Jerky

Ahh, that good stuff. A little short on cash? The best gifts are ones handmade - I remember our family making a whole passel of hand-made candles when I was a kid. Not only did our family and friends get these great candles, but our whole family did it together and here I am twenty something years later, still remembering with a smile.
Back to my title - jerky. It is so good, and just think how cool it would be to give/get a bag full of this special stuff from your hunting trip. Not only is it healthy, but you get to visit about the great trip with all your recipients and bring in the whole family for a holiday time to make the gifts. You can have your processor slice jerky meat for you and you can even freeze it until you are ready to make it. Or, you can do it all yourself. I slice it about 1/8 inch thick, too thin and it looses some flavor, too thick and it is chewy forever.
You can all make the cards (feature a picture of your hunting trip!)
The best jerky is air dried - hang it on a porch where the canines and others can't get to it, (we have zero humidity so my experience is this works great, but it probably won't for all! A dehydrator is fine, so is the oven with the pilot light on.)
soak about 3-5 pounds meat, sliced in a large bowl that all the meat will fit in. Put in a couple cups water, with about 1/2 cup kosher salt, lots of black pepper and a dash of garlic salt. Start with a little less and stick your finger in it and taste it. If it needs more salt and pepper, add it, if not, toss your meat in!
Soak for an hour and then pour into a colander so that the excess water runs off. I let it sit in the sink a few minutes, at least. Have your string ready, good cotton string, sturdy enough to hold a few pounds, and lay slices of meat over the string. If using the string method, you might lay out newspaper underneath where the meat is, becuase it will continue to drip and a few layers of newspaper will make cleanup easier. (Keep an eye on it, though, if it gets too wet, it will dry to the floor and make a mess). Or lay flat on dehydrator shelves or onto wire racks on cookie sheets. Dry until it just cracks when you break a piece.
Write down in your little recipe book what you like and what you didn't, so that next year you have a great starting place (Less salt, more pepper, cut thicker, whatever!)
We love to add a few spoons full of red chile flakes (chile pequin) or a few roasted green chiles that were run through the food processor or blender.
A note: fat will go rancid, so make sure and trim all the fat off your jerky meat.