I did it! The deer is cooked. I cooked it in three different ways and took pictures. One thing I’ve taken for granted during all my years of buying supermarket packaged meet is the amount of blood that I don’t have to deal with. The hunk of deer was wrapped in a layer of plastic wrap, a layer of newspaper, several plastic shopping bags, and finally a garbage bag. Once I got all of the covering off, I found a large, extremely bloody piece of meat. I took the picture below after I washed off most of the blood.

After I got over the sight of all the blood, I grabbed the meat, cleaned it, and inspected it. I found no buck or fur, though I had absolutely no idea what signs I should be looking for. I had my lady, who has better eyes than me, take a look also. She didn’t see anything either, so hopefully we won’t get any surprises as we eat this massive quantity of meat. After inspection, I got to play butcher.

I was pretty proud of my butcher skills. I cut two huge steaks and some smaller pieces for stew. The remaining hunk was my roast. Below are before and after shots.

In the end, it all came out tasting pretty good – very much like beef. I’m not sure if I’d be able to tell the difference in a blind taste test. The stew and sliced roast are hanging out in my freezer right now (It’s a whole lot more meat than we’re going to eat within the next few days) and I am already looking forward to the next time I’m gifted with venison.

Last night I tasted deer for my first time. At first, it seemed almost indistinguishable from beef, but after a moment, i noticed that it’s flavor was much more intense than beef’s flavor. Still, my first reaction was “it’s okay.” About ten minutes later, I realized that the taste was still on my mind and I wanted more even though I had eaten a full meal and desert not long ago. Fortunately I was given a huge hunk of frozen deer to take home.

Along with the frozen cut, I was given some advice on how to prepare it. I’m trying not to be squeamish about it – I’ve cleaned and prepared meat and fish before, but this will be my first time preparing meat that didn’t come from a market. Somebody shot the deer, cut it up, froze it, and now it’s thawing out in my sink. I was instructed to check the meat for buck and if there are holes from buck, check them for any fur that might have entered the deer along with the buck. Mmmm. Still, I think it is worth it – the meat is fresher than anything I’ve ever bought and it wasn’t raised on funky hormones and chemical concoctions.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to cook it. After doing some reading online, I think I’m going to cut it into three pieces and cook them in different ways. I’ll roast the larger piece, broil another piece, and cook the third in some sort of gravy. Hmmm . . . maybe I’ll take pictures of the process and post them. Stay tuned.

Update: I just got home and checked on Bambi. After about 16 hours of being out, Bambi is still frozen solid. I was planning to marinate him for at least 24 hours, so I guess there’ll be no Rudolph for Christmas.

On an NPR podcast I was listening to today, they were talking about new legislation being proposed (I think it’s in NY, but I don’t remember for sure) that would give government to the blood sugar test results of diabetics. The idea is that all that info would go in a database, and when someone’s results show they are getting dangerously close to experiencing the serious complications diabetes can cause, they would get some sort of automatic notification. (e.g. “Take your medicine or your leg is going to get cut off.”) People against the legislation claim that in combination with smoking bans and bans on trans fat, it would bring us one step closer to a nanny state.

Is the idea of a nanny state really that ridiculous or wrong? When violence and disorder reach an extreme in a particular area, there is talk of making it into a military state and imposing marshal law – at least temporarily. They say that desperate times call for desperate measures. Isn’t this a desperate time for health in the U.S.?

All kinds of surveys and studies show that we are one of the fattest countries in the world. Obesity has grown from being a rare oddity to a nationwide norm. I’m sure that if you look at the statistics from any health insurance company, you will find that a disturbing amount of money spent goes towards preventable health problems. Through this country’s high healthcare costs, we are all footing the bill for smokers, folks who aren’t eating well, and people who don’t get enough exercise.

If we had a nanny state, maybe when I went to the supermarket, I wouldn’t be forced to choose between the exorbitant prices for healthier food and the lower prices of unhealthy options. Maybe my insurance would be forced to help fund things like a gym membership that would help keep me out of the doctor’s office and save them money in the long run.

Smokers are already complaining about losing the right to pollute the air that I have to breathe – but they should learn the difference between a right and a privilege and they should spend some time thinking about what happens when one person’s freedom impedes on another person’s freedom. Does the same hold true when it comes to other health related vices? We cannot escape the fact that we live in a world with other people. Your health affects my life and my health affects yours. That means if we both stay healthy, it’s better for everyone.

It seems like most people I see/meet are smokers. I can never understand why so many people continue to smoke despite all of the well-known negative results. Well, here’s one more negative result you may not have known about (this one is for the ladies) -

Smoking makes your boobs sag.

Yep. Check out the last paragraph of this article.

I grew up in a household where drug use was discouraged. Drugs have known and unknown side effects and many of the times that we tend to resort to drug use, we don’t need to. I’m not against using drugs, but I do try to minimize my intake of body altering chemicals. It seems that most over-the-counter drugs are aimed at symptoms, so I usually only take them if the symptoms are inteferring with things I want/have to do. A lot of the time headaches can be cured with a nap or just some quiet time. Why take cold medecine when I’m staying at home all day? It doesn’t do anything to help cure the cold.

My one exception is allergy medicine. Every year around this time, I get hit by allergies – runny nose, itchy eyes, and breathing problems. The symptoms are usually so bad that I take medicine whether I’m out and about or at home doing nothing. Two days ago I changed medicines, and I am sooooo happy. I was using what I was used to – Benedryl. It’s been far from 100% effective and the other day, I got tired of having to take it every 4 hours. I went to CVS and checked out my alternatives. Claritin sounded real good – would just have to take it once every 24 hours. I ended up buying a pack of Alavert, which is the same drug as Claritin (loratadine) but cheaper. I am a convert – this stuff really works. It is way better than Benadryl, and it is so much easier taking it once a day. No more constantly checking the time to make sure I take my next pill before the symptoms return. No more waking up with no more medicine in my system and allergy symptoms running rampant.

Did you know the active ingrediant in Benadryl, diphenhydramine, is also the active ingrediant in many sleeping aids? Yes, Benadryl is a sleeping aid. No more taking a sleeping aid every 4 hours throughout my day. I know a bunch of drugs come with warnings of drowsiness, but that is one of the primary uses of Benadryl. Now that I know that I’m wondering why it doesn’t come with a stronger warning. According to wikipedia, loratadine’s side effects are much milder – “dry mouth, headache and gastrointestinal disturbances.”

If you suffer from allergies, I definitely recommend you give loratadine a try.

Recently I’ve been reading fitness/food news pretty regularly. I’ve lost track of the number of reports I’ve seen about obesity, its negative effects, and its prevalence in society today. Of course the advice is always to eat well and exercise, but what is going on in the world? Maybe I’m just deluded about the past, but I don’t think it was always like this. It seems that people used to be more fit without having to make a concerted effort to stay healthy. If you look at the reasons that people are generally so unhealthy today, you will realize that many of them are caused by the modern lifestyle.

Back in the day jobs were different. People farmed, people worked in factories – a lot of jobs required physical activity. It was harder to get around – people walked far more than they do now. Entertainment did not come to you – people had to be active to have fun. Back in the day exercise wasn’t a chore that you hated to do, forgot to do, or didn’t have time to do. No, fit people didn’t tend to have washboard abs and more definition than dictionaries, but the kind of lifestyle that most people lived kept them healthier. Add to that the fact that fast food and ready made meals weren’t as prevalent, so people were more likely to eat home cooked meals, which tend to be healthier than the alternatives.

It seems that technology – which is supposed to make our lives easier – has made it easier for us to be unhealthy. Now, many jobs involve a full day of sitting in one place, all kinds of transportation options that don’t involve feet are available, and sitting on a couch pressing buttons counts as fun. There was a time when seeing a person that was very overweight made people envision overindulgence and sloth. Now, when I see an overweight person, I imagine that they live a pretty typical life. That’s a big (no pun intended, but I take what I can get) problem.

My proposal – and this is by no means original, but its worth recycling and repeating – is that instead of focusing on how you can fit a 30-60 minute into your already busy day, you figure out how you can start living a healthy lifestyle. Too often, when people think of a healthy lifestyle, they only think of eating health food. Eating healthy is important, but you don’t need to be constantly diet conscious and that should not be your only concern.

• Try to cook more often and more creatively. This will automatically make your diet healthier if you’ve been eating out a lot. Also, the focus on creativity should help you get the variety of foods necessary to supply all the vitamins and minerals you need.
• Walk. It’s not hard. I know many people who balk at the idea of taking a 20 minute walk. It’s really not as bad as it seems. Before you go someplace, stop and ask yourself if you really need your car/the bus/a cab. Even if it’s an hour long walk, if you’re not in a rush, it’s not that bad. Take along your iPod, Microsoft Zune or other mp3 player. Once you get in the habit, you may find yourself seeking excuses to enjoy the solitude of a nice walk.
• Have fun how you used to. What do you do for fun? What did you do when you were younger? Pick up the basketball. Go out dancing. Take a swim. Go hiking. Find the active things that you enjoy, and if you no longer do them, re-work them into your life. Some folks may think they are too old for that kind of thing – if you believe that, the truth is most likely that you are just out of shape. Once your body gets used to the new activity, you’ll see that not a whole lot has changed from your younger days.
• Be old fashioned. Don’t always take the technologically assisted easy way out. Take the walk to your co-worker’s desk to ask a question instead of e-mailing. Get in the habit of using stairs instead of elevators. Figure out some other ways technology makes your life less active and avoid doing things that way.

Understand, I have nothing against paying attention to your diet and taking time out to exercise, but why try to put a band-aid on an unhealthy life? Before you go out of your way to get fit, see what you can do in your regular life. Why exercise three times a week and then hop in your car every time you need to go a mile? Why put yourself through the strain of sit-ups when you could get similar results and have fun going out to dance?