Update on Ike & Other Things

Hi everyone;
As promised I wanted to give an update on Ike after his visit to the Vet today.  The Dr., while very pleased with his recovery, says at least 2-3 more weeks in a soft wrap and then as long as another month with nothing but controlled (read on a leash) exercise.  Soooo, that pretty much means the annual Pheasant Hunt in SD is off for us this fall.  Perhaps we can go later in the season but after talking to the Vet, he says that given his youth, and desire to hunt for many more years, he would recommend short term discretion for more long term opportunities.  That is what my friend Wayne says too, better to take off a while and give him the proper chance to recover rather than rush it and regret any reoccurrence.  So I thought I would share a couple pictures of the little guy with his new soft wrap.  The Vet Tech thought he would enjoy a little decoration on his wrap..  Check it out, a squirrel, Oak leaf and acorn.. Little did she know how much he hates squirrels (or then again maybe she did ?????)  I'll let everyone know what the next visit brings.

Cute, huh?



Spoiled??? Who me???

Since Ike may not be hunting this fall in his honor I took some pheasant out of the freezer and made a few pot pies...  2 large ones and 3 small ones (those are for me).  I had some extra so I made a little one in my small cast iron skillet with a Bisquick topping..  See link for the recipe - made a few alterations - added mushrooms, and celery and used cream of celery soup for the base..  For the topping I mixed up the typical recipe but added some shredded cheese, some canned French fried onion rings, and Old Bay seasoning to the batter... It was pretty tasty
http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-bisquick-chicken-pot-pie-100215

Pheasant Pot Pie

Also did a quick little chicken finger recipe...  Flour, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper and a little paprika, egg wash, and cornflakes with some canned fired onion rings crushed for the crust....  Fried them in Veg oil for about 3 minutes a side then finished them in the oven.. Made a little home made Honey mustard for dipping..  Really tasty and crunchy..


Chicken Fingers



So again no "Ike, Find that bird" - at least for a while.

Pork Chops in Peach Preserves

Well, now that Ike is out of commission, I decided to get back out there and do some cooking and post out this Pork Chop in Peach preserves recipe.  As you know peaches are in season now and to me there is nothing better than biting into a ripe peach with the juice running down your chin.... 
Well there might be a couple things better - like combining my love of peaches with my love of pork.   Here is a recipe for pork chops in a peach preserve glaze.   Couple of interesting ingredients - cinnamon and ginger as the rub for the pork... 
Here is what you need:

• 1 cup peach preserves
• 1 1/2 T Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/2 tsp Chile Paste
• 4 Boneless Pork Chops
• 1 tsp ground Ginger
• pinch of cinnamon
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup white wine
• salt and pepper to taste

Now this is where I diverged from the recipe.  It said to Fry the chops in oil and deglaze the pan with the white wine.  I grilled them and added the white wine to the sauce and reduced... I will put the link in to the real recipe but this is what I did:

Looks pretty good, huh?

Allrecipes Spicy Peach Glazed Pork Chops  (I think mine look better)

oven roasted potatoes as a side

In a bowl I mixed together the peach preserves Worcestershire sauce and Chile Paste.  I added the white wine at this point.   Rinse and pat dry the pork chops and season with ginger, cinnamon, and salt and pepper.  I then put the sauce in a sauce pan and started cooking and reducing it.  I dropped the chops on a very hot grill and seared them to about rare.  After the sauce reduced about 1/3 I dropped the chops in the sauce and let them finish cooking in the sauce. It took on a beautiful amber color and thickened to a wonderful consistency.  Sweet yet tangy with the chile paste with interesting undertones from the cinnamon and ginger.  It was VERY good....

Well it happened again

Well for those readers that have been following this blog for a couple of years you are familiar with the fact Ike partially tore his Achilles tendon a couple of years ago and he was in a cast/splint from April until the end of July.  Well as of last Friday, he did it again.  No idea how he did it, we were in the back yard playing fetch like we have 1000 time before and he took off after the stick and about 15 feet away he yelped and started holding the same leg up... 

So I took in to the emergency vet hospital (the same one that worked on him before) and lucky for me the surgeon that worked on him before was just getting out of a different surgery and consulted with the ER Vet and said, "Looks like he aggravated it again...  Soooooo   here we are again with the same splint as before.. And Hunting season is just about 8 weeks away. 

I will keep everyone up to speed, as we don't go back for another week or so for a status check..   A funny aside to this, is This happened a week ago Friday, and we had our neighborhood block party the next day and Ike was the hit of the party.. All the kids were giving him so much affection... Everybody sure loves Ike... 

So Sunday we were all relaxing after the party and Ike go up from the chair and walked right out of the splint....   Sandy and I looked at each other and said, "What the heck??"  So Monday on my lunch hour back to the vet we went...   and they reapplied the splint.. The Tech said he was getting around quite well without it but he seems a little too active to go without it..  Ya think???   LOL... He has been a good boy with it though, not chewing on it so no "cone of shame" necessary.....
More to come but no "Ike, find that bird" at least for a while.