Christmas Eve... and squirrels

As Christmas Eve approached we found ourselves the morning of..... without squirrels....the evening meal tradition at my parents house. For as many years as I can remember, we have always tried to have a huge pot of Brunswick stew at my parents for our main entree. My dad used to hunt squirrels for the stew on Christmas Eve but eventually that task was handed down to my brothers Big Phil and Big Mark. Some years they would come home empty handed and at that point my dad would open the bathroom window overlooking our bottom land..... and he would be patient and eventually a big gray squirrel would come into his scope and with a loud bang that rocked the whole house and being a sure shot, our evening meal would fall to the ground. As the years passed, we found that Big Daddy was the best squirrel cleaner of the bunch. Somehow he can skin one and hardly have a stray hair anywhere. My mom particularly prefers his cleaning methods as she is one of the pickiest cooks in all of the land (I know that seems a bit odd since I am talking about cleaning squirrel ... of all things).

In a quandary about the lack of squirrel, I called my youngest brother Big Phil to inquire about his work hours and the possibility of him bringing home the meat. Big Phil is one of the managers of one of the largest retail establishments known in all of the land...Ill just refer to that as Phil-Mart.....so he is pretty non-existent to any of us during the holiday season as he is always working at Phil-Mart...I am sure he works as hard as Santa! That being said, Big Phil had not had an opportunity to get out and hunt up our traditional vermin.....and Big Daddy was working....so I had no choice but to call upon Sam to help out. Sam is quite handy with guns and hunting however he didn't seem to think I was serious about this reques.... but being the true sport he always is....he got his .22 and bullets and headed our way. On a side note....when hunting for vermin to consume, I do prefer a .22 instead of a shotgun just because the thought of birdshot scattered throughout the meat just gives me chills to think about...even if we are talking about squirrel. I had instructed Sam to shoot once and not mess up the meat. :) About the time Sam pulled up....so did Big Daddy. They decided to go together on the big hunt for 2 'good eating-sized' squirrels. Big Daddy noticed the gun in Sam's hand and thought that he would just tag along since it was apparent that Sam was using his gun....Sam asked him if he was going to get his gun and it was then that they realized that Sam has the EXACT replica of Big Daddy's chosen squirrel killing gun. So Big Daddy happily went to get his gun and off they went. The Xbox Junkie decided to go...not because he enjoys hunting.... he just don't get the whole hunting fiasco. But maybe he went just to see if there would be squirrel on the menu....not that he would touch it cause he's just not all that into eating bushy tailed rats. Plus he only enjoys hunting on the Xbox....so if he's going to kill anything he would prefer it be on video games because when it's all said and done.... he's a lover not a killer! :)

So finally.....with guns in hand and not the right time of day to kill squirrels they headed off to kill the squirrels against the odds. After about an hour....they came back in from the big hunt with 2 squirrels. Now the daunting task of cleaning the vermin was underway. Not sure Sam had cleaned many a'squirrel but we all know from earlier on.... Big Daddy is KING when it comes to cleaning squirrels. So Sam observed and I called my parents to let them know that there was indeed going to be squirrel for Christmas Eve dinner than night.

After they cleaned the squirrels....we let them soak in salt ice water for a few hours then I cleaned it and cut it up into pieces so it would be ready to be put into the Brunswick stew that Big Phil was planning on cooking. And my mom is right... Big Daddy had done an excellent job skinning out those squirrels. :) My mom usually cooks in a big cast iron pot over the fire in the fireplace and I will say the whole romantic thought of squirrel cooking over a roaring fire at my parents house truly seems like Christmas to me. This year it was just too hot to have the big roaring fire so we just cooked it at my mom's house on the stove.

I took a large kettle of chicken'n dumplins for the weak at heart....and I will say.... I chose chicken'n dumplins as my meal this year. Sam had his first taste of Brunswich stew with squirrel but I didn't watch to see his reaction...I am sure it was priceless. But I know that my parents really loved having the traditional Brunswick stew. And if any of you are interested in the recipe... just leave me a comment! :)

Christmas Eve was complete and we opened gifts with my parents and enjoyed the evening! and Big Thanks to Sam for the squirrel that night as it was him that was the sure shot of the day.