From Hunt to Lunch

Most men would bring home the bacon, I however, brought home the mallard. 

 I tagged along on the Lampe family's Thanksgiving duck hunt.

 Here's a shot of William and Rob after a morning in the rice fields.

And Granddaddy on his way back from the river blinds.  The weather was perfect. Cloudless and in the 50's for our whole stay. 

The ducks were plentiful too.  Below Rob and William are cleaning the morning kill.

 The group shot a variety of different species, both diving river ducks and wading puddle ducks.

 Since they are wild ducks they are very lean. The amount of meat from any one duck is relatively small. The best meat is the breast and can be easily removed with a few incisions along the rib cage. Even so I still struggled to butcher them well. You can see my imperfect job.


This still yielded several very nice breasts which we brined in salt water to draw out excess blood.

 We then wrapped them in cling wrap and sous-vide them in 130 degree water for 4 minutes, then rested them for 4 minutes.

 Then we seared them for one minute a side until browned. This left them still very red, tender, and bloody.

They were very tasty, and quite unlike any farm raised duck.
We lost track of which breast came from which species of duck, but you can see they were all slightly different.  Size, species, and diet all create different qualities to the meat.

A delicious rustic meal worth all the effort.

Fall 2012 Round Up

Our fall has been obscenely busy. I've started teaching and Lilly has been writing-up a storm. She is now a proud member of the AICA a professional association for art critics, while I'm now a active member of the ASA the association for aesthetics and the philosophy of art. In contrast to all this hoity-toity artsy stuff we've also been exploring the rural south more. Somewhere in the whirlwind of art, writing, and southern living we forgot to blog. But just so everyone knows we are still eating well and having fun here is a best of Fall 2012. 

FRIENDS WORTH NOTING:

Lilly hanging with artist NikitaGale at a studio visit. 

A  hike up Stone Mountain with my sister Chloe and our friend Sarah...

...where we found this heady vandalism on the path.

Posing with my favorite photographer. Minnesota's own Alec Soth.

We were visited by a owl.  Lilly is convinced this was an omen. I'm convinced he shouldn't be parked there.

Lilly and brothers on the Atlanta Belt Line.

Looking overly concerned at a Jason Kofke show. I actually did like it I swear.

FOOD WORTH MENTIONING:

New ramen lunch menu at Miso Izakaya in Atlanta, GA. Awesome.

An obscene chimichonga at Cosmic Cantina in Durham, NC. 

Fried chicken plate at Smithfield Chicken and BBQ in Smithfield, NC.

Lilly, made the Philly Cheese Steak recipe from John T. Edge's new foodtruck cookbook. http://truckfoodcookbook.tumblr.com/

Whole hog BBQ in a field by Jim N' Nicks BBQ in Trinity, AL.

Hanger steak at One Eared Stag in Atlanta, GA.

Braised pork cheeks with grits at The National in Athens, GA.

A proper plate of eastern NC BBQ with sweet tea. Wilber's in Kinston, NC.

Nye's awesome ice cream sandwiches from Wilmington, NC, purchased at Reid's in Charlotte, NC. Above are strawberry shortcake, key lime, and chocolate coconut. 

Making the burnswick stew for Thanksgiving - a Lampe trandition. A mixture of chicken, pulled pork, venison sausage, and veggies. No TURKEY ALLOWED!

SOUTH WORTH SOUTHING:

Lilly showed those cans she meant business with her 22. Smithfield, NC. 

A visit to the Lampe Malphrus sawmill. Here boards are being dried in one of their massive kilns. Smithfield NC.

A concert from the Gees Bend Singers of Alabama. A group of quilters and spiritual singers. A really wonderful experience. At the venue Grocery on Home in Atlanta, GA.

Cotton picking with fashion designers Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin and Billy Reid.

Duck hunting with the Lampe cousins. Outside of Oriental, NC.  Rob and the retriever Colt heading home at dusk from a river blind.

Looks kinda like a Lands End catalog.

Lots more of course. But this at least gives a sense of the charachter and flavor of our fall.

More soon.

-A