Within a few days after I gave The Mister
Duck Duck Goose, the cookbook, for Christmas, promising him duck parts to make charcuterie with, we found geese on sale at a supermarket in Kansas, confirmed trips to the desert in March and the Atlantic coast in June, had a great time at the Aviary at the Denver Zoo when we had intended to visit the Museum of Science and Nature, were given a spotting scope and fois gras, and saw giant flocks behaving wondrously along the roadside. It seemed BIRD YEAR was meant to be.
Yet there is still that voice (in my head and of a few more outspoken friends) asking, okay, what, exactly, are you going to do during bird year? And I remember the annual articles telling us every January that we need to have tangible, assessible goals, made publicly to those that support us, for any resolution to have a chance of sticking. Which means, I can't just say, "This is BIRD YEAR" and have a reasonable expectation of it turning out nearly as cool as I envision.
I must say, "During Bird Year I Will:"
1. Observe Birds
2. Eat and Cook Birds
3. Read "Bird" Things
4. Learn about Birds
5. Watch and Listen to "Bird" Media
6. Write about Birds, Figuratively and Literally
According to my reading of the annual resolution articles, I should have sub-goals for each of these, with something like this, preferably tied to time lines:
2. Eat and Cook Birds
|
Rocky Mountain National Park, June 1 2015 I apparently don't have enough bird photos and need to re-use them |
A. I will eat:
i. chicken
ii. turkey
iii. quail
iv. duck
v. goose
vi. pheasant
vii. guinea fowl
viii. capon
ix. something else (ostrich, emu, partridge, squab . . . )
x. turducken
B. I will learn to:
i. pluck a bird
ii. bone a bird
iii. fry chicken so it is delicious
iv. handle poultry so it doesn't creep me out
v. make great stock
C. I will also try
i. curing bird meat
ii. cooking with many different parts of birds
a. giblets
b. fat
c. skin . . . . AND SO ON
But I'm not quite up to the full list now, and none of you is up for reading it, so I am starting with calls for what goes on the "GREAT BIRD MIX TAPE" (which, if actually created, would be the "Great Bird Compilations CD" but I'm old school and I am envisioning this on a cassette).
GREAT BIRD MIX TAPE: Beginnings
When Doves Cry- Prince
Chicken Man- Indigo Girls
Fly Like an Eagle- Steve Miller Band
Blackbird- Beatles
Anne Murray- Snowbird
Lobo- The Albatross
What else?
The Bird Band Mix will be separate, and apparently not all caps, and will include: The Eagles, Counting Crows, Black Crows, Dixie Chicks and, of course, the Byrds.
Who else?