I hope everyone out there is having a good final week of 2009. Whether you’re enjoying the tail end of the snow that blasted the East Coast or making the most of the next few days’ somewhat milder temps to get into the Midwest woods, I hope you’re getting time to relax, reflect on the year just past and make plans for the coming 12 months.

Photo by Matt Cunningham

New Year’s dinners are always a big deal at my house. Usually, it’s black-eyed peas or corned beef and cabbage, depending on which side of the family’s arguing louder about what’s the best good luck meal to see in the new year. This time around, however, I may have to take a stab at a tempting recipe from wild game chef Susan Sisler, described in her won words. Take a look, and enjoy:

Vension Tenderloin on the Grill with Assorted Vegetables with a Brandy Sauce

“Marinate the Venison in balsamic vinegar for 30 minutes. You may also use your favorite rub and sear the loin in a skillet on each side for a bout 2 minutes.

Prepare your grill. I add presoaked pecan wood chips just to give a nice smoked flavor to the loin.

Into the skillet I add chopped carrot, onion,shallot,red and green peppers,parsnip with a little olive oil and cook until crisp. You may add a little white wine to your vegetables and reduce. Add your favorite brandy at this time.

Set the vegetables aside as you place your tenderloin on the grill. I prepare my loin medium rare. Let it rest a few minutes, slice, arrange on the plate,spoon vegetables and sauce over the meat, serve with garlic mashed potatoes and enjoy!!!!”

I hope that all of you who celebrate Christmas are having a happy time with friends and family today. One of my favorite things about the holiday week is the silence: With few people out and about, there are several mornings that reward early risers with near solitude in otherwise busy parks and crowded forests. As I was out of state for the holiday and didn’t buy a non-resident license this year, I hit the outdoors with camera in hand. There’s almost 27 inches of snow on the ground here in VA, and what better way to get in the holiday mood than to bag some lasting images of this once-in-a-decade snowfall.

Photo by Matt Cunningham

If you are getting out to do some hunting or fishing this week, have fun, enjoy any new toys you may have picked up today, and keep in mind a couple of small safety tips:

It’s cold out there. Even if it doesn’t feel like it just out of the truck, it will cool off. Dress with that in mind, and wear layers.

Also, you may not be the only one with a new implement in the woods. There’s a good chance someone out there got a new gun or bow and headed right out the door, without sighting in or doing the number of other important pre-hunt things experienced outdoorspeople always do. Keep your eyes peeled, and know where you are and who’s around you.

Finally, this is a big week for parties. Parties often include drinks. If you’re inclined to have a sip or two, don’t let it mix with your hunting plans. A cup of egg nog with friends warms the heart, but alcohol belongs at the Christmas party, not in the woods.

So, all mothering advice aside, make the most of the season. Spend time with family and make sure they know you appreciate them. And if you can accentuate the holiday by bringing the gift of fresh-caught game or fish to the table, all the better.

Folks, Susan Sisler has it good. Between commuting between long-time family haunts in new Mexico, coastal South Carolina, and a three-generation-old hunting lodge in northern West Virginia, she’s spent more time preparing fine wild-caught dishes than most will in a lifetime.

“We had access to the best and freshest wild game and seafood,” she said, “so I’ve really been spoiled.”

I caught Sisler on the phone at her family’s lodge in Terre Alta, WV, just before she left for her annual migration to South Carolina, and I wanted to talk food. She’s generously offered to send on a few wild game recipes to spice up your meals this winter, but in the meantime she had a few useful tips for getting the best taste out of your game.

“I think with wild game, it’s all in how it was hunted,” she said. “That’s where you have to take the most care.” Small steps like ensuring the hide doesn’t contact the meat and quickly, properly cleaning the carcass add up to much better meat on the plate. In fact, I’d argue the concern goes one step further – make sure you know where you’re hitting the animal, to avoid gut contamination and the accompanying spoilage.

The second theme she came back to was one of cook time. In short, go easy.

“My biggest complaint with venison is that cook the hell out of it,” she said, referring to some of the hunters she’s encountered in the past. Remember, the deer you harvest from the woods has need for a lot less fat on it than the feedlot cattle that wind up in the grocery store. Prepare accordingly, and don’t get caught leaving the meat on the heat for too long.

I’ll have more from Susan in the next few posts, including some recipes. Not sure if she’s going to send along the one that made my mouth water when she described it, but the Morel mushrooms stuffed with bacon-wrapped oysters certainly have me eagerly awaiting her e-mail.

Photo by Matt Cunningham

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun in the title.

Given the cold snap that smacked Southwest Ohio this week, I thought it would be timely to talk about a near-essential piece of cold-weather kit: hand warmers. Dressing properly for the conditions and – more important – knowing how warm your various layers of hunting apparel will keep you in a given situation is the first key to staying comfortable as the mercury drops. In some hunting situations, though, some type of extra warming device is near imperative.

One common situation that comes to mind is a treestand on a clear, breezy morning. When the sun comes up and the wind dies off, you may need to shed layers to keep from sweating. That strategy flips as the breeze picks up, pulling heat off you from head to toe since you don’t have the ground and low cover to insulate you. A couple of well-placed warmers can keep you in the stand much longer, which means more chances for bagging some venison.

There are a number of hand warmers on the market. The most common are the disposable chemical packs you can buy just about everywhere. One trick I’ve learned with these is that they need air circulation to kick in. Stuff a freshly opened one into the toe of a boot and jam your foot in, and all you’re going to get is cramped, numb toes. I’ll start up the hand warmers when I’m about five minutes away from my parking spot, and leave them on the dashboard to get plenty of air before they go into my boots.

Another type of hand warmer I really like is the crystallized-solution type. These reusable warmers look like a bag of clear fluid with a metal disk in them. Bend the disk, and the exposed metal starts a chemical reaction that turns the liquid into white crystals and puts off up to two hours of heat. While they don’t have the endurance of the disposable models, they can be reset by placing them in boiling water for a few minutes. Carry a couple and trigger them at intervals, and  you can stay warm without creating any trash.

I want to try another reusable type of warmer, the kind that uses lighter fluid and a platinum sheet to create a reaction. These are harder to find, and can’t be used in as many places as the aforementioned flexible warmers, but I like the reusable idea. I’ll report on how one works when I get the chance to try one out.

Regardless of the type of warmer you use, placement is key. Put the warmer close to (but not in contact with) your skin in areas where a lot of blood vessels run near the surface. Armpits, inner thighs, wrists, the tops of feet, fingers and toes are good places to protect with a little extra heat. The warmth will run through your blood to other body parts, amplifying the effect.

And carry spares, for crying out loud! Nothing’s worse than getting to your furthest from the truck, or into the midst of a rain shower, and realizing your main source of supplementary warmth just crapped out.

Enjoy the cold woods – some of the most beautiful, serene scenes are out there waiting for you. Just be prepared, so you’ll be safe and comfortable.

In the midst of the most popular part of the Ohio hunting season, it might seem odd for me to title a post this way. But think about it: not everyone in the woods – even hunters – gets pumped over deer season. Some of us, for our various reasons, prefer smaller game with longer seasons. Others would rather save their valuable time off for fishing or other outdoor activities. Still others who pursue deer would rather stay out of the crowded public woods during this time of the hunting year.

For me, this was not a year for deer. A variety of circumstances made it a bad year to try bagging local big game for the freezer. Heck, even a small doe would have filled my freezer past capacity, and I’m not about to take an animal I can’t use to the fullest extent.

Since I can’t pursue my much-beloved small game during this stretch of the season, I’ve been finding other ways to get into the woods.

Members of the Cincinnati Off Road Alliance maintain the trail at Mitchell Memorial Forest. Photo by Matt Cunningham

This past weekend, for example, I spent a morning improving bike/hike trails at Mitchell Memorial Forest with members of the Cincinnati Off Road Alliance, a group of mountain bikers who maintain close to 100 miles of trails around the Queen City. The things I like to do outdoors go way beyond just hunting and fishing, and winter trail days are a way I love to give back to the places I thoroughly enjoy when not pursuing wild fish or game.

There’s a tremendous amount of work that goes into a sustainable trail. That’s a topic for this spring, but here’s the process in a nutshell: find a promising spot, spend a ton of time convincing local officials that a trail would indeed be beneficial for the area, plan the trail while incorporating many parties’ input, lay out the trail, round up a small army and some hand tools, and start cutting trail. It takes a lot of work, but is incredibly satisfying the first time you ride or hike through a piece of trail you helped build.

Maybe hiking or biking aren’t your cup of tea. Nevertheless, there’s probably a trail in the woods where you recreate, and it may need some improvement. Sustainable trails are an ongoing project, so think about volunteering to help maintain the ones you use. It’s an investment of time that doesn’t have to conflict with your preferred hunting seasons, but can pay dividends all year long.