31 Days ...of dinner chez les Wrightlings... Squirrel Soup {day 1}

Sometimes dinner at our house is pretty normal. Other times it is anything but.

Sometimes it is hard to actually eat the food due to the conversation. Other times, conversation is child-led strategy to somehow escape eating a less than favorite meal.

For the next 31 days, I'm planning to post about dinner time at our house as part of an annual writing challenge hosted by the nester.

Hopefully, you'll get a humorous... very real... glimpse into life, {um - dinner}, chez les Wrightlings... all 8 {um I guess it is more accurate to say 7 of them since the biggest one will be mostly off at school} - of 'em!

Last night, we ate squirrel stew...

In our family, we parcel kitchen duty out so that each person, or team of persons, has a day that "belongs" to him and/or her. Monday belong to Tim and Elsie Mae.

Sunday afternoon, Tim took two of the girls squirrel hunting and the mighty hunters came back with a critter. One rather small critter. So Monday night, as chef, Tim decided our family was going to eat Chatterer... like it or not.

Small game living up in the Edensville area of Michigan?  Consider yourself warned.

Tim made a pretty basic soup (since soupish meals are about the only way I know of that one squirrel can sufficiently feed 8). He browned the meat with onions and garlic, coated it in flour, deglazed the pot and then added veggies (carrots and celery), potatoes and spices, leaving it to simmer covered for about 2 hours. Then he added a handful of egg noodles and once they were cooked, we were ready to eat.

Now, knowing there would be a few Wrightlings hesitant to munch on the little dude they get so much pleasure watching scamper up and down the tree right outside our living room picture window, we decided to say it was meat soup, at least until everyone had tried a bite.

And everyone liked it...

Although I must say that irrational but logical thought crosses my mind that since squirrels eat tree nuts (i.e. acorns, etc.), and I'm allergic to tree nuts, I might just have an allergic reaction and die as a result of eating squirrel soup...

I didn't.

Jonathan (presently our pickiest eater) took a bite, smiled big and started to say, "Yummy soup, Da...." at which point his father interrupted his happy exclamation with the information that he'd just taken a bite of squirrel. Happy exclamation morphed into horror:  "...Da - YUCKEEEEEEEEY! How could you DO that to me!" (I was wondering how he could do it to Chatterer.) Then he promptly faked gagging. But we wouldn't let him get away with it this time. Finally reluctant taste buds prevailed over mind and he finished his soup. He did ask, however, that we not send him any for lunch tomorrow...

Other interesting comments?

"Oh look... we can use the little bones like toothpicks." 

I guess so... if you really, really wanted to and there wasn't a small container of toothpicks with the fun and colorful frills on the end sitting in the basket in the center of the kitchen table.

Of course, that was right after Tori tried to say that squirrel bones were super small and it came out: "Daddy, squirrel bums are small."

Yep. That would be a true statement.

By the way...

Please don't panic if you find the idea of eating small game appalling. I promise we don't trick visitors into eating such sorts of stuff.

Well, not unless you are Aunt Niki or Cousin Jeremiah.

'Cause that would be super tempting...

And we just might have to give in to that temptation...