New Homeschool Cabinet and Deer Jerky

I have to say that I am so thrilled with this project. I love to take old furniture and fix it up and use it for what is was intended to be used for but I really get a kick out of refinishing a piece and re purposing it.

This TV cabinet used to be popular but most people have gone to the big flat screen TVs and they won't fit in these old cabinets. This make them easy to find and fairly cheap. I bought this one for $125.00 and when I was looking on line or in furniture stores for a new cabinet or looking into having one built they were $1,000.00 and up.

All I did was sand it down with my palm sander then paint it black and sand it here and there to distress it. (I like that look) Then I varnished it and let it dry.

My husband removed the inner parts that were for the TV and installed two shelves and a new back. The TV backs have a big hole in them for the old style TVs to stick out. We actually had a big enough piece of Masonite board left over from the cabinet I redone for Portia's closet a couple of years ago. It is just like this one but we installed a clothing bar and painted it a distress yellow/beige. It is very cute and make a really nice piece of furniture for her room.

It's big and black, I have a lot of black furniture in my house and I love it.

 

 It gets a little messy inside but as you can see it gives us three deep shelves and three drawers. The best part is that at the end of the day all the folders and binders go into the cabinet and the doors close and everything is out of sight............For us this is really nice because we don't have a class room.  We do school at the table in the dinning room or at the table in the family room which is really one big room along with the kitchen.

I feel so clever!

 

 

We also made Deer Jerky

 

My husband has made deer jerky for as long as I can remember something like 25 years. I have never really liked it much. (strong for me) This time I asked if we could do some experimenting with the brine recipe.

His calls for Worcestershire sauce and I never really like the taste of it. He was nice enough to go along although the whole while he is saying his recipe could not be beat.....:o)

 

The meat is cut into strips and soaked in a brine for 24 hours. Two of the racks we did in one brine and the other two the brine that he has used for so long. I used a mallet and pounded the meat that I was using in my recipe before it went into the brine. Then it is smoked.  All we have is a small Lil Chief smoker but it works pretty well. I was thinking that a nice one might make a great Fathers Day gift......My husband smokes beef briskets at Christmas time and it is absolutely the best thing you could ever want to eat! The whole family RAVES, I'm not kidding. Even the kids love it.

 This is Tia, she is my new dog that I got last year......she is really hoping that she is going to be looked upon with favor and given a little deer meat treat......

 The meat is place in the smoker and the wood chips are heated be the burner on the bottom. He uses three trays of wood chips and then the meat stays in the smoker until it is done.

Tomorrow he is going to smoke a pork roast to make pulled pork for lunches. mmmmm

 

Here are the brine recipes that we used

 

 

This is hubby's secret recipe:

 

4 C. water

                                                             1 1/2 C. Worcestershire sauce  (I had to look on the bottle to spell it)

1 C. soy sauce

1/4 cup Tabasco sauce

1 C. sugar

1/4 C. salt

 

 

Mine:

1/4 C. salt

1 C. brown sugar

1/2 C. molasses

2 C. water

2 TBSP black pepper

 

Of coarse He still thinks his is best but he did say that mine was really good.....Me? Mine was awesome!  So good, I really liked it and I was right, it was the Worcestershire that i was not liking.

Guess he better get another deer this year. :o)

 

Blessings to all and remember, keep your eyes on the Lord, he will keep your feet from stumbling!