hunters and gatherers

Over the break, my otherwise peaceful husBen shot a deer. He outright killed it when it was just sauntering through the woods, making its way to the feeder for a little early evening snack. Ben is not usually a hunter, so I do support him in his experience of, hmmm, providing food for the family in this very prosaic manner.

Me… I am more the gathering type. I like to roll over to the HEB and gather up my wild berries and edible greenery, harvests of sorts, etc. While this is a seemingly more modest and safe form of providing food for the family, let me remind you of how aggressive a woman can become when she steps into a crowded grocery store ‘round about 5 o’clock.

Anyway, dinner tonight proved that we make a good team: us hunters and gatherers. The venison gave this meal a good gamey focus while the fontina offered a subtly sweet balance and the peppery arugula just really finished it off nicely (oh wait, the truffle salt I sprinkled on mine actually finished it off the most nicely).

Venison Flatbread with Fontina and Arugula

2 pieces of naan (Indian flatbread)

1-2 cups deer sausage (depending on how much meat you want)

1 ½ cups grated Fontina cheese

3 cups loosely packed Arugula

extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Fully cook the sausage in a cast iron skillet until browned and crispy. Brush the naan with olive oil, top with the cooked sausage, then add the grated fontina. Bake in your oven for about 5 minutes until the cheese melts. Briefly turn on your broiler for another 2 minutes until the cheese starts to brown a little on top. Meanwhile, toss the arugula with just a touch of the olive oil, salt and pepper. Remove flatbread from oven, top with arugula and serve warm!

This hunter-gatherer business reminds me of a story…

Once in college, Ben and I accidently amounted to a funny sort of couple’s costume on Halloween. Without consulting with each other on what we wearing, we showed up to a party dressed as an Indian (Ben, great costume from a thrift store which included a headdress) and mother earth (me, complete with vines all over me and a beach ball under my hippie dress). Since we were dating and everyone assumed we had planned our outfits accordingly, they just would look at us and say “Indian and his knocked up wife?”