Page 37 of Family Forever
"Oh, it's not that bad. Jessica just has a sensitive nose," Mitzi assured.
Marissa stepped into the garage to find Dylan and Braden already wiping down a folding metal table and mopping up the floor. Though Marissa ate venison and enjoyed it, she hadn’t been looking forward to seeing the deer carcass hanging there.
Braden beamed with excitement when they walked through the door. He grabbed the deer’s head from the bench and held it up for them to see. Yep, a six pointer all right. Jessica gagged and shot into the house. Mitzi laughed before stepping toward Braden to take a better look at his buck. Bianca and Marissa followed suit and ogled Braden’s buck.
Dylan stepped forward and patted his brother on the shoulder. His glow was as bright as Braden’s. “It’s a fine buck.”
“I’m going to put the horns on a plaque and hang them in my room,” Braden stated with sheer excitement emitting in his tone.
“That’s a wonderful idea,” Mitzi replied. She glanced at Dylan. “Tell me what you want done with the meat and the girls and I will take care of it so you can get back into the woods.”
Dylan smiled at his aunt. “Thanks, I appreciate the help.”
“No problem.”
Plastic tubs of meat sat on the kitchen countertops. Marissa and the girls dropped their bags in the living room where Bob and Luke were playing a board game and returned to the kitchen where Dylan and Mitzi were discussing what to do with the venison.
“I’ve already vacuum sealed the loins and put them in the freezer.” He pointed at one of the plastic bins. “I’d like to pressure cook that bin,” then he pointed at the other two smaller bins, “and that we’ll use to make burger.”
“Okay, I’ll get the girls slicing up meat for pressure cooking, and Marissa and I can start grinding the burger.”
“I’ll go get the grinder and the bags,” Dylan said as disappeared through the doorway.
Dylan returned a moment later and set the large automatic meat grinder on the table. He started setting it up before Mitzi shooed him out of the kitchen. “Go, we got this. Get back into the woods, you're losing daylight.”
He smiled, kissed his aunt on the cheek, and shot Marissa a heart-stopping glance before he spun on his heel and headed out the door. Braden trailed him.
Jessica and Bianca started slicing the hunks of venison into tiny bite size pieces, trimming off what little fat there was clinging to the lean meat. Though Jessica pulled her turtleneck over her nose, she still gagged until her eyes watered.
“For crying out loud, Jessica. This isn’t your first go-around,” Mitzi commented as she fed meat into the grinder.
Jessica swiped at her teary eyes with her sleeve. “I can’t help it.”
Bianca laughed. “It doesn’t bother me any.”
Once Bianca and Jessica had enough meat and onions sliced up for the first batch, Mitzi showed Marissa how to sterilize the jars. When the jars were ready, they packed them full of venison, mushrooms and onions, scooped in some canning salt, and poured in a bit of beef broth, before loading them into the pressure cooker.
“Once the weight on the top of the cooker starts rattling we’ll start the timer. These quart jars will have to go ninety minutes at ten pounds of pressure.” Mitzi eyed the remaining meat the girls were slicing up. “Looks like we’ll have just one more batch for pressure cooking.”
As Mitzi continued grinding the burger, Marissa mixed it with the pork and seasoning.
“So, Dylan says you’re studying accounting.”
“Yes.”
“You’re enjoying school, I take it?”
Here it came, like she knew it would. Mitzi was scoping her out. But she didn’t mind, she liked Mitzi.
“Yes, it was very overwhelming at first but my roommate is awesome, and her older sisters are helping us figure things out. Plus Cole helps me a lot.”
“So you talk to Cole quite a bit?”
“Yeah, almost every day. He’s so easy to talk to.”
Mitzi smiled slyly. “Unlike Dylan.”
Marissa wasn’t sure if she was supposed to respond in some way.
