What's for dinner: Venison Roast

Venison is an excellent lean meat.

Venison Roast

half venison roast

2 carrots chopped

1 cup  mushrooms

half medium sized onion chopped

½ cup chicken broth

¼  cup red wine

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

½ tbsp garlic powder

½ tsp cayenne pepper

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

½ tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp minced garlic

1) Chop up carrots, mushrooms, and onion. Place venison roast and vegetables in crock pot.

2) Pour in chicken broth, red wine, and Worcestershire sauce.

3) Season with garlic powder, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, chili powder, and minced garlic. 

4) Cook on high for about 6 hours. If possible pull apart venison an hour or so before serving.

5) Pull apart roast, season as necessary for added flavor, and enjoy!

Note: If there is too much liquid in the crock pot close to serving time, whisk in a little flour to thicken it up. I continuously added in some extra pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and chili powder as it cooked for some extra flavor, so experiment as you go along. Don’t take my measurements of seasonings too seriously—just taste test and make it to your liking. That’s the fun in cooking, right? For health purposes try to lay of the salt a little. Your heart will thank you later.

Best MO Counties for Hunting Bucks as per Missouri Game & Fish Magazine!

Just found a wonderful spread in the Missouri Game & Fish Magazine about the Top Counties per Region in Buck Harvest for last year, which serves as a great forecast for this hunting season!

The article is on page 32-34 & continues on page 57 from the November 2012 issue.

For our area which is the Eastern Ozarks the top county is Texas, followed by Howell and then Wayne counties. The buck harvest for 2011 in Texas County was 1,987, Howell County 1,888 and Wayne County 1,477 that's a lot of bucks, mounts and deer chili for dinner! Now the article does go into the surrounding counties but I wanted to highlight on the areas where we have most of our owner financed land and hunting leases.




"This 17-county region [ Eastern Ozarks Region] came in fourth place out of eight regions in the estimated number of antlered deer with 52,681 bucks.  Hunters reported taking 20,112 antlered deer in this region last year, which also ranked it near top at second place statewide. The top three antlered buck harvest counties in were Texas 1,987 (first statewide); Howell 1,888 (second); and Wayne with 1,477 (11th). None of the 17 counties in this region are included in the APR zone. [Antler Point Restrictions]" (Missouri Game & Fish, "Missouri's 2012 Deer Outlook-Part 2 Finding Trophy Bucks" by Tony Kalna Jr, page 57)

The article continues to say that "a trophy buck can be killed just about anywhere in Missouri, but the numbers don't lie. Some counties and regions simply are better when it comes to having more bucks and more trophy-class bucks." So, this bodes well for this years hunting season, if you've been wondering where your next big buck and possible winner of the Boone and Crockett record breaker is, then why not come down into Howell and Texas counties here in the Missouri Ozarks and bag your next big break!

What do you get when you cross cool weather with deer?

A hunter in the woods with a bow! That's right bow season is here and muzzel loader is right around the corner; White tail deer and wild turkey beware!  But with the deer active even more now that the temperature's dropped that also means drivers need to be careful toward evening/dusk and early mornings, this is the time when deer are on the move the most and also when heavy fog rolls in blinding deer and drivers alike.

To all you hunters out there from all of us here at Homestead Crossing Inc., be careful and happy hunting!