Smoky Crowned Venison with Spaetzle and Beer Bread

lol I have no idea what to call this... I put a good shot of crown in it so I'm going with 'Crowned Venison'. :)

I cooked three pieces of bacon in my pot, then sauted minced onion and garlic in the bacon drippings..
added about 3/4 of a cup of crown, two pinches each of rosemary and thyme, about 1/2 tsp of pepper blend that cooking friend Phesant sent from Wisconsin.
Then added some of my home canned venison , juice and all.

Placed the venison in the smoker with some hickory...




then made a skillet of beer bread and placed it into the smoker too. :)





While the venison and beer bread were doing their thing I whipped up a batch of spaetzle.

2 eggs beaten

1/4 cup of milk

1 cup of flour

salt and pepper

I use a colander to make spaetzle... it's easy to use and I have it on hand. I know they make special utensils for this but what the heck.. this works fine. :)

I place the colander on it's side above a pot of salted boiling water.. place 2 big spoonfulls of the spaetzle batter over the holes and use the spoon to smoosh the batter around. The little pieces of batter fall into the boiling water.


Give them a stir and they float to the top.




Let them cook for about 5 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon and toss with butter.




meanwhile..

After one hour at 350F, the venison concoction thickened nicely in the smoker..





The beer bread came out golden brown....




I really...




really....



liked this. :)