Bunny Marsala

The stretch of spring weather we had last week melted all our snow and probably made the hares a little nervous (or it should have). So, Saturday we took Nolan out hunting for real for snowshoe hares. He can't quite shoulder a long gun, and I find it annoying to be tweaked in the ear with spent shells from the .22 pistol (or the .22 bullets themselves), so he just came along as the conscientious observer. I toted the tot and a .22 rifle (Ruger 77/22), and Angela was armed with the 20 ga SKB (high brass 6s), camera, sippy cup, and snacks.
Mostly cloudy, calm, upper 40's, snowless. Backpack: cheapo model, freebie, needs improvment.
We walked an old tote road for probably 1.5 hours, including a stop for snacks, before Angela had to get back to work. Got a bunny right off the bat. I spotted him sitting @25 yards, took 1 shot with the .22. The field mice will breath a little easier, at least for a while. Had we been beating the brush instead of path walking I think we would've seen more bunnies (but Nolan would have been slapped silly by branches).
Nolan loved going "hunting bunny" and immediately identified the dead animal as "bunny meat" (although after the meat was parceled up sans fur, he called it moose meat). We cooked the critter up the next night using the Sherried Squirrel recipe from Dressing and Cooking Wild Game, only I used marsala instead of sherry: dredge the pieces of hare (or squirrel) in flour w/ seasoned salt, brown them in butter in the cast iron dutch oven (should add garlic too). Toss in 10 oz mushrooms, and the liquids: 1 cup broth (we used wild turkey), 1/4 cup marsala wine, couple tablespoons worcestorshire sauce. Cover and bake @350 for 1.5 hrs. Serve over rice. Six thumbs up. (Jim: pay attention next time Kate points you a bunny)
Needless to say, "baby's first skull" is that of a snowshoe hare -- in the bin it went.
I'm excited about this baby backpack hunting -- for bunnies and squirrels. The .22 is easy on the ears. Now that we have snow again it'll be tough finding hares, but it makes going for a walk more of an adventure. We're looking into getting a better backpack carrier -- thinking Kelty or Deuter, and I'll be scouting squirrels for next season.