Venison

Chad Wells, the executive chef at Alewife Tavern, is at it again. Wells hosted a few endangered species dinners this past year, featuring Maryland's notorious snakehead. Coming up on Monday, January 9, Wells will present a Campfire Dinner at Joe Squared at Power Plant Live , the new home for the Food = Art series of monthly dining events. All of the food on Wells' campfire menu is food people can kill themselves, conceivably anyway, and all of it will be prepared backwoods style -- with limited ingredients, cast-iron pans, smoke and fire.

Now that a fill-up costs them $90, Minnie and William Lewis of Baltimore County have given up weekly pleasure drives on scenic routes. East Baltimore resident Leonard Cochran is buying less meat at the grocery store and eating the wild rabbit and venison he can get free from his hunter friends. As for Thomas Brown of Baltimore and companion Dorothy Lewis, they're looking for jobs. He's 84; she's 75. "Everything is up," Lewis lamented. "The gas, electric, rent." This is what happens when consumers feel stretched, pressed and battered by escalating costs as incomes aren't keeping up. Even as the U.S. economy worsens and businesses have begun cutting jobs, the price tag for everyday necessities such as food, heating oil, gas and electricity is spiking.

It's always sad when a restaurant loses the chef who made its reputation, but the new Courtney's Cafe and Restaurant -- formerly Rothwells -- has much to recommend it, even without ex-executive chef and part owner Mark Hofmann, who parted ways amiably with co-owner Philip Forrester. Rothwells closed for renovations after a fire next door caused smoke damage. It was sold, and Forrester stayed on as a managing partner. When the restaurant reopened recently, it was renamed Courtney's Cafe.

Bambi is out to kill you. The adorable little fawn has grown up to be several hundred pounds of embittered, suicidal venison - holding you personally responsible for what those nasty hunters did to his mama. He's on a mission from the Deer God to break through your windshield and land in your lap. This is all nonsense, of course, but this is the season when it would be wise to drive as if it were literally true. The October-to-December period is the peak of mating season, when deer become even more loopy than at other times of year.

As we wrap up this weekend of turkey and all that goes with it, let us pause to give thanks for one of the true lifesavers of our time: sweat pants. No kidding, where would we be this weekend without our cozy, expandable friends? Of course, there are other reasons to be thankful. For Pat Gary of Millers, it's the freezer full of venison on its way from the butcher after a successful day bow hunting at Prettyboy Reservoir on Nov. 9. Gary, the older brother of state fisheries biologist Marty Gary, took an 8-point buck that weighed 186 pounds field dressed, the largest he has ever taken in 30 years of hunting.

Kathy Brown wasn't always much of a chef - but she was an educator. When Brown, the former head of Grace Christian School, was diagnosed with amyloidosis of the heart in April 2008, she began experimenting with recipes to suit her new low-fat, low-salt, low-sugar diet. Compelled to share what she'd learned, Brown started compiling a heart-friendly cookbook for other patients. While Brown later received a successful heart transplant, the 62-year-old died in December 2010 before she could finish the book.

More than 33,000 whitetail deer were bagged by Maryland hunters during 1993's regular firearms season, the third highest total on record. In Harford County, hunters harvested 1,024 deer, most of which were taken during the season's first few days.Although a substantial number of hunters claim they enjoy the taste of venison, you'll often hear a different story from their spouses."Sure we eat venison at our house, but it's always tough and has a gamey taste," said a woman attending the Mid-Atlantic Hunting & Fishing Show at the Maryland State Fair Grounds.

Maryland's regular firearms season for whitetail deer closes next weekend, and despite the one-week extension, Harford County's harvest totals likely will exceed last year's figures by only a small margin."

You should never go to a chili cook-off without Matt Martinez's Five Ingredient Mix.Mr. Martinez, the owner-chef of Matt's Rancho Martinez outside of Dallas, says the mix is also a "super scratch recipe" that can flavor 30 or so other dishes, including tamales, blackened chicken and fish, pork and chicken fajitas, and a casserole of pork and cabbage with rice.For chili, he says, the mix is "real forgiving. If you use too much, it won't hurt; if you under-measure a little, it will still taste good."

With the bowhunting season for deer under way and the early muzzleloader split set to open Oct. 21, successful hunters might want to consider donating deer meat to needy families in the state through Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry.FHFH is a charitable organization that has donated some 50 tons of venison to food banks in the state over the past two years.FHFH is endorsed by the Department of Natural Resources, the Maryland Farm Bureau and major state sportsmen's groups."There is a real need for FHFH," said director Rick Wilson.