Wild Bites #38: a 3-minute read that makes you smarter about wild food and tells you what's to come on the website, podcast, YouTube, or To The Bone.

 ~ Hank

1. What's Hot Now - T-Day Edition

Slow smoked venison roast.

2. Roast 'Em If Ya Got 'Em

Roast grouse with root vegetables on a platter.  

Thanksgiving is traditionally roast bird time, and while yes, I know turkeys are the norm, I love roasting other game birds instead. So here's a selection of recipes for roast birds you might want to cook on Thursday: 

• Roast sharp-tailed grouse or prairie chicken (pictured above). These birds are wonderful roasted hot and fast, a bit like ducks. If you have some, definitely check the recipe because there are a few tricks you'll want to learn.
• Roast ruffed or blue grouse. This recipe is a little different, because the meat of these birds is lighter in color, more like a chicken. My recipe for simple roast pheasant is similar, and better if you have pheasants instead of grouse. 
• Slow roasted duck is the old school method for these birds, where the breast is fully cooked and the legs are perfect. If you prefer the breast meat done medium, as I do, use my recipe for roast wild duck. 
• Maybe you want little birds for appetizers? Try roast woodcock or roast snipe. 
• Finally, I love skipping the oven and pan roasting, which works very well with partridges. 

3. Side Dishes

Side dishes make Thanksgiving. 

From mashed potatoes to green bean casserole to yams, pearl onions, greens and stuffing. For most, this is where family traditions live on this holiday. Here are a few of my favorite sides, if you dare tinker with tradition...

• Cranberry-sausage stuffing (pictured above) is an endlessly variable stuffing that can be "wilded up" depending on what wild ingredients you have on hand. 
• Wild mushroom stuffing is, as you might guess, wild mushroom-centric. But it works fine with cultivated, store-bought mushrooms, too. 
• Cranberry sauce. I am firmly in the homemade camp, and when I can get wild cranberries, even better. But I often make this sauce with store-bought cranberries, too. And it's not just for Thanksgiving: Make this alongside any roast bird, venison or pork roast. 
• Colcannon. Basically mashed potatoes mixed with greens, especially wild greens, fresh or frozen. Kale, dandelion greens, spinach, turnip greens, even parsley or green onions (ramp leaves, anyone?) will work.
• Bacon Butternut Squash Soup. A really gorgeous pureed soup that makes an impression as a first course at Thanksgiving. 

4. Sweets and Dessert

I am not a skilled pie maker, so I'll keep this section short. Mostly I'd like to offer you some sweet things for the beginning of the day, or as sides for the main pies. 

Above is my butternut squash bread, which is a knockout. You could do worse than make this for your loved ones the morning of Thanksgiving -- or any weekend morning, for that matter. 

Some other fun things to make would be acorn cake, yes, with actual acorn flour; pine nut cookies, butternut or black walnut cookies, and, if you want to go a little crazy, Greek anise cookies. 

Got an ice cream maker? Make black walnut ice cream. It's perfect on your pies. 

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