Poop Quiz

Nope, that's not a spelling error.    Today I'm showing you two very common types of poop that we find around here.  I found both of these samples today in our field while we were cutting and hauling wood to boil sap.  I'm also going to tell you which lovely animals leave it and as an added bonus, I'm going to show you how to tell the difference, so that the next time you see it somewhere by itself, you'll know who left it.

I'm sure you'll sleep better knowing this.   I know I do.

Also, there will be a quiz.   

Sample #1:   Deer

Notice the dark color and glossy finish.  That means it's fresh.   Older poop is lighter and sort of wrinkly - unless it's been raining, in which case it's just mushy. 

Notice the elongated shape - that's important.  This is football shaped poop.

This stuff is generally left in nice little piles like this.   How thoughtful of them.  


Sample #2: Rabbit

Notice the brown color and rough composition.   That's important.   It looks like bits of grass rolled in a mud ball.   It is indeed bits of grass, but that's not mud.

Notice the round shape.  There may be some that's slightly ovate, but generally this is round poop.  

Rabbit poop is sometimes in piles, like deer poop, but often not nearly as neat, as in the photo above.   See how it's scattered just a bit?

So, there you have it.  Now you know. 

Making Maple Syrup

It's sap boiling time!   Time to gather wood, squeeze the 3 inches of rain we've had in the past week out of it, light those fires and boil some sap.   And we're doing it today!

This what we start with - plain old maple sap right out of the tree.

This is our goal - maple syrup.   It takes 42 gallons of sap for a gallon of syrup.  You're shooting for 66% sugar content.

Here's the unit we're using this year to boil. 

 Eric's on the left and Mike Bell is on the right.  Mike designed this arch ['arch' is what you call a sap boiling unit.] from a filing cabinet.   He used a barrel stove kit [available at Menard's] and put a door on one end and a chimney on the other.  The left side is where the fire goes.  They built up the floor to ascend toward the chimney - pushing the heat up to where the sap pans go.

 The chimney end.

You can see in the center of the photo the grate where the fire goes.   They're using fire brick to line the ascent to the chimney at the other end.

The assembled arch with the pans in place.   The chimney is at the left of this photo.  

The fire end, packed and ready to burn.

This is Mike using a propane torch to dry out the wood and get the fire going.  [It's been raining and raining and raining here....]

We heart fire!

Sap in the pans, ready to go.   The darker stuff on the right has been boiled down some already.   We put the new sap in the left and as things boil down, we move the sap to the right.   The pan on the right will be syrup first.  

Boil, boil, boil!

This is our starter pan.  We heat the new sap up on this fire first before we put it in the pans.   It speeds things up.  

At the end of the day, we take the darkest stuff inside and finish boiling it on the stove.   This is so fresh that it isn't filtered yet.   Filter through cheese cloth or other food filters to get the ash out.   It's prettier that way. 

Duck in a Bucket

This is Edwina, but for some reason K2 calls her Emeralda.   We found her in the feed bucket when we opened the coop this morning.   She was not happy.

Any guesses on how she got in there?  

Chicken with Tomasqua, Chantrelles and Pesto

Eric is a cooking genius.    He loves good food and since I quit cooking sometime after our second kiddo, he stepped up to the plate [pun intended] and consistently hits home run after home run.   My major contribution is to can/preserve what we can grow and find around here.  For this dish, Eric used tomasqua, chantrelles, and pesto that we had put up during the summer.

Tomasqua is canned tomatoes with whatever summer squash is overflowing in the fridge on canning day.   I just chop up the squash - yellow pattypan is my all time favorite - and toss it in the pot to cook with the tomatoes.  I prefer a 3:1 tomatoes to squash ratio, but you gotta can what's ready and sometimes we have more squash than that.    You want as much acid as possible in the vegetables, so I don't use more than equal parts tomatoes and squash.  Always add the lemon juice and salt that the Ball Blue Book requires.

Tomasqua Sauce
Forgive me for being vague with the recipe, but I cook by feel, not by measuring cup.

• 1 quart tomasqua or tomatoes
• onion
• butter
• garlic - lots
• basil
• oregano
• thyme - not much

Cook the onion and garlic slowly in the butter until they're caramelized.  Add the tomasqua and heat through.   Add the herbs [dried or fresh] near the end.   If you don't like it chunky, toss the whole thing in the food processor or blender.   It'll be red if you use plain tomatoes; it'll be orange if you use tomasqua.  Delish.

Chantrelles
Yep, these are picked fresh right off our property in the summer, the day after a rain.   I saute them slowly in tons of butter and freeze them.

Pesto
Use your favorite recipe.   My favorite came from my friend Janiel, and uses pistachios instead of pine nuts.   We make loads and loads of this all summer long and freeze it.  It's an excuse to sit down and shell the nuts and listen to the birds and drink cold lemonade.  Plus, fresh basil is one of those things that makes life worth getting up in the morning for.  

Here is what Eric cooked last week with what he found in the cupboard and freezer.
Chicken with tomasqua, chantrelles and pesto  [photo above]

• Chicken
• Tomasqua sauce
• Sliced cheese: mozzarella or colby jack or whatever.
• Pesto
• Chantrelles

Cook chicken breasts your favorite way and cut them into pieces.   Toss the chicken into the Tomasqua Sauce and heat it through.   Put the chicken and sauce in a bowl; top with cheese, a dollop of pesto and the chantrelles.   Try not to swoon with the fabulousness of it all.

Striped socks

I made these for my sister from my very own self striping yarn.    It's a real hassle to do and it's not something that I sell anymore, but they're fun once in a while, when I gather the patience to do the initial winding [tedious], the dyeing [easy] and the final winding [huge pain in the nether region!].   The totally miraculous thing about this pair is that the stripes match up, something that will probably never happen again in my lifetime. 

In the studio

We've officially started dye season!   This is Night Sky - in pretty much every yarn I have right now.   It's a good 'guy color' and it gets snapped up quickly.  

Once upon a time we had sheep

1997

I am a spinner.   I make yarn from scratch on a spinning wheel.  When we moved out here we realized that we could raise our own fleeces.   It was a delicious, wonderful, romantic idea.   Forty acres in the country with our own flock of sheep.  How Cool Is That?

Deciding what kind of sheep to buy took a long time.  My sister-in-law had sent me a gift of several different types of fibers to spin.  One of them was Romney.  I loved it.  Romneys have long soft fleeces and they come in white and natural colors (e.g. black and gray).   They are also well behaved and good meat sheep, too if we were so inclined. 

We checked out the local sheep breeders associations but found their stock out of our price range.  So we put out  feelers through a local spinners and weavers guild and we finally heard about an annual Fleece Fair in Greencastle.  We decided to attend. [This has turned into the wonderful annual Fiber Event at Greencastle]

Sandhill Cranes

Last night the first cranes of the season passed overhead on their way to Beehunter Marsh and Goose Pond.    I always think of my dad when I hear cranes.   He loved watching for them. 

Marsh Madness is March 4-6, 2011 this year in Greene County.   We can hardly wait.  One of the highlights of the year is catching a glimpse of endangered Whooping Cranes traveling along with the thousands of sandhills. 

Bird Guides

I have four bird guides on my shelf these days.  They are, in order of preference:  Kaufman's Birds of North America; National Geographic's Field Guide to the Birds of North America; The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Eastern Region;  and Peterson's Field Guide to Western Birds.   The only reason I don't like the last one is that we live in the east, not the west. They have an  Eastern version, too, but I've never looked at it.

Here are links to all of them.

I like the Kaufman bird guide best.  It's easy to use.   Birds are grouped by type and by appearance within the type.  One of the things I love best about the book is the one page quick reference guide just inside the back cover - once you get good enough to know/guess that a bird is a [sparrow, thrasher, woodpecker, etc.], you can look that up in the back very quickly to get the page number for those types of birds. Then go to that section for pages full of birds that look like that.   Each page has several different birds on it so you can compare them to see which one is in your tree.  On the right hand pages, each bird is illustrated with a drawing of the bird in its most generalized form, which eliminates the problems of natural lighting and shadows from photos.   There are notes on which markings are distinctive - the eyebrow, the pink feet, white spot on tail, etc.  One the left hand pages, each bird is named with common name first, then the Latin.  In addition, there is a map showing distribution and color coded by winter/summer/year-round presence and a description for each bird including special characteristics such as '..if alarmed, it walks away  into the thickets or flies away swiftly and low.' [White-Tipped Dove], a description of distinctive physical characteristics or behavior, and a description of the call and voice.   The call/voice descriptions are better than nothing and have actually been quite helpful on occasion, but let's face it, describing Ella Fitzgerald's voice isn't going to help you recognize it in a crowded bar.  Ahem.   Which brings me to bird song guides.

I have a couple of bird song guides:  Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song and Bird Song Ear Training Guide: Who Cooks for Poor Sam Peabody?.

The first is one of those big books with the pretty pictures and the computerized player on the side.  You punch in the bird number and it plays you the song.   We got it dirt cheap at a garage sale.   It's fun, simple and helpful - a great song guide if you can get one cheap.   I like that it includes both the picture and the song.   K2 likes snuggling up outside in nice weather and playing through it.  It helps her to see the picture with the song.

My very favorite bird song guide is the Ear Training Guide cd, which we picked up at the Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge  gift shop. 

It has 190 bird songs of the eastern region of the US. It plays the bird song, then gives you a human song to help you remember it, then plays the bird song again.   Awesome!   This is how I know which birds say, 'Pizza!' 'Quick, three beers' 'Who cooks for you-all?' 'Cheese-burger', etc.   They're fun and make remembering the songs much easier.   I turn it on in my studio and just let it play while I'm working.

Cheese, cheese, cheese

I love making cheese.   I have made lovely, lovely chevre from the milk of my SIL's goats.  Food. Of. The. Gods.  Really.  I had superpowers after I made and ate the first batch.    I have also made mozzarella and ricotta.  We regularly make yogurt - which is really just very very soft cheese - you could drown in it, it's so soft, but that would be a waste of really good yogurt.  

We get all of our cultures from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company.

Go to their site now.   Be amazed.   Start thinking about cheese.   Read their blog:  http://cheesemakinghelp.blogspot.com/ .   Get inspired.   Pick the cheeses you want to attempt. 

Now let that lovely cheesy information culture for a while in your brain until my next post on cheese.  Then let's try them!

Signs of Spring

Daffodil noses in the yard

Crocus leaves

Vanilla

I love vanilla.  I love vanilla ice cream.  I love vanilla candles. 

Just thinking about it lowers my blood pressure.   

Heaven lies in the vanilla bean; I'm sure of it.  At the very least, I expect that if you get to the pearly gates and present one to St. Peter, he'll definitely let you in. 

In the meantime, you can make your own vanilla extract.  With real vanilla beans.  And real booze.   It's totally easy.

Here is a bottle of my vanilla.  Doesn't it smell great?!   Those dark spots in it are real vanilla beans.  Here's how you do it:




1.  I start with a bottle of brandy.   My fave is E & J.  My husbands initials are E & J, but that's not why I use this.  I use this because it's brandy and it's in a pretty bottle.  

2.  You also need a vanilla bean or two...or twelve.  The more beans you use, the more powerful your extract.

You can get vanilla beans from quality spice places like Penzey's.  I got my last batch from Atlantic Spice Company.  If you're west of the Mississippi, it'll be San Francisco Herb - it's the same company but they ship from San Francisco instead of Massachusetts.  Right now, vanilla beans are $17.50 for 4 oz of beans.   That'll keep you in vanilla extract and vanilla sugar for a few years.   Store the extras in the freezer.  These companies have a minimum order of $30, but the sites are full of all sorts of herbs and spices and containers.    Make sure you check out their Miscellaneous category.  You won't have a problem meeting the $30 minimum; you'll have a problem keeping it at $30.  

3.  You can leave the beans long, but I cut them in smaller lengths because they fit on the bottom of the brandy bottle and stay submerged, thereby continuing to impart full flavor until the very last drop.

4.  Slice each bean lengthwise to expose the center.   It's not a crisis if you cut all the way through.   You're just trying to open the beans and let the seeds hit the brandy.  Some folks say to scrape the seeds out, but you don't have to.

5.  Drop the beans in the brandy bottle.  That's it.  You're done.

6.  You can put it in a window for a week or so and let the sun heat it up and release the vanilla a bit faster [plus brandy loves heat]  or you can just put it in your cupboard.   It's ready to go when you open it up and smell vanilla.

Sparkle scarves

New this year!   They're debuting at the ISM show this weekend.    Cotton, metallic.  72" long.  $57.

Indiana State Museum, downtown Indianapolis.   Saturday 10-5; Sunday 11-5. 

They're back

The vultures are back.   It's really spring.

photo:      http://vulturesociety.homestead.com

These aren't our vultures, but sometimes ours do this in a row on the barn- it's called the horaltic pose.   Now you know.    Yoga for vultures.

On good days the chicken came to visit

Soon after we bought our farm, we began raising chickens.  It was a battle of wits:  ours against every poultry predator in the county.  The predators won and soon we were down to one hen.  Our lone chicken was an incredible example to me of adaptation to one’s circumstances. Once on her own and ‘peer-less’, our chicken broke herself of the compulsion to cave in to peer pressure.  She tried new things, went new places, made new friends.

She quickly made herself at home with the sheep and the sheep seem to have intimidated any potential predators enough to prevent any further attempts on her life.  She found herself a new perch in the sheep side of the barn and began to put herself away there at night.  Eric didn’t see any reason to disturb her new routine.  She followed the sheep wherever they went for a while, then she decided that she wanted to explore the other side of the fence, where the sheep could not go.

Soon we would wake up in the morning to find her perched outside on our deck posts, eating birdseed out of the bird feeders.  She had found a way to get out of the barn by herself  in the morning and she had found a new feed source far superior to sheep feed.  It was fall by that time and I saw no reason she shouldn’t have free reign over the gardens.  All that winter she came up to the house for breakfast and then spent the rest of the day scratching around the gardens.  In the evenings, she headed back to the barn to her perch, where Eric would find her when he put the sheep away at night.

One day, Eric heard crowing in the barn.  Upon investigation, it turned out that our hen was trying to crow.   This brought up all kinds of questions about transsexual barnyard animals, but before we had a chance to contact the Guinness World Record people, she stopped.  Perhaps she was only exploring the nature of avian gender identification.

In many ways, this chicken reminded me of a woman who finds herself in a situation where her identity is not based on her relationship to her children, spouse or other family member.  She is unique, one of a kind, able to define herself however she wishes, free to do the introspection necessary to see what she has inside to cope with her situation.  She cannot depend on others to tell her how she is, because there are no others.  She decides herself what kind of chicken she’ll be.  Interestingly enough, though she experimented with new chicken behaviors (e.g. the crowing), I don’t think that she denied the basic being that she is:  a female chicken.  She still laid eggs, she still molted, she still scratched, she still loved birdseed.  Although she had sheep friends and associated very closely with them, she did not try to become a sheep.   She did not graze, she did not mate with the ram, she did not bleat.    Neither did the sheep encourage her to.

I think that is a trick that I would like to learn.  I want to be a person who does not depend on others to tell me what kind of female person I should be.  I want to try new behaviors, and associate with friends who are very different from me and whose perspective I can learn from, without feeling the pressure to be one of them.   And I still want to strengthen the innate talents or abilities that I already have.  I want to be a good mother, even if family isn’t a very high priority among my peers.    I want to be a good gardener and farmer, even if my colleagues think that it is a waste of my degree.   I want to be a good writer, even if no one reads what I write.

Guess that bird...

Before we begin this week's segment of Guess that Bird, mom says I need to introduce myself. Hi, I'm K1 and I'll be taking over the Guess that bird post (and probably some of the Name that Critter and  What's that Flower posts).  Okay, intro over, now back to birds.

Mom saw one of these on one of our dogwood trees a couple of weeks ago. That's the second(ish) time we've seen one here!

HINT: There's a color in the name.

Maple Syrup: Tapping the trees

We made our first maple syrup from our own trees last year and discovered that it's not hard at all.

What you need: drill bit, taps, collection system [bag, bucket & tubes, etc depending on how you want to do it.  We use bags.], maple tree at least 10 inches diameter at 4.5 feet off the ground.   We got the taps and collection system from Leader Evaporator Company.  They've got tons of stuff for all types of collection and evaporation and you don't have to spend a fortune.

1.   Use the same size drill bit as taps you have. [We have 7/16 inch taps]  Drill 1.5 inches into the tree.    Wet maple is not easy to drill into so Eric used a smaller bit first, then used the big one to finish it. 

2 .  Put the tap in so the hook is at the top.   You can use a hammer to tap it into place.   We have 7/16 inch taps from Leader.

3. The bags and bag holder.  The sack holder comes in two parts: a ring and a holder. Notice the hole on the side of the bag holder. That's where you'll put it all on the tap on the tree.

4.  Put the bag on the ring from the inside and then fold the edges down over the outside of the ring.

5. Slide the ring inside the holder; make sure the ring is secure.

6.  Put the hole in the holder over the tap.   The hook on the tap will keep it all there, even when the bag is full of sap.

7.  Gathering:   This time of year the sap runs fast.   Keep an eye on it.   We empty everything into food grade buckets in the morning and in the evening.  You can keep the full buckets outside out of the sun in cool weather until you're ready to boil, but they can sour, so boil as quickly as you can.   The ratio of sap to syrup is 40:1, so one five-gallon bucket will give you about a pint of syrup.   We're going to shoot for a whole gallon of syrup this year.   That'll be about 40 gallons of sap - 8 buckets.

For more great info on how to tap your trees, check out the University of Maine's page.    In a week or two I'll post on the evaporation process; it's an outdoor, open fire activity.  [You don't want all that water vapor in your house.]

Sub zero morning

When it gets really cold here, we wake up to see everything covered with hoar frost.  It is magical and fleeting. 

Even the underbrush is pretty.

Luxuries we don't live without

Greg Sullivan hits the nail on the head again.  Maine Family Robinson: 10 Luxuries We Don't Do Without:  read the whole thing...   and then ask yourself:  What are 10 luxuries you don't do without? Our list is a lot like his: 

1.  Hot water:  What Greg said.

2.  Sleep:  We go to bed when we get tired and get up when we've had enough.

3.  Good food:  A lot of it we grow ourselves.

4.  Good books:  Library, library, library.

5.  No plastic anything at the dinner table:  Yes, cloth napkins.

6.  Two meals a day together as a family:  Every day.

7.  Privacy: We know how to be by ourselves.

8.  A symphony of bird song:  But you have to shut up and listen.

9.  Plenty of real work to do:  When you live out here, there's no need for a gym membership.  

10.  Self-sufficiency:  No one else gets the credit or the blame or the control.  

Ribbon Yarn

I've been thinking about doing something with this new ribbon yarn.    Got any ideas? 

Indiana Art Fair

We're getting ready to go to the Indiana State Museum for the 8th annual Indiana Art Fair, Feb 18-20.  

This is the best place to check out the latest art of all kinds from some of the best artists in Indiana.   We'll be there in booth 1-12 selling weaving, soap sets, and painted silk.

Hand-dyed, handwoven silk scarves with bamboo supplemental weft.  $100

Hand dyed, hand made silk bags with bead embellishments.   $55
Hand painted silks.  $10 - $65

Plant Guides

I have so many plant guides that I'm going to have to split them up into several posts.  We'll start with basic plant ID guides today.  



The absolute best wildflower guide is Newcomb's Wildflower Guide.   Hands down. Really.  I'm not kidding.  In order to ID a plant, you have to look at three things first:

• the flower type [4 petals, 5 petals, oddly shaped, etc.]
• the plant type [no leaves, basal leaves, vine, etc.]
• the leaf type [entire, toothed, etc.]

Each of those three characteristics is given a code number. Notice that color is not one of the characteristics - since habitats affect flower color, color is an unreliable characteristic.  Plant shape is reliable.  So, if my mystery plant has 5 petals on the flower, is a shrub and the leaves are entire [smooth], then the code will be 552.   I find a list of the codes on the first page of the book so you don't have to remember them, then the next few pages of the book is an index of where in the book you can find plants that are 552.  It turns out those plants are on p. 292.   I look at the pictures and decide which is mine.  The pictures [generalized drawings] are on the right hand pages and a written description including common and Latin names, notes and references to habitat, range, etc. are on the left hand pages.     It might take you a while to get used to using the book, but it is worth the time you spend getting to know it.   No other field guide comes close to being as good as Newcomb's.

One of the most common field guides is Audubon's Wildflower Guide.  It's fine, but it's organized by color, then flower shape.   Colors are unreliable, especially the pink-purple-blue range.   Like all the Audubon field guides, this one has photos of real flowers; however, the photos don't always show leaves and leaves are a very important part of plant ID.    We still use this guide, but only as a support to Newcomb's.

We also have the Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and the Peterson Field Guide to Wildflowers.   I don't know if they're good or not because I don't ever need them.   

For trees, I use the Audubon Field Guide to Trees and I like it well enough that we've never bothered to get another one.   It's divided into leaf types.  There's also a section on flowers, seeds, cones, fruit and fall color.  Focus on the leaves, go to that section of the photos, find your tree and look it up.    I've always found what I've been looking at.

Since we have plenty of mushrooms around here and some of them are edible, we picked up a couple of mushroom guides as well.   We like the Audubon Field Guide to Mushrooms very much.  They make it very clear which ones are poisonous and just how poisonous they can be.   We gather chantrelles with confidence and our kids can use the guide well enough to know what not even to touch.

Experiments with Ducks and Chickens

Our current ducks

Our second spring here, we decided to raise more domesticated livestock:  sheep, chickens and ducks.  We got the ducks because our neighbor has a pond and wanted some.  We got the sheep because I am a spinner and wanted to raise my own fleeces and because it is very difficult to raise anything this part of Indiana except cows, corn, soybeans and tobacco and the state is trying to expand into other crops, like sheep.  We got the chickens because, well, this is a farm.  

We got the chickens and ducks first.  We had driven all the way up to Indianapolis to a place that advertised itself as a hatchery only to find that it was a glorified pet store that did none of the hatching, but got weekly, Monday, shipments of chicks from a real hatchery.  They still had a very small selection of breeds by the time we got there on Saturday and we were able to get eleven chickens of various types and five Khaki Campbell ducks.  We got our first lesson in fowl production on our way home.   Those cute little fuzzy balls stink.

Adventures in Alcohol

Lemonade Lucy

For the record, I am a teetotaler.  And I just found out that I can also call myself a teetotalist.  The spell check doesn't like that, but Wikipedia does.  I can spell it teetotaller, too.   And the spell check really hates that - it gave me the red wavy underline and a scolding.   Geez.    Wiki says that the word possibly came from the manner of signing the pledge to abstain from alcohol during the temperance movement:  T- total.  Meaning, total temperance.    Now you know.

Other notable non-drinkers are Rutherford B. Hayes and his wife Lucy, who was known as Lemonade Lucy because she refused to serve alcohol at White House functions.   Also, Gene Simmons.  Yes, the one from KISS.   If you want to hear a great song about alcohol, I recommend Brad Paisley's song:  Alcohol   I heart Brad Paisley.  Just sayin'.

Now, just because I do not drink does not mean I do not buy alcohol and use it in other ways.

Ice

Some amazing and wonderful things happen only during conditions that are really uncomfortable.   I try to remember that when life gets extreme.

Thai Venison

I am secretly afraid of the slow cooker.    I love the idea of it - all that cooking happening and I don't even have to be in the kitchen.  Who wouldn't love that?   But deep in my heart of hearts, I fear the commitment required to have a successful relationship with the slow cooker.   For some reason it is impossible for me to plan ahead when it comes to meals.   [Those of you who know me well, know the extent of the terrible irony of this facet of my personality.]

In order for the slow cooker to do its thing, you have to decide way ahead of time what you want cooked.  Then you have to get it all together.   Then you have to put it in the cooker.   Then you have to remember to turn on the stupid thing.  Then you can relax and feel really smug until it's time to do the dishes.

Mostly, my husband does the slow cooker thing.   OK, the truth is that if anyone uses it at all, it's he.    He totally gets the planning ahead about meals thing. [Also a terrible irony, but I probably shouldn't go there.]   In addition, we have a freezer full of venison harvested by some excellent friends right off our property.   Venison that has spent the summer feeding on our grass and hostas tastes great!   My husband loves finding new ways of cooking it.

Thai red curry makes life worth living in the winter here.   I love it.  I also love coconut milk.   Lo and behold we discovered that you can throw a can of coconut milk, 1 T of red curry paste and a package of venison out of the freezer into the slow cooker and 7 hours later, you're in gastronomical paradise. 

Here's a photo of Thai red curry from importfood.com with directions on how to make your own.   This is not something we've tried yet.   We just go to Sahara Mart and buy it in a package.


Thai Venison in the slow cooker

1 can coconut milk
1-2 Tablespoons of red curry paste
venison [Some.  Use your imagination.]
cilantro - chopped fresh if you have it.   Optional.  Throw it in before you serve it all.

Cook it all day.  After a few hours, shred the meat so it soaks up the Thai red curry goodness.  Serve over rice.   Great with steamed broccoli and pineapple.   We like the pineapple cool so there's a contrast in temperatures as well as flavors.   This means that you can put the can of pineapple chunks on the table with the can opener as you're sitting down to dinner.    That's pretty much all the planning ahead I can do.