Sandhill Crane Schnitzel

This November has been a very busy month. It started out by taking my mom up to northern Minnesota for her first deer hunt and will end with me shooting squirrels. Somewhere in between all that I got another deer with a bow had two sick kids and a Thanksgiving that never was.  Now that everyone in my house is feeling better its time to get back to it. I still have another month of the bow season to get another deer and am thinking about a late season goose hunt.

For the deer opener I took my mom to my favorite spot in northwest Minnnestoa and spent three days in the snow listening to sandhill cranes and wishing that I had a shotgun for all of the sharptail grouse that were all around us.  On our last night there Mom and I were sitting in a stand and were presented with the oppurtunity to shoot two deer. I told mom that when she was ready to go ahead and take her shot and as soon as she shot I would take my shot and if all went well we would end up with two deer.  Well, mom took her shot and I pulled my trigger and got that empty click that could only mean one thing.  I had forgotten to load my rifle, I quickly chambered a round and took my shot and saw my deer go down along a tree line, mom stated that she missed her deer and it was running away. When I looked at her deer it stopped and fell over, she hadn't missed after all.  It was one of those great bonding moments that fathers have with sons, only I was having it with my mother and I was the one who was proud of her.

Mom has ridden the high of her first deer all the way through the month and has been telling everybody who will listen about her deer hunt.  She was particularly excited to share her experience with her older brother and cook him some of her deer.  Apparently she is planning on heading to Illinois to hunt ducks with him in the near future.  I am very proud of her and very excited for her future as a hunter.

Shortly after returning from our hunt up north a friend of mine mentioned that someone he knew had given him some sand hill crane and asked if I would like some.  After seeing a few thousand of them on our deer hunt I thought it would be fitting to get a taste of crane.  Here is a recipe for schnitzel made with sand hill crane.  Schnitzel is a great recipe for all wild game and is adaptable to most cuts of meat. You just pound the cut of meat flat then bread it and serve it with lemon wedges.  Simple but delicious, there are many forms of schnitzel out there but this is just a basic version.

Sand Hill Crane Schnitzel

1 Sand Hill Crane breast ( cut into 4 pieces and pounded flat about 1/4 inch thick)
2 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons flour
salt
1 lemon
green onions
canola oil for frying

After the breasts are pounded flat sprinkle with salt and let rest for 10 minutes.  Dredge the breast pieces in flour, then the egg wash and finally the bread crumbs.  Fry in oil until brown on both sides flipping the schnitzel so that it doesn't burn.  serve your schnitzel with lemon wedges. I served mine with a warm potato salad as well .