My mom has always been quite the sneaky cook.

She always wanted us to expand our culinary horizons and give new things a try. We weren’t picky kids, but when the new things she wanted us to try were hare, bear, and deer, we protested something fierce. (We had some serious hunters in the family…and the bear was a result of my uncle about to be attacked in the woods by a bear when he was deer hunting. He literally had one shot!)

So when it came to uncommon meats, my mom tried to fool us every time. It got to the point when she made something like spaghetti with meat sauce we asked to see the package that the meat came in to make sure it wasn’t one of our favorite woodland creatures. (Not that bear was one of our favorites, but the thought of eating bear was just plain off-putting.)…