climbing onto the roof of one of the blinds, but there are no ladders so that would get you into the serious climbing and rappelling business.  The stars are beautiful out in the country  where no lights from town interfere, but the back of a pickup will offer a better view than the window of a blind.

5.        Randy said you could use it as a hideout in case you were a law breaker

We don’t know any of these and are not encouraging them to be on the property and especially not in our blinds.  That would be one of those sneaking sounds you wouldn’t want to hear.

 

In other words, in my opinion, the uses are limited.  Perhaps you could build a porch on one and put a rocking chair for warm summer evenings, plant honeysuckle to climb the poles, and paint it some color that would stand out better than the camouflage they currently sport, but I think they are all better off just standing watch until the next hunting season. 

 

I did see some bird hunters in town during lunch, and we are not telling them where the few quail we have seen are hiding out.  I will, however, share with you what I think is a wonderful recipe.  It was given to us by a guest from Bowling Green, Kentucky.   Try this next time you have a “mess of quail”.  The recipe can also be found in our cookbook,
Conversations from the Kitchen in the Hotel Matador.

 

Kentucky Quail

1 medium onion, sliced thin

1 cup sliced mushrooms, optional

12 quail (cleaned and skinned)

12 pieces of bacon

¼ cup butter (you may use half oil if it makes you happy)

¼ cup flour

2 cups chicken broth

¼ cup sour cream.

 

Wrap quail in bacon and brown in butter in a skillet.  Remove quail to a roaster pan and sauté sliced onion in butter and bacon grease until translucent.  Add flour, salt and pepper to skillet and brown slightly.  Add broth and stir until you have smooth gravy.  Pour over quail.  Cover tightly and bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.  Remove from oven and stir in cup sour cream (and mushrooms).  Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes.  Serve over your favorite rice.