the animals went in two pie two: elk and bison

a nice double hit today, boosting me back into the realms of possibility for the completion of my year long quest. incidentally i was looking at my calendar yesterday and it occurred to me that if i started on a wednesday how could i possibly be finishing on a thursday if i were to be bound by the 52 week rule and suddenly it hit me. by thursday 11th april the 52 weeks would be over by a good half a day and the quest would be merely eating 52 animals in a year (which this year works out as 366 days or 52 weeks and two days!). my actual deadline is 52 weeks to the exact time i ate the first animal. luckily for us i used to use my camera phone to take the animal photos which had a time stamp. if you check back to the first strike you will see that i had the dish ready at 17:55. i can only assume i had eaten the first two mouthfuls by around 17:56. therefore, the new deadline is 17:56 wednesday 10th april 2008. which is in less than 24 hours, gadzooks!

back to the animals of the moment. after a lot of searching i came across a bison farm in wiltshire, namely bush farm, also known as the bison centre and farm. i gave the owner , colin, a call and we had a chat about the bison and also another animal which he and his wife keep - elk. after a pleasant natter i decided that i was going to order, from the large variety of ways you can purchase bison and elk, a pie of each - bison pie cooked in stout and elk pie in red wine and juniper - at a snip for £3 each! knowing of my quest they rapidly sent them out and i received them this morning at the ungodly hour of 7am. i duly whacked them in the fridge and hustled myself off to work for the day.deciding what to eat with the pies like a greedy beast feaster, i plumped for an adaption to my magical recipe for chili wedges and used the rest of the breadcrumbs from the squirrel stuffing to make spicy breadcrumb wedges. the breadcrumbs wouldn't stick very well to the olive oil however, and kind of fell off hurriedly. never mind. i slid the wedges and pies into the oven and gave them some time to cook. when i got them out eventually, they were steaming with goodness and i cracked them open to vent off the burning steam. yes, i have been pie injured before. i also added a sad excuse for a salad too, backed up later with some coleslaw.

tucking into the mighty pies i went for the bison first. the meat was very tender and fell apart on my tongue which was pleasing. with a sweeter taste than beef it carried itself with a gathering richness. next i slipped in a forkful of elk. the meat was chewier than the bison but in no way was it actually chewy, just more so than the bison! you know what, i think that was my worst sentence in the entire beast feaster saga (feel free to disagree there). the texture was not unlike duck and overall was a delight.

well, i am actually in the fifties now! with one animal to eat. in less than 24 hours. ah. stay tuned folks and let's see if i can conjure up something magical and complete the quest.

*runs off and seeks out animals*