"Mornin', looks like Summer's back," I called out to my neighbor, through the humid miasma of a Texan September 1st. "Yeah, happens 'bout every 100 years," he growled. "Sure, it's like a war," I replied, hauling an empty trash can behind the compound's perimeter. And that was the start of Opening Day, but not the finish.
A few hours later we were in a dove field, somewhere in Texas, setting up. Rigs parked, decoys out, shooters positioned strategically and then wait, in the sweltering heat. No birds, just heat and steam rising up from the waterlogged ground. Then things changed.
Clouds rolled in from the North, along with thunder, complementing the sound of distant shots. Somewhere, not too far away, birds were coming in and there was action. Would it come our way?
Cooler weather certainly did, a big relief, and with it, small groups of dove, in twos and threes, came barreling over the treeline at the decoys as lightning arced from the sky, and the guns blazed away like the flak towers of Old Berlin. All against the far-off barrage of thunder.
Pretty dramatic, and the shooters down the line got the best of it, downing 8 birds in fairly quick succession. Good work, boys. It was slower from my position but still, not bad. I shot enough to get the adrenaline up, as well as missing enough to guard against the sin of pride.
Then, as dusk set in, we fell back to HQ to grill up some poppers and sausages and I tell you, a good day was had by all.
Get out in the field,
LSP
18 comments:
I see you are a charcoal guy, Reverend.
I like charcoal, too; as long as somebody else takes care of all of the fiddling associated with it. Me, I'm a gas guy. Turn the knob, push the igniter and you are in business.
LSP has never insulted me by using a gas BBQ at the compound when he's cooked something up for me. (he's a good cook and I want him to start his own YouTube channel)
At home, I'm like Fredd, turn the knob and instant flame, but the flavor profile is NOT the same.
The food looked good. I can only hope that Blue Destroyer didn't steal some of the bounty (as he is want to do).
What are your favorite dove recipes? We desert Anglicans several hundred miles west of you may need some ideas this weekend.
I have to say, Fredd, I do prefer the charcoal method. I'm not saying it's the ONE way, but it is the way I use.
LL, I agree. There's extra taste in the charcoal but Blue Hunger didn't get any...
Pretty simple, Anonymous. I just stick to the jalapeno popper recipe -- slice pepper in half, take seeds out, fill with cream cheese and a dove breast, wrap in bacon, skewer with toothpick and grill till bacon's getting crisp. Hard to beat!
Be careful, the famished Blue Warrior might start some sort of hunger games event. When you starve with a Blue Wolf, the Blue Wolf starves last...but we both know that he'd eat the mailman before he ate you. If you find a bloody postal worker uniform on the porch, just be on notice that you could be next --- unless you share.
Good shoot'n Padre!
Charcoal is my choice with a few damp mesquite chips thrown in for flavor. The popper recipe sound delicious, thanks!
It is a winner ...cooking with LSP.
Go to do Toad-in-the-hole.
Looks like a great day. Congratulations.
Have a blessed weekend!
7:00 a.m. Anonymous (from Friday) back again. Advance recon informs that the mourning doves are a tad scarce in the cartel-corridor desert, whitewings a little more plentiful, but wild pigeons abound in Ps. 78:27-like numbers. So--hope I got enough jalapenos. Wife and I crossed wires and got a double portion of bacon, so we're probably good to go. But, on review of your recipe, a couple of questions suggest themselves. First, do you grill the poppers on both sides, flipping somewhere in the middle of the process, to get the bacon cooked on all sides? If so, is there a trick to keep the cheese from oozing out and passing through the fire to Moloch, or rising as an abominable incense offering to the emperor? And, second, do you marinate or otherwise season the meat before adding?
I have to say, this Texas wild cuisine brings back fond memories of times in the Lone Star State--once, long ago, as a potential Fort Worth postulant; later, as a newly-minted lawyer. I miss the abundant whitetails--here, we're on a lottery system, with hunting success averaging under 30% per tag awarded--in contrast to central and north Texas, where I recall deer so thick on the ground that we nearly hit a trophy buck inside Austin proper. Bagged my one and only whitetail near Junction. I shared the first backstrap with my then-fiancée, and the meat lasted long enough in the freezer for the last of it to feed our second-trimester firstborn--with chili recipes and unnumbered chicken-fried-venison steaks between.
But I digress. How do you work it so that the bacon's cooked top and bottom, and the cheese stays in place?
Thanks in advance!
LL, I'll be careful, very careful.
Thanks, Brig. Give those poppers a try, tasty.
It was a good opening day, Linda. God bless!
I love toad-in-the-hole, Anonymous.
Anonymous: flip at around 10 mins and don't worry about the cheese escaping -- simply wrap well with a strip of bacon and skewer with a toothpick. In fact, you don't need the toothpick because the bacon tends to adhere to itself and the dove breast serves to keep the cheese in place too. Be sure to leave the ends of the pepper intact, that also keeps everything in place.
And good luck with the pigeons!
Perfect! We'll see what we can do. Do you use any seasoning, marinade, or anything?
Excellent! Yesterday, took 4/7 of the kids to a good dove-hunting spot (within sight of the westernmost battle of the 1861-65 war, and a favorite ambush site of the Apaches), practiced up for a while, and then had a go at the mourning doves.
While keeping a weather eye peeled for hostiles (the local sheriff has told the press that the government has lost operational control of the area to cartels of unlicensed pharmacists from south of the border), we bagged a fair number of mourning doves--even our 10-year-old first-timer got one, in answer to much prayer, shortly before sundown--with a little .410 snake gun. A few birds may have gone uncollected, despite heroic search efforts, due to the literally-impenetrable mesquite thornscrub--but we got enough to cook in earnest. Marinated the dove meat overnight in red wine/minced garlic/bouillon/salt/pepper/oil/Worchestershire sause, then cooked in accordance with LSP's recipe, jalapenos carefully bisected with a 10-inch Bowie knife, and grilled over mesquite twigs. By unanimous consensus, this is a most excellent recipe! Will repeat, ASAP--God willing.
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