You know those cooking shows where the smiling hostess is standing in an immaculate kitchen, with premeasured ingredients organized in colorful bowls that look festive against the granite countertops? Well, my kitchen is nothing like that.

Given a chart of ingredients needed for a “well-stocked” kitchen, I might have about 10 things out of 100. There’s a big part of me that believes if a main dish isn’t seasoned with Old Bay, Chili Powder and/or garlic, it doesn’t warrant the effort necessary to cook it. I use a similar approach to remodeling, where I prefer projects that involve a reciprocating saw and a case of caulk.

Keep it simple, is my motto, and no more so then when cooking wild game. A long-ago neighbor of mine used to “butcher” expressions as often as she butchered the rabbits she raised. When asked if she liked to eat wild rabbit and other wild game, her answer was always “It all depends on how you repair it.” Her name was Bertha Soroka, and she lived alone, cooking and heating with gorgeous coal stoves, until she passed away at 86. Here are a few recipes, easy and simple, I’ve saved from her:

Smothered Pheasant

Ingredients: 6 skinless, boneless pheasant breast halves, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup butter

2 cups half and half cream

Directions: Preheat oven to 325. Season the pheasant breasts with salt and pepper. Spread flour on a plate and press pheasant into flour until completely coated. Melt butter in an ovenproof Dutch oven or deep skillet. Cook pheasant breasts in the hot butter until golden brown on both sides. Pour in the half and half cream and bring to a simmer, cover. Bake in oven about one hour.

Stovetop Deer Steaks

Ingredients: Deer steaks, butter, olive oil, Worcester sauce, one can mushroom soup, one small can of mushrooms, one half cup milk mixed with a sprinkling of flour, onions, salt, pepper.

Directions: Melt butter and oil in large pan, big enough for browning steaks. Pound steaks thin and brush lightly with Worcester sauce. Roll in flour, brown in pan on both sides. Remove steaks, and then add mushroom soup and mushrooms to pan, with a sprinkling of flour and milk. Stir until mixed, then put steaks back in the pan. Cover tightly and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

P.S. — Want to try a much broader sampling of wild game? Tickets for the Schuylkill County Outdoors/Taste of the Wild dinner, from 5 to 10 p.m. Feb. 24, are on sale. The event is held at the Pine Grove Hose Hook & Ladder Fire Co. Adults are $20, kids under 15 are $10. Returning for entertainment is The Guys from Reckless.

Anyone with donations of meat, or plans to contribute pot luck meals please message Larry Primeau at 570-345-4166. Vendor spaces are limited. Tickets are limited to the first 250 sales – the event has sold out yearly.