Deer camp success

This is the last of a multi-part series about deer hunting at The Hut.

The four of us hunting as a group this year had yet to notch a tag by the time Thomas Steffens and Rudy Lopez headed for home Monday evening.

I stayed at The Hut Monday evening with Lani Schorzman planning to join me for the evening meal. However he called and cancelled due to a farming issue. After searching the coolers, a surf and turf meal of deer backstrap and walleye was prepared. It was delicious, simply delicious.

Tuesday morning a trip to Moses Lake was undertaken. Lunch with my wife, Garnet, as the highlight of my day, but I also picked up more dry ice and regular ice, before heading back to the hunting grounds.

We have been experimenting with dry ice for the past few years. This year we had three coolers, with one dedicated to frozen foods, using dry ice to maintain the frozen condition. We are able to maintain frozen food for three days before needing more and each time we purchased 10 pounds.

The cook must remember to thaw the food selected for the meals of the day. But, if a last minute selection is made, it doesn't take long to thaw a few elk steaks or a couple of walleye fillets in warm water.

This frozen-item cooler contained fish fillets and deer steaks and hash brown potato patties. Also in this cooler were several packages of summer sausage, pepper sticks and pepperoni sticks, bacon plus a few other food items.

The other two coolers contained regular ice, along with items not need to be frozen, such as eggs, salsa, lunch meat, mustard, ketchup, bacon, leftovers and more.

On Thursday evening Thomas and Rudy returned to the group, after three days of working their regular jobs. The four of us gathered at The Hut as Rudy was scheduled to make fish tacos.

He cut a smallish head of cabbage in half and then sliced it thin. Next he cut the shredded slices to make them shorter.

Mayonnaise was added to the cabbage as the beginning of a slaw. Rudy used a Hot-&-Spicy flavored mayonnaise made by Kraft. Half a can of crushed pineapple pieces was added, as well as cilantro, plus a squeeze of lime juice.

When the slaw was complete it was placed on ice until the fish was cooked. I had thawed four large fillets of walleye and Rudy cut them into large, but bite-size pieces. These were cooked in a bit of olive oil.

The fillets were seasoned with Fiesta Fajita Seasoning as they cooked, which didn't take but a few minutes.

Our cook heated another skillet and warmed five-and-a-half inch tortillas, one after the other, until a pile, wrapped in tinfoil, was in the center of the table.

We each grabbed a tortilla, placed slaw in the middle and topped it with a couple pieces of walleye. The inside of The Hut fell silent, with the humming of the generator the only sound heard, as we wolfed down the tacos, each of us taking time for a sip of wine and to catch our breath from time to time.

Later Rudy mentioned other items could be included, such as diced red onion and jalapenos. The onion would have been nice, but the jalapenos were not necessary as the mayonnaise was hot enough for my taste.

All of the cooked fish was consumed that evening, but a little bit of slaw remained and was placed in the cooler. After the other hunters headed into the field the next morning, I ate the rest of the slaw for breakfast.

The next evening we surveyed our remaining food. We had more frozen walleye, half a head of cabbage, half a can of pineapple, frozen deer steaks, more mayonnaise, tortillas and other items. We all enjoyed the fish tacos so much, we asked Rudy to make them again, which he did.

Saturday evening we enjoyed a Backstrap Blowout, an event we invented that evening to use up any uncooked deer and elk steaks remaining in the coolers. The event may become an annual affair.

Sunday we all hunted separately in the morning and gathered at The Hut for the noon meal. Lani is the master of the breakfast/lunch experience. Typically he uses potatoes and onions, along with bacon and/or sausage all cooked together.

Eggs are scrambled, cooked and served either on the side or mixed together with the rest of the food. This meal has, on occasion, filled us to the point, no evening meal was needed or wanted, so only snacks were served.

We did fill three of the eight deer tags in our wallets. Our problem was passing up does earlier in the week when we each could have easily shot one. Instead we waited until the last day of the season, but then had trouble finding deer.

Lani and Rudy drove to another field and both notched a tag. Thomas and I went doeless.

We butchered the three deer the following Friday, spending four hours boning and packaging the meat. We save the backstrap and tenderloins, cut a few more steaks and a roast or two, but most of the meat will be taken to Voices Sausage by Schumacher, a meat processing plant in Odessa, where the pepperoni and summer sausage is made.

The 2013 deer camp was exceptional, with great food, great hunts and good friends sharing time together.