Venison Backstrap in Mushroom-Onion Gravy

As my wonderful hubby and in-laws have told me venison back strap has to be the best meat off the deer. So for Tripp's 14th birthday he saved a backstrap specifically for his birthday dinner. I wanted to try something different with it. No battered and fried or seasoned and seared. Ok confession the southern in me comes out just at the right time and all I could come up with is floured "fried" and smothered in some sort of gravy and onions.. thus leading to yet another fantastic venison recipe.

There really isn't much to what I did. I took 2 eggs just mixed them up with about a tablespoon of milk for an egg dip, then took about 2 cups of flour and mixed in 1 tablespoon of pepper and garlic, 2 teaspoons of salt and paprika. I butterflied the backstrap (butterflying, if I can explain it right, is where you take a thicker piece of meat and start to cut it in half but not all the way and through the thick part of the meat) dipped the meat in the egg then coated in the flour and placed it in a pan with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. I browned the meat on both sides then places in to a pot. Once i had all the meat cooked, I took about half of a medium onion and cut it into slices then cut the slices in half. I through the onion and about 2 cloves of garlic chopped up and sweated them in the pan til the became "soggy". I then added in a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup with half a can of water and completely deglazed the fry pan. once the gravy thickened I pour it over the top of the meat and simmered in the pot for about 20 minutes.

This was right after I poured the gravy and onions over the top of the meat...

This just looked so darn tasty it was super hard to take pictures with out just sitting down to eat...

This is Tripp's birthday steak! cooked to his liking, so super tender and the flavor was spot on! I definitely recommend this recipe. If venison is not on hand you a tender cut of meat and go to town!





Now since this is Tripp's special dinner I will include his cake.. what.. what.. BONUS!!

Nothing fancy with this. A simple white cake mix from the store... doesn't even matter the brand. Now with his cake I got a little funky as I could only find ONE of my round cake pans and it is a layer cake! :(

Make and bake according to the instructions on the box.. simple I know!!

Now, his favorite jelly is blackberry and since it is hard to find a blackberry frosting I went with jelly in between the layers..

I did get ambitious and attempt to make another frosting which was a complete flop for me.. it never set up and I beat the daylights out of it like the recipe said plus some.. haha.. So Sister-in-law to the rescue (where would I be with out her!!) What goes good with Blackberry.... well nothing else other then... LEMON frosting! She is the best!!

Black and blue candles.. Only my kid would have favorite colors that represent bruising!.. sheesh.. BOYS!!

This was so good and I promise there was only 1 piece left and it was promise to cousin's husband who couldn't make our family weekend!

Of course I had to take a picture of the cut cake! Yummy!! and the flavor sooo good!!

If you try either recipe AMAZING.. if you don't and just like to read.. super if nothing at all.. well you don't know what you are messing out on!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SWEET TRIPP!!! <3

No go be creative.. bake, boil, sautee something :)

<3  T