Dawn Nash loves to hunt, and she cooks and eats what she kills. That includes the bear she brought down with a bow in Canada. Last month, Nash, Melissa Welch and Dallas Amrine were winners of the Fur, Feather and Fin category of the 2nd Annual DeQuincy Masonic Wildgame Cook Off with deer lasagna, bacon and bourbon wrapped quail and pineapple shrimp tacos.

“I followed my daddy (the late Steve VanWinkle) everywhere including into the woods to hunt with my brothers,” Nash said. “I can cook because of my mother (Linda VanWinkle).

The 55-year-old grandmother of six who grew up in Oretta and finished school in Fields has been entering wildgame competitions for the past 20 years, after her husband encouraged her to do so. (He’s won more than a few himself) She’s been hunting and cooking for much longer, describing herself as an “old country girl” raised on a farm who has pulled plenty of garden weeds in her time. Her and her husband’s idea of a romantic getaway is hunting in Haughton or fishing the Sabine. Some years she has more kills. Some years he does. He always outfishes her, she admits.

“If I kill it, I eat it,” she said. “I prefer wildgame. When it’s brought home and put up like it should be, you can’t taste the gaminess,” she said.

She learned from her husband, James Nash, that the secret to good-tasting wild game is allowing the meat ample time to drain before freezing it.

“That blood that’s not drained, that’s what gives it the gamey taste,” she said. My daughter won’t even eat ground beef. She prefers ground deer because it has no smell or what I describe as a vinegary taste.”

Nash said she went up against some great cooks in the January cookoff, mostly men.

‘It’s always a lot of fun,” she said.

Her only disappointment was that she didn’t get to try one cook’s dishes, usually the standard of such a contest.

“Somebody cooked goose dumplings, and I love dumplings and couldn’t wait to get a bite. But it was all eaten before I got the chance,” she said.

In addition to being an avid hunter, Nash says she is always “on the hunt” for wild game recipes. While she has an idea how a recipe will turn out before she tries it, she said the bacon and bourbon wrapped quail turned out even better than expected.

As for her bear kill…

“It was scary,” she said. “I won’t lie. It’ll make your heart jump.”

After she killed it, she dressed it. The steak is her favorite cut.  “I like bear gravy and rice,” she said. “It makes a really dark, rich gravy.”

She uses the roasts to make her own bear jerky.

Want to sample some of Nash’s food? She’ll be one of the cooks celebrating Mardi Gras in Hargrove on Saturday, February 26. The festivities begin with a parade around the Hargrove Loop starting at Arthur Irwin Road and includes a gumbo cookoff, chicken run and music at Hargrove “Mall,” 1021 LA-389, DeQuincy. Gumbo cookoff proceeds will be donated to benefit Delta Perkins, daughter of Dallas and Shania Perkins for medical expenses.

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Dawn VanWinkle Nash’s
Bacon and Bourbon Wrapped Quail

Dry Rub

1 Tbsp kosher salt

2 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp dry oregano

1 tsp celery seed

Wrap with bacon

For Glaze

½ cup pepper jelly

3 Tbsp bourbon

1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce

Stir well. Glaze on every flip.