by Colin Kearns

Every day this week the Wild Chef will feature recipes and tips from the brand new cookbook, The Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook. We'll also be giving away some great prizes, including copies of the book, a Lodge cast-iron skillet, and Lodge cast-iron Dutch oven.

How’s this for a day: The other turkey hunters and I crawled out of our tents around 4 a.m. The stars in western Nebraska hung so low, you were tempted to reach for one. My hunting partner, Jim, and I teamed up with Phillip Vanderpoole to hunt from a blind on the edge of an alfalfa field. I killed a tom at 7 a.m. A few hours later, Jim shot a gobbler of his own. We were back at camp by 11 a.m., where the kitchen crew had prepared a champion’s breakfast of eggs, pancakes, and sausage.
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--Chad Love

Sorry, Virginia hunters. It looks like the "peace and quiet" crowd has come out on top in your state's Sunday hunting debate.

From this story on gazettevirginian.com:

Rural Virginia will enjoy peace and quiet with respite from hunters for at least another year, after a House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources subcommittee voted to table three bills that would have repealed or rolled back the state’s current ban on Sunday hunting. A member of that subcommittee, 60th District House representative James Edmunds, said Thursday there was a “tremendous amount of opposition” to Sunday hunting.
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by David Draper

There are a lot of great ways to get wild on Super Bowl Sunday. You could paint yourself in team colors, go streaking, and post the resulting video (and arrest) on YouTube. Or you could just dip into the larder and cook up a fish or wild-game inspired dish to share with your friends during the game. I’m not going to encourage you to do the former, but I will help you along with the latter by throwing a Super Bowl Snack Contest.

Post your favorite fish or game dish below in the comments section below, along with a few sentences on why it’s the perfect food for this year’s Super Bowl party. The most creative idea will win a box of assorted cooking/food-related goodies from Camp Chef, Hi-Mountain Seasonings, Cabela’s, and other generous folks. To be eligible to win, post your entry by Saturday, February 4 at 6:00 p.m. MST. I’ll announce the winner next week.
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--Chad Love

The hunting trip of a lifetime ended up as every hunter's worst nightmare for four Mississippi hunters after all their gear was stolen on the way to the airport.

From this story on the clarionledger.com website:

Jacob Baldwin of Canton and three friends went to Texas earlier this month on the trophy deer hunt of a lifetime. Baldwin killed a 150-class buck and a wild hog, and one of his partners got a good buck.

"It was a great get-away trip - good friends, good hunting, great service at the lodge and everything - right up until we were getting ready to fly home," Baldwin said. "Then it went south in a hurry." Five miles from the San Antonio airport, the group stopped at a restaurant for a final taste of the area's local flavor before heading to the rental car return and a return flight to Jackson. By the time the last taco was eaten and the last swallow of cerveza taken, thieves had emptied their rental vehicle of everything.
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by David Draper

I know there are a lot of football fans who really care which team wins this Sunday’s Super Bowl. But me, I’m just in it for the food. While the rest of America roots for Peyton Manning’s less-funny brother or the guy who’s married to Gisele, I’ll be grazing the spread of cheese dips, bacon-wrapped goose bites, and sliders at the back of the room. I’ll also be judging friends’ reactions to my contribution to the party’s potluck: duck spring rolls.

I first had a version of these at our annual wild game feed and have been looking for a good excuse to make them myself. The recipe I’m passing along calls for fresh duck breasts, but I’ve found spring rolls are also a great way to use up the crispy-skinned leftovers of a roast duck. The recipe also works with goose, venison, pheasant, or any game meat with just a little modification.
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