The highlight for me is coming out of it, though: my brother was pheasant hunting in South Dakota and gave me a smoked pheasant. I plan to make a sort of hunter's stew using it. I'd never tried pheasant before, smoked or otherwise, but it's quite good.
This is in the works: smoked pheasant and some beef, with onions, celery, carrots, parsnips, beets, mushrooms, tomatoes, a few diced, dried sour cherries, and garlic, with half chicken and half vegetable stock (I had a couple cups of each in the freezer from previously made batches), with rosemary and thyme and a splash of red wine.