Llama--it's what's for dinner

Every time I venture home to NY I manage to disturb members of my family with the food that I eat, which generally isn't hard because they're very much a meat and potatoes kind of group. Going home, I gorged on things from my childhood--fish fry from down the road, cider donuts and hot fudge sundaes--comfort foods that are only that when they spark a good food memory.
The last day in NY I had one goal, to go to Adventures in Food Trading and get us something different for Thanksgiving dinner. While I had dreams of caribou or elk, both of which we've had before in the form of jerky and steak, I left their warehouse with a 5# rack of venison and a ribeye of llama.
I had all good hopes that the llama would be part of a celebratory meal, planning to cook it on Election Day, as Mainers went to the polls to vote on gay marriage and medical marijuana. While the day only turned out to be half a success, the meal proved more satisfying than the results.
Needless to say, there aren't many recipes for llama online, so I treated it like a typical ribeye of beef, it was seasoned, seared and finished off in the oven until the middle was barely warm. As it cooked, it smelled heavily of lamb, but when eaten it proved to be the perfect middle ground between that and beef. Like many, i sometimes find lamb a bit gamey--depending on the prep--and this was lacking any edge. As the package stated, it was mild and lean, and honestly one of the best game meats I've ever had.





deep red and gorgeous


Roasted maple and brown sugar squash


resting