Out Outdoors: 'Super' Sunday Recipes

How is your freezer looking? Well, if it is anything like mine, bags of perch and pike occupy a shelf or two and quite a few pheasants and grouse still remain from this fall. With the biggest non-holiday food consumption weekend approaching, there's no better time to make use of nature's bounty and impress your football friends; and you don't have to be Emeril Lagasse to do it. 

What follows are some simple and great-tasting game recipes that will put that fish and fowl of yours to use in a flavorful manner, and if I (a man whose kitchen skills don't go far beyond adding milk to cereal) can make it, so can you.
 
Tasty Pheasant Bake
The combination of pheasant and wild rice is about as classic as a Joe Montana pass to Jerry Rice in the end zone. This thick and hearty oven bake takes little time to prepare and produces a flavor that will be the hit of your party. 

Ingredients:
1 cup raw wild rice
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can mushrooms
2 1/2 cups water
1 can water chestnuts
2 pheasants, cut up, floured and browned
1 pkg. instant onion soup mix
1 can French's french fried onion toppers (optional) 

Directions:
Debone pheasant breasts and thighs and cut the meat into pieces. Flour and brown the pieces in butter using a large frying pan. Once all the pieces are browned, set them aside.  Next, mix the rice, canned soups, water, mushrooms and water chestnuts in 9x13 glass casserole dish. Add in the browned pheasant meat. Sprinkle onion soup mix and french fried onions on top of the mixture. Cover the dish with foil and bake two to two-and-a-half hours at 300 degrees. If you put it in about an hour or so before game time, this bake will make for the perfect halftime meal. (Note: If you have some grouse or partridge, that will substitute nicely for pheasant) 

Cheap Lobster
Nothing says high class like lobster with drawn butter, but who has the time on the biggest Sunday of the year to prepare that, let alone afford it? With the multitude of pike lakes in the area, this quick and tasty solution will have your football buddies thinking high class without much cost to you.
 
Ingredients:
Several boneless pike fillets.
One 2-Liter bottle of Sprite
One stick of butter
 
Directions:
Make sure the pike fillets are boneless. If you need help learning how to clean pike, log on to www.landbigfish.com/recipes/fillet/pike.cfm for a filleting method that gets rid of all those pesky Y-bones.  Take your boneless pike fillets and cut them into chunks.  Fill a large pot with Sprite and bring it to a boil on high heat on a large stove burner. As soon as the Sprite reaches a roiling boil, add the pike meat to the Sprite. Again, bring the Sprite and the pike to a boil. While waiting, melt the stick of butter in the microwave in a Pyrex cup or other microwave-safe dish.  Once the pike and Sprite reaches a boil, let it cook for three to five minutes, and then remove.  Serve the pike with small dishes of hot melted butter and eat it as you would lobster or crab meat. The sweetness of the Sprite makes a local slough shark taste like Maine's finest shellfish. Enjoy! 

The Old Standby
If the first two recipes are too complex (which they shouldn't be) you can't go wrong with this simple snack that everyone loves come game time.
 
Ingredients:
Several links of deer sausage
2 bottles of barbecue sauce of choice 

Directions:
Cut sausage links into bite-sized round pieces. Place them into a large crock pot or slow cooker. Pour the barbecue sauce over the rounds and cover. Cook until done, stirring occasionally. Depending on your cooker, you may want to start these with the pre-pre-pre-game show at 11 a.m. They're always a hit, and much more exciting than cocktail weenies. 

These recipes and many more, will help you make your football party truly super - and a little wild - thanks to the bounty of...our outdoors.

Editor's Note:  Nick Simonson, 26, is an avid fisherman, hunter and writer from Valley City, ND. As many of you know he has been an outdoor journalist for five years, writing his column "Our Outdoors" for his hometown newspaper, the Valley City Times-Record and offering the same writing to viewers of the Total Outdoor Network as a Field Staffer for Fishing Buddy Outdoors.