By David Draper

Last Friday, at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, while waiting for the weekend shift of working girls to deplane, I picked up a bottle of water and some reading material for my flight home. On the rack, there were the usual periodicals that often make their way into my carry-on: The Atlantic (which my swollen head couldn’t fathom at that moment); Surfer (not really the inspiration I needed for a trip home to Nebraska), and Esquire (didn’t want to be seen reading a magazine with a picture of Bill Clinton on the cover).

What I did find was a copy of Saveur, a food magazine whose Jan/Feb issue annually lists their Top 100 people, places, and ingredients for the food-obsessed. The Saveur 100 issue serves as great inspiration in the kitchen and fuels many a daydream for food-related road (and plane) trips should I ever win the lottery. It’s the kind of best-of list where you’ll find meatloaf next to something called mugua ji, or a treatise on the Czech Republic’s microbrews matched with Frito Pie.

By David Draper

While I’m bemoaning the lack of geese like most of the waterfowlers around here, I have to admit, it’s been a pretty good January. From pheasants around the home place to a last-minute opportunity for antlerless whitetails, I’ve hardly missed the early morning wake-up calls and long drives to the goose fields. And, with an Arctic front coming in this week, just maybe I’ll end the month welcoming the late migration. Until then, I’ll keep cooking up whatever it is Mother Nature has to offer.

By David Draper

Those of us dealing with the post-holiday hangover might be thinking about losing a little weight around the middle. I know I’ve put on a few pounds this fall that will need to be shed before I hit the woods for my annual spring turkey death march. I generally don’t tend to pay much attention to any of the diet trends that come and go, but one that does intrigue me is eating Paleo, a.k.a. the caveman diet. The name alone conjures images of tearing hunks of fire-roasted meat right off the bone, something I can relate to as a hunter. But apparently there’s more to the diet than that.

To learn more about eating like a caveman, I tracked down Charles Mayfield, co-author with his wife Julie of the Paleo Comfort Foods cookbook. In addition to being cookbook authors, the Mayfields own several gyms in the Atlanta area and are hardcore fitness junkies. Charles is also a hunter, so who better to explain the Paleo lifestyle and how it can benefit hunters and wild-food lovers.

By David Draper

Wild Chef reader Jonathan Randolph dropped me a note last week asking for some recommendations on what to do with venison scraps. Jonathan and his wife have a 2 year old at home — with another one coming soon — so he wanted something easy that he could cook for his wife. I’m all about helping Jonathan score some points at home, so I sent him a few ideas.