By David Draper

Cannellini, or white kidney, beans are staple in my kitchen and I always try to keep several cans in the pantry. Truthfully, we usually have several cans of beans, along with a few pounds of dried beans, on hand, but cannellinis are probably my favorite. They’re creamy and readily take on the flavor of whatever they’re cooked with. I toss them with tomatoes for a quick and easy side dish and incorporate them into several different main dishes, including this simple braise with some venison merguez the I made from last summer’s axis deer.

By David Draper

Last fall, I was lucky enough to finally fulfill my dream of hunting Sitka blacktail deer on Kodiak Island. The trip was pure Alaska: rough-water beach landings, white-knuckle bush plane rides, brown bear encounters, whale sightings, and mountain vistas so magnificent I won’t even try to describe them here.

And, of course, the food.

You might think it would be hard to eat well on boat with a galley the size of a closet, but with the help of Camp Chef’s Steve McGrath, we dined mighty fine. It didn’t hurt we had access to some incredibly fresh protein, including blacktail deer and tanner crab plucked from the Gulf of Alaska just hours earlier.

By David Draper

There are many ways to celebrate this weekend’s Kentucky Derby—most notably by quaffing multiple mint juleps. But you’re going to need something to soak up all the bourbon, so may I suggest a venison tenderloin topped with another Derby Day tradition: Henry Bain Sauce.

This quintessential Kentucky steak sauce was first crafted at the turn of 20th century by, you guessed it, Henry Bain, the legendary headwaiter at the just-as-legendary Pendennis Club in Louisville. In those days, it was the preferred sauce for the many game animals that came through the club’s kitchen.