Jalapeno cheddar deer summer sausage...er...um...winter meatloaves...

Deer is not a meat that

I am familiar with, but I love a challenge.

So my boyfriend killed a deer, 

challenge accepted!  We processed

it ourselves.  It really is a beautiful

lean meat.  Only time will tell if 

I can cook it...or not.   We were 

wanting to try a summer sausage, 

so we found a recipe online that had

good reviews and seemed to be the 

flavor we were looking for and

tweaked it just a bit.

The results....well I am still

iffy on what we have here.  

To me,

it is definitely different than

summer sausage, but more like

mini meatloaves with a nice punch of 

flavor.  I ate it with cheese and Ritz 

crackers and couldn't stop, 

so I definitely like it.

  I guess I will call it

winter meatloaves...yep, that is it!

Mini winter meatloaves!

Summer sausage/winter meatloaves

1 1/4 cup water

3 T tenderizer with spices

2 t mustard seed

2 t garlic powder

2 t pepper

3 t liquid smoke

4 lb ground meat

2 c grated extra sharp cheddar 

2-3 jalapenos seeded and minced

(I wish I had left a few seeds for a little more spice)

Stir the water, tenderizer, mustard seed, garlic powder, black pepper and liquid smoke in a large bowl until blended.  Mix in the ground meat, cheese and peppers.  Mix 2-3 minutes, until well blended.

Shape into logs, about 2 inches in diameter and wrap each tightly with foil and refrigerate for 24 hours.

This is what they looked like going into the oven...

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Place the unwrapped logs on a foil covered cookie sheet.  Cook for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours just until the internal temp is 170.

Check a couple of times and pour off any excess juices.  Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to drain and cool to room temperature.  Refrigerate or freeze logs.  

I ate this with cheese and crackers just because I couldn't wait to try it.  I think it would be good served as a meatloaf too with a little topping of ketchup and brown sugar heated up as a sauce and some mashed potatoes and gravy and some green beans!

Love what you eat and eat what you love! :)