Wild Bites #45: a 4-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

Teriyaki meatballs can be made with ground goose, venison, anything. 

2. German Food on the Lighter Side

A spinach or wild greens spatzle with bacon, onions and a light sauce.

German food gets a bad rap. Yes, there are lots of sausages and dumplings and heavy dishes, but that's only a slice of the cuisine. I thought I'd offer you a few German recipes that are on the lighter side -- perfect for our transition from cold weather to spring. 

• Spatzle dumplings are fantastic and ultra versatile. Try adding pureed spinach or other wild greens such as young dandelions, mache, miner's lettuce, lambsquarters or even curly dock to make these pretty green dumplings.  
• Jagerschnitzel, a pounded cutlet of venison, pork, beef, duck breast or chicken, served with a light mushroom sauce is a great way to celebrate the start of mushroom season. Still too early? Use rehydrated mushrooms. 
• Knoephla soup is more Volga German from North Dakota than German proper, but it's a soup of flour dumpings, cream and vegetables that's good for cool weather. 
• Hessian fish dumplings, really fish meatballs, with an herby green sauce are spectacular with any white fish. I love them with crappie, perch or snapper. 
• Light and creamy, similar to the knoephla soup, Swabian rabbit stew is wonderful with rabbit, squirrel or chicken.  

3. We've Come a Long Way

I had the chance to speak at the annual Pheasant Fest and Quail Classic recently, giving a talk on how to get more out of your game. I've done this talk, in various forms, for a decade. What I saw in the audience made me proud: So many people were already doing many of the things I was suggesting -- something that was very much not the case years ago. 

This remarkable progress in the hunting community is wonderful to see. I am a piece of that revivial, but only a piece. I wrote about the show, and all the other great wild game chefs I admire, over at To the Bone. What have you started doing to "up your game" in recent years? Let me know in the comments. 

4. Mexican Food Adventure

5. Signs of Spring

Spring is creeping in -- we hit 70F today! -- and signs of life are everywhere. Foraging will start soon here in Minnesota, and it has already begun in warmer places. I'm hearing about morel mushrooms already in Missouri, and it's prime greens season now in California. 

I am feeling a lot better about life in general these days, in no small part because, finally, I have a home, and a neighborhood. (I wrote about this over at To the Bone) 

This weekend, however, I'll be off to San Diego and Tijuana -- more research for the cookbook. Tijuana, if you haven't been in a while, or ever, has become a world famous food destination. Fewer drunk marines and prostitutes, more Michelin-quality restaurants. I'll report back soon. 

Speaking of the book, if any of you out there are from northern Mexico, or have friends or relatives from there, I'd welcome any recipes or ideas they might have on this project. I want this to be a collaborative book, with many voices. I'd love your help with that. Leave a comment with the form below and we can take it from there.  

Finally, are you getting the itch to fish as much as I am? With such a warm winter, I didn't get to ice fish at all this year, and I have no firm plans to fish yet. Feeling the need because the tug is the drug... where should I go? 

~ Hank

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