Christmas Leftovers
Phil Taunton
Friday, December 29, 2006
I sure hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and, unlike me, never wavered from their diet!
My take on diets — it seems like I have been on one since I was 6 years old.
Now that I am older, no matter how much I exercise, those pounds just want to hang around.
It’s not that I don’t workout, believe me. Trying to train, or should I say keep up with, three young English pointer pups and get them into birds has been quite a chore this season.
I hunt quail, but I don’t shoot them. Gentleman Bobwhite and I have a relationship that goes way back, and I have too much admiration for him. I wish quail hunting would be like bass fishing — catch and release — but it just doesn’t work that way.
Watching a brace o• good dogs work the field in their quest for game is a sight to behold.
The people I hunt with can do the shooting; I just don’t care to harvest wild quail anymore. And besides, I get enough quail for the table from the National Shoot to Retrieve Association field trials I participate in.
This season, I am still finding some o• my pet coveys o• quail when I take the dogs out, but they seem fewer and farther between. We went out the other day and found four coveys o• birds. The first covey only had six birds in it, so no shooting was allowed.
Sassy, the oldest o• my dogs and the one I thought would make a good county commissioner because she ran all over the country and barked a lot, found a nice covey o• birds on property I couldn’t hunt. I told you she ran all over the country.
She pointed the birds before I could get her back on our side o• the road. Pursuing any o• that covey was definitely out. It was a nice 16 to 18 bird covey.
Covey No. 3 — a group o• 12 birds — was found in a hedge row I could hunt, but these birds flushed wild and flew onto private property where I can’t. Did I say Bob was a gentleman?
Covey No. 4 had about 15 birds in it. Sassy made a nice find in a hedgerow when we were about back to the truck, and I was really tickled to see the 5-month-old pups come in and honor her. My hunting buddy was able to knock one down, but by then we were too tired to pursue any o• the singles.
The truck was so inviting we decided to call it a day. Besides, it never hurts to leave seed for another year.
Remember, there has been a change in the closing dates o• this year’s upland game bird season. Quail season will close Jan. 21 statewide, while pheasant and prairie chicken season will remain open until Jan. 31, in all but the southwest unit o• Kansas, where prairie chicken season closes on Sunday.
The 2006 fall turkey season will run through Sunday, close and then reopen Jan. 8 and run through Jan. 31.
Jan. 1-7 will be the firearms extended whitetail deer antlerless season. Whitetail antlerless is defined as any whitetailed deer without a visible antler plainly protruding from the skull.
Quail has such a delicate flavor. It is hard to ruin any quail recipe unless you simply overcook it.
Chick on a Stick is one o• my favorites. I use it to introduce people who have never tasted or liked wild game to a real treat.
The breast is easily filleted of• the bone in one piece once you get the hang o• it. Serve with salad, baked potato or wild rice and hot rolls.
Chick on a Stick
Quail breasts
Bacon
Shoney’s Classic Recipe Seasoning Salt found only in Shoneys restaurants. You might experiment and substitute your favorite Fajita seasoning.
Layer filleted quail breasts in a plastic container, sprinkling seasoned salt between the layers. Refrigerate 8-24 hours, or at least until moisture from the breasts breaks the salt down into a marinade.
Put a single strip o• bacon around each filet and secure with a toothpick. (Too much bacon will cause excessive flare-ups when grilling.)
With a cold drink in one hand, fight smoke and hungry people of• with the other while rolling the breasts across the grill until bacon is cooked and quail is tender and moist.
Also works with pheasant, chukar, turkey, chicken or pork. Serve fried quail legs as an appetizer.
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Posted by quailpoints (anonymous) on December 30, 2006 at 1:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Good article Phil. I think the quote, "I hunt quail, but I don’t shoot them", reflects how a lot of Midwest quail enthusiasts feel about hunting and shooting wildl quail.
Plus the recipes make me hungy.
-D Martin
http:://quailpoints.wordpress.com
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