I just wanted to post about a new find for me and I feel that the photos I am going to include may be offensive to non meat eaters & sensitive meat eaters…  so be warned.

A few weeks ago we celebrated our wedding anniversary with a weekend, or rather 25 hours, without the kids.  Wow, a whole 25 hours – it was bliss but it was GREAT to see them when we arrived home :).  We went to a very expensive (for us) restaurant and I think I shocked Pete by ordering rabbit.  He could not believe it and couldn’t wait to tell his Dad that I paid $32 for rabbit.  I wish I had taken a photo of his face!  I expressed interest in learning to cook with it and we had a good laugh about it but Pete told the guys at work about it.  Lots of the guys at Pete’s work go shooting on a regular basis and, when I say go shooting, I mean go out and get a few rabbit or a deer to eat.  I don’t think they shoot indiscriminately or wastefully if you get what I mean.  One of the guys sent Pete a text on Thursday night to see if I’d like a rabbit or two as he had just shot and skinned some.  Pete passed on the message and I eagerly accepted.  You see, the block has many many rabbits residing on it and I feel it’s a waste just to poison them all so why not eat them?  From now on I am going to get the guys to shoot “our” rabbits when we are not around (see how brave I am 🙂 !).

So, on Friday night Pete came home with this:

A wrapped gift of a different kind

A wrapped gift of a different kind

which I gingerly unwrapped and found this:

To be honest it made me feel a little queasy but I was up for the challenge and out came Stephanie Alexander, the stock pot, celery, carrot, peppercorns, parsley, thyme, onion, lemon rind, a bay leaf & water to cover the lot.  I simmered it on the stove top for 1 1/2 hours & then let it cool in the pot as per Stephanie’s instructions:

Once cool, I pulled the meat from the bones mixed it with almonds, parsley, bacon, mushrooms & a sauce made from the stock with lemon juice & cream.  A home made short crust pastry finished it off but there are no more photos of what was one of the most amazing cooking feats I have ever achieved – the pie was DELICIOUS and our guests really enjoyed it too! (I ran out of time & we bought a swing set from Wodonga & we had to pick it up Saturday afternoon so time was tight)

I think we could eat rabbit once a week – it would lessen our ecological footprint through the consumption of less red meat, it’s low fat, it’s prefect for cooking in dishes I like to cook (i.e. slow cooking, stews, stocks, pies), we have loads of it on the block that needs to be removed, other people LIKE to kill & skin them (although I think I’ll have to learn this), they are a pest, they are free so, if I can grow the vegetables it will make very “cheap” healthy meals & last but not least, it’s YUMMY!