The only wild game I grew up eating when I was young was waterfowl. My father Steve, never big game hunted, he told me once "I just cant bring myself to shoot the big ones". My father is an avid duck hunter and growing up our stand up freezer was always packed full with duck, geese, and pheasant. It wasn't unusual for me to have duck pepperoni sticks in my school lunch rather than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Growing up we at a lot of duck, either lightly coated in flour and then fried or the small duck breasts were sliced thing and wrapped with bacon, my dad always called this recipe Rumaki.  I thought "Rumaki" was just a name he had made up, but in researching I found it was served widely throughout the 1960's and 70's in Polynesian restaurants as an appetizer. Learning something new every day!

Since today was father's day, and my husband took the day off from crabbing, I had pulled out some moose steaks that I was going to marinate and BBQ. But before I got the steaks in the marinade my husband called and told me that he was going over to our friend Brian's to watch the final game in the NBA Championships. My friend Sarah was making pizza and her mom was bringing a salad so I thought a "manly dad" appetizer would be fun to prepare. Since this recipe is my dad's, I thought it was fitting to make on father's day. I first started by turning my oven to 425 degrees. I sprayed a baking sheet with non-stick spray and then prepared my meat. I had three steaks that I thinly sliced into 1" x 4 " strips. I then sliced some green onions and orange peppers about 1" thick. I wrapped the onion and peppers in the moose strip and rolled it like a wheel. I then wrapped that in a half a slice of bacon and inserted a toothpick to keep it secure. Now to make the Rumaki really flavorful I dipped the bacon wrapped moose in brown sugar and then set it on my baking pan. I prepared the rest of my Rumaki and popped them in the oven for 30 minutes. My dad always barbecued his Rumaki but I decided to bake mine in the oven this time. Once they were done I immediately took them over to our friends house where the fathers enjoyed the Rumaki in their home bar and watched a close game! Of course, my friend Sarah and I drank wine and made the pizza upstairs.

Moose Rumaki

3 moose (beef, duck, or any dark meat) steaks

1 package of bacon, strips should be cut in half

brown sugar

peppers

green onion

non-stick spray

toothpicks

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

1. Prepare the steaks by slicing them into 1" x 4" strips

2. Cut the vegetables into 1" strips

3. Place brown sugar into a bowl

4. Place the vegetables on one end of the meat and roll like a wheel

5. Wrap that in the bacon and insert toothpick

6. Place the bacon wrapped moose in the bowl of brown sugar and coat heavily

7. Place on your non-stick coated pan

8. Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes

Enjoy!

xoxo

~Lexie