René of the Day // 9.8.11 // Quack

On New Year's Day, MR went duck hunting for the third time in his life. Cliché as it may be, third time was a charm. The first two trips, he and Elrod and Vale came home without any game. But on the first day of this year, they were successful.

I love duck and I tend to think of it as a "special" food. It's not going to end up in a gunky casserole or flash fried on a fast food menu. It must be prepared and cooked carefully. We had decided to stay in for New Years Eve at MR's new apartment in Cookeville, TN (superbly classy) and just enjoy the evening without waiting in line for drinks with drunks or paying an astronomical amount for a glass of cheap champagne and a sparkly blower thingy. woo-hoo. So I went to Findlay Market and bought duck breasts and towed them to Tennessee in a cooler... along with a fabulous yellow bottle of Veuve Cliquot. We made a maple orange glazed duck breast with homemade beer bread and mashed sweet potatoes - it was a wonderful meal to ring in the new year. Then we finished our champagne through a Wii tournament - which I won and am patiently awaiting my prize - dinner at The Celestial in Cincinnati.

But I digress - I spent a nice amount of money on duck and the boy turns around and kills them for free the following morning! Perhaps the meal fueled his victory. I find it ironic. But we had driven to our friends the Elrod's house and spent the night and the boys got up at the ass crack of dawn to go hunting. A few hours later, the sun was up and I could hear the boys in the backyard. I'd stayed in bed, careful not to wake Missy, who was 11-months pregnant. I looked out the window and saw feathers flying by the stone wall in the backyard so I got dressed and ran downstairs to congratulate them on their manliness. Elrod showed them how to cut and clean the breasts and they packaged them up for freezing. I've been telling MR for months that we need to cook them before they get funky in the freezer - I wasn't going to eat any foul fowl... so this past weekend, we decided to pull them out and enjoy them before the next New Year rolls around.

Originally we planned to make the classic duck recipe, a la orange. But after a full work week and a 4 hour drive, I didn't feel like spending 3 hours making a meal. We love to sit on the deck with drinks in the evenings and I hoped to spend most of my evening doing just that. We used a Bobby Flay Food Network recipe for Asian-spiced duck breasts with ginger-chile glaze. MR was a great sous chef and took care of the grilling and made the chili-garlic noodles as I mixed the spice rub and concocted the spicy glaze - ooh, was it spicy! It paired well with cold Yuenglings. I was thrilled with how much he enjoyed it and honestly, it was the best cut of duck I've ever tasted. It was natural from the woods of Tennessee so it wasn't oily or greasy... lean, not tough. We make quite the team - he kills, I cook. We'll see if the boys' next hunt is as successful! (I've never cooked a turkey before.)

I snuck a photo of the boys cleaning the duck from the bedroom window.