Happy 2015 everyone!

It’s been a whirlwind of a week. I went back to work Monday through Wednesday, then picked the GS up from the airport late Wednesday night. We rolled into the New Year’s Eve celebration at camp around 11:30 PM.

We had a great time seeing my family, and then on New Year’s Day the GS sat on the ping pong table in the basement and watched me do Body Attack by myself. Apparently some things won’t be changing with the new year.

Everyone else decided to head home that day but we stayed out at the lake to enjoy some peace and quiet, and the growler of Oskar Blues IPA I brought with me. I counted on us eating the leftover sauce and meatballs my mom had brought for the night before,  but there was some unfortunate lack of communication and that pot of heaven went back to Camillus in my parents’ car.

When we discovered this, I was not happy. The GS, however, saw it as a good challenge for me. “Just like Chopped!”

This is essentially what I had to work with:

Orange juice

Coffee creamer

Frozen corn dogs

Hot pockets

Ramen noodles

Leftover venison

Random assortment of spices

Popcorn

Graham crackers

Marshmallows

I went for the Ramen and leftover venison. We only had the chicken flavor, so I just cooked the noodles and used some steak seasoning I found instead of the chicken flavoring. I figured since we were working with red meat, I should stick with that flavor profile. I also added some garlic powder to the broth.

Because the venison was in the refrigerator, I re-heated it on the stove with some of the broth and an extra sprinkle of garlic powder.

Ta-da! Dinner.

I should mention that our “happy hour” prior to this lovely meal was Helluva Good french onion dip with potato chips that the GS artfully arranged on a paper plate. We kicked off the new year with some class, for sure. The real credit for the venison goes to my Uncle De, who not only shot the deer but also cooked the meat on the grill. Excellent skills, godfather.

Am I recommending that you make this? Not really. Was it delicious? Actually, yes. This is more of an encouragement to get creative in the kitchen this year. Plus I hear Ramen noodles are trendy right now.

Or maybe that was last year. I can’t keep up.