Rising From my Mabon Food Coma

Cooking Adventure: Venison Medallions with Chipotle Cranberry Sauce

Source: Food and Wine

The Mabon Soundtrack:Big Country by Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck & Mike Marshall 
Prep Time: 20-30min.

Cook Time:20min.

You know you've found a good guy when you slip into the best food coma of your life when he cooks. My husband isn't Wiccan, or Pagan, or any spirituality really. My husband is a secular humanist with a very large love for nature. And while he doesn't quite feel right participating in ritual (can't figure out why he's calling guardians or where the heck these watchtowers are supposed to be), he has happily agreed to be the official sabat kitchen witch. This Mabon he whipped up a dish that would definitely please the gods. And, since the gods have a hard time physically eating offerings, I guessed that the only civil and honorable thing to do would be to enjoy it for them.

If the gods can taste vicariously through my taste buds, then they must have been pretty spacey and blissful too. The chipotle gives it this really great overall spice. And the cranberry makes it sweet, and the roasted pecans - OH! The roasted pecans! - they make you want to act out the"When Harry Met Sally" scene. This is one of those dishes where you try to cut the smallest pieces possible so you can taste it longer. And it's one of those ones that makes you slump down in your chair with a dazed look on your face. If this were your last meal, you'd be perfectly fine with skipping down to the electrical chair while licking your lips for extras.

This Mabon feast was especially good because the venison came from a doe my father-in-law shot last hunting season. My father-in-law is a seasoned forester and home grown naturalist, so any deer he shoots is guaranteed to be killed as humanely as possible. This was I and my husband's personal thank you to his father, and to the earth for providing us with our meals and the meals to come (I think there's leftovers still in the in-laws freezer.). :)

Since he did the cooking magick, my husband also gets the honor of picking the soundtrack this time around. The song, "Big Country", is his favorite, and he says, "Embodies everything I think of when I think of home." We're going up to his folk's house in northern Wisconsin tomorrow - a place I know that, Mabon or not, he's very thankful for.