Elk Rouladen

I requested this Saturday off at the bar so I could have that time to work on the last of the party prep, and surprise, surprise, I actually got the day off! Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

So, technically the party is a potluck. However, I get a kick out of cooking when I'm not the only one who'll be eating the food, so I've got a list of half a dozen things I'm going to prepare and an extra crockpot borrowed from my mom to help keep things hot. Since I'm now done with anything class related for the semester (Hallelujah!) and since I've got Saturday off, I've got oodles and oodles of time to cook.

I've also taken a big chunk out of my prep time by making most of the rouladen on Monday. This year when mom got her elk, my folks used their nifty new meat slicer to turn some of that elk into thin strips for things like stir fry and, of course, rouladen. This is my first elk rouladen and I'm curious to see if I'll be able to tell much difference. Since my family is a hunting family, I'm used to eating game meat just as much (if not more) than beef. Heck, now that I'm in my own house the vast majority of the red meat I cook is elk or antelope out of my parents' freezer.

Anyhow, I used a couple of packages of elk on Monday and got a batch of about twenty. I picked up another last night and figure that'll be worth maybe 8-10 more. About right for the party, I think, with some leftovers potential. Mmm...