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Bison with Mushroom Sauce

As our children are getting older, I have been feeling like we are drifting apart a little. Thus is the plight of the stay at home mother who has growing children.

It sounds pathetic but I am not sad, just noticing the change. Daphne is in college and working. Jack is in school and spending any free time with his friends. Claud and I constantly invite them to join us at the movies or to go out to eat. They are always busy with other things and other people.

Gone are the days when we had at least one meal together each day. Sometimes catching up is just yelling, “Bye, I love you!” from across the house. I feel like I am constantly trying to get us all at one table at the same time at least once a week. At the same time, I want to let them grow up. Don’t get me wrong, Claud and I are having a lot of fun with all of our freedom too. There are pros and cons to everything.

A couple of weeks ago, Claud and I had a discussion about how little time we have left with our kids under this roof. We decided to implement a Sunday family day. Sundays are perfect because Daphne is off of work and Jack doesn’t have school. So, this should be feasible. We told the kids and everyone seemed to be OK with this idea. Granted, they weren’t thrilled. They were just OK.

Every week, in turn, we would each decide on a fun thing to do for the day. This past week, Claud was the decider. Of course, nothing went as planned. He decided we would drive an hour to the Colorado River, rent a boat and spend the day fishing. We couldn’t get everyone out of the house until close to 1 p.m. That wasn’t going to work.

So, Jack said we should go to this old-school restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip called The Peppermill. We drove there and the wait was over an hour long. Nobody wanted to wait that long. We ate somewhere else instead. Then, we went shopping. It had been so long since we were all together at the same time. I was really happy. I didn’t care what we did.

Once we were finished shopping, we headed home. Claud turned on a movie and lo and behold, both kids sat down with him to watch it. That never happens. I think we are on to something here. I was so happy. I watched them all sitting together and decided to work on dinner.

I decided to make a special meal for Claud tonight since he is going to be traveling on a business trip to Boston tomorrow and will be gone for a week. Although he gets to eat in nice restaurants while he travels, he always misses his home-cooked meals. Earlier this morning, I went to the market and looked through the meats on display in the cabinet. I wanted to make something different. I passed by the beef and chicken and found my way over to the veal, pork and lamb. Finally, I decided on a nice piece of bison rib eye.

Often times, bison meat is overlooked. It shouldn’t be, since it is a leaner and tasty cut of meat. Unlike years ago when bison was nearly extinct due to commercial hunting, now the bison population is growing strong. I read that bison has fewer calories, is lower in fat and has more protein than beef. I also discovered that federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones in raising bison. I really liked reading about this fact.

I treated the bison steak like a piece beef rib eye. Rib eye is Claud’s absolute favorite type of steak, so I hoped he would enjoy this. I served the bison with some asparagus and polenta. We all sat together at the table. I have to say, this was a really special day and I think everyone had a great time. It was nice to end it with a lovely meal.

Bison with

Mushroom Sauce:

Time: 25 minutes

Serves: 2

2 pieces of bison steak

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 large onion, sliced

1 cups mushrooms, sliced

cup red wine

1 teaspoon beef bullion

1 cup hot water

1 tablespoon crme fraiche, or heavy cream

Heat the grill on high. Season the bison with salt and pepper. Drizzle on one tablespoon of olive oil. In a saut pan, heat the other tablespoon of olive oil on medium high. Add the onions and mushrooms. Saute for ten minutes. Add red wine. Mix the bullion with water and add to the wine mixture. Reduce heat to a simmer and let this reduce to about half. In the meantime, grill the bison on both sides to your desired level. Remove from heat and let stand for five minutes. Add the crme fraiche to the sauce and mix well. Pour the sauce over the bison.

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