Smokey Mountain Breakdown

Shall I write to you of food again on Fridays? Maybe. While I'm not avoiding the comfort foods of the past, I am working with some major portion control disciplines. So--I'm not eating out so much anymore unless I have someone I can say, "I'm not going to eat this--do you want it?" And the one person I do this with most often mostly eats very healthy food--so I'm not haunting the greasy spoons I used to haunt. There is this place in Oak Ridge the Goat Yoda told me about I've been wanting to check out though.

But I'm dropping pounds, so it's worth it. And I'm not exactly giving up things. I'm using Julia Child's philosophy of just enjoying small portions of the best available. With me and the steroids, it's more like tiny, minuscule portions to have success.

I've also been reading food writing. This, Bourdain, Zimmern and The Food Network seem to hold my attention when I can't actually eat as I would wish.

I picked up a copy of Isabel Allende's remarkable book of aphrodisiacidal (I think I just made that word up) recipes and memories, Aphrodite, A Memoir of the Senses, kept me rapt throughout my vacation just past. I've always loved Allende's writing--it's rich in sensual metaphor and ripe with tactile promises. So I wasn't surprised her food book zeroed in on the rope that binds together sex and food.

The thing about truly good food writing is that it's not so much about the food (well, it is but it isn't!) as it is about the connections between humanity, society and food. The breaking of bread, the communion of souls, the licking of mousse au chocolat from the tender spot behind a lover's knee. That's what makes for beautiful food writing--and Allende does this so well, diving into intimate anecdotes from her life. Including the tip to make sure that chocolate mousse is on you--so you don't have to absorb the calories!

It's not a new book, but I missed it when it came out in the late '90's. I think I picked it up at McKay's, Knoxville's big second hand bookstore, but I think now that I've read it, it's a "must have". And it does have recipes--excellent ones. They are all very simple, but elegant. All using very fresh ingredients, perfectly seasoned and clearly influenced by Allende's Chilean heritage. Nothing too heavy, but everything fraught with suggestion. Also very basic--so it's an excellent book for newlyweds who can't boil water, bachelors looking to impress the objects of their affections and 20-somethings lost in the kitchen. And so much fun to read.

I'm tackling M.F.K. Fisher's The Art of Eating next.

A recipe for today is something not in Allende's book, but something I recently rediscovered. It's a salad dressing, pasta sauce and spread. My sister served us Caesar salad while I was visiting her recently and I remembered how much I enjoyed this. It's very garlicky so everyone must eat it if kisses are to be had.

Okay. I must interrupt my planned, Oh-gee-my-sunflowers-are-amazing, OMG, have you read Kim Crawford's book or what the editor of The Fabulist said about my writing made my nipples hard and my Hitachi Magic Wand jealous--to talk about effing Miracle Whip.
There are some ad campaigns I can't be silent about. No. Really. I will not tone it down. Miracle Whip, the white trashiest of white trash cooking ingredients--that secret ingredient to everything from seven layer salad (The Miracle Whip cooks the frozen peas...really!) to the mysterious Miracle Whip Cake--that erstwhile companion to lime jello has decided it wants to be hip.

Christ on a cracker, it's like watching your grandma take out her teeth to do some crunking. Can Miracle Whip ever truly be X-treeeeme? Cheese-Whiz, the beee-otch--yeah, I can see it making the crossover--it's got that slutty cheese in a can thing going for it--but Miracle Whip? I'm just not feeling you, MW.

They hired Hardee's slacker dude to do the voice over--which is even more embarrassing.

I'm relatively certain I'm not violating any corporate secrets by telling you that if you take a half cup of regular mayonnaise, add a teaspoon of sugar or high fructose corn syrup and an extra squeeze of lemon juice that you have Miracle Whip. It's mayonnaise. With sugar and extra lemon juice in it.

See, Kraft has this fantasy that Miracle Whip's demographic looks like this:



But see, Miracle Whip eaters are my peeps. They live in my hood. They look much more like Mickler's cover girl.


And you will find truly surprising uses for Miracle Whip in WTC--but, you know, it's never going to be Baconnaise or some shit like that. 'Cause, you know--it doesn't go well with Jägermeister.

This is a truly impressive cake with a pleasing and unusual melange of flavors. I've made it in the style that I use for parties which means that the cake shown is about 8 inches tall. You may half the ingredients to make a normal sized cake at home.

I recommend using blood oranges where available. I have cheated a bit on this one by using Duncan Hines Fudge Cake mix for the layers. My mixer has been burned up for some time and I have not yet replaced it. To use the layer cake recipe shown, you will need a mixer. If you wish to use box mix as I did, simply add your instant coffee gradually while mixing the cake.

This looks like a lot of work for this cake, but don't be intimidated by it. I think it will come together quite quickly the second time it is made. The saffron does not add much flavor but imparts intriguing streaks of color to the filling.

Orange Saffron Filling

3 cups granulated sugar
12 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold water
1 cup orange juice + 4 TBSP frozen concentrate--mixed
6 large egg yolks -- beaten
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups boiling water
6 tablepoons orange zest
2 pinches saffron
1/2 cup Grande Marnier (optional)

Sift sugar, cornstarch and salt into a medium saucepan. Gradually blend in the cold water, Grande Marnier and orange juice mixed with concentrate. Place saucepan over medium-low and whisk until smooth. Add the eggs and 2 tablespoon butter and blend thoroughly. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until thickened and add the boiling water. Continue stirring until the mixture reaches the desired thickness, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the orange zest and saffron; cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to cool.

Notes: Blood oranges are preferred when available. Do not leave this…recipe requires constant stirring.

Cake Layers

3 sticks unsalted butter softened
6 cups sugar
6 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
8 (1-ounce)squares unsweetened chocolate melted
1/2 cup powdered instant coffee
6 cups flour
6 Teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
2 2/3 cups boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare 3 9-inch cake pans. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until well blended. Add chocolate and beat, gradually adding instant coffee. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to chocolate mixture gradually, alternately with buttermilk. Beat until well blended. With mixer on low speed, add boiling water and beat until smooth. Pour into pans, then bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 15 minutes, then up-end onto a cake rack until finished cooling.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

4 cups sugar
2 cups cream
4 squares bakers chocolate

Place sugar and cream in a cold stainless steel pan. Bring to a rolling boil and let boil on high for three minutes. Cut the heat back to medium high and let boil until it reaches the hard ball stage. Pour out into a mixing bowl and put four blocks of unsweetened bakers chocolate in with the mixture. Let the chocolate melt. After it cools a bit, place in the mixer on high until it reaches the consistency of frosting. If the frosting seizes, just add a few drops of cream and continue to mix.


Cake Composition

1. First, make and cool the filling.
2. Take cooled cake layers and split in half using a bread knife. This will give you six layers.
3. Place each layer on top of the next with a generous layer of filling.
4. When done, spread the filling over the outside of the cake.
5. Make the frosting and cool until warm. You may have to add extra cream to keep it in a frosting consistency.
6. Ice the cake and decorate with almond slivers.


Enjoy!

It is probably my favorite of the corn based Southern quickbreads. My mother did not make it often enough when I was a child for my taste, but when she did make it, it was a very special treat.

We all eat cornbread down here. Some like it sweet. Some like it crumbly and dry. But spoonbread is in a class all of its own. Basically, it's like a moist cornmeal souffle. Like a souffle, it needs to be served immediately out of the oven before it looses its loft. It's called "spoonbread" because of its soft texture, so different from cornbread.

I like it best drenched in butter with honey or homemade preserves. But it is an outstanding accompaniment to beef or poultry. It's the cornbread to use for a holiday meal or a meal too proud for plain simple cornbread. But it is also excellent if you just want something very comforting on a cold day.


My other grandmother credits her recipe to The Boone Tavern also connected with Berea College. My grandfather worked on the Southern Railroad, and it is possible that he actually collected the recipe. You see, Grandmother Rose was a dreadful cook. When they first married, the first bag lunch she sent off with him was a black-eyed pea sandwich. She was from a family of seven sisters from Lakeland, Florida. Judging by the archives of the family photos, these were girls who knew how to have a good time (she is shown in the photo on the left holding the dog). Even the photos of them from the teens in their white dresses ala "A Little Night Music", have the sisters lolling around on picnic blankets with wine and beaux. They eagerly welcomed the roaring 20's and each sneaked off to have their hair bobbed.

The reason always given for her kitchen disability was that each of the sisters was given a particular part of the household to oversee. Rose's was the housekeeping. And she certainly excelled at keeping house. But the kitchen duties were shared by Emmy Jo and , I believe, Pearl(the other two flappers in the photo). So my poor grandfather learned to fend for himself and the best family recipes from those two are actually his.

Berea College or Boone Tavern Spoonbread

1 1/4 cup corn meal (water ground)
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 and 1/2 tablespoons sugar
3 well beaten eggs
1 and 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

Stir cornmeal slowly into cold milk in a saucepan on medium heat. Stir constantly. Remove from heat the moment it begins to boil and add the remaining ingredients. Mix well and pour into a buttered casserole dish. Bake for 50 minutes at 400 degrees.* Serve immediately in the same dish.

*note: this does better in a modern oven at 350 for 30 minutes. The later version of this recipe makes this adjustment. Watch carefully and do not overcook.

I usually save this post for blackberry season...but peach season is coming up and I use the same exact recipe for it.

Cobbler is to southern desserts what apple pie is to American desserts. We just associate it so much with our region. Actually each area of the country, I have found, has their own version of something like cobbler.

In a way, it is a very old dessert dating back to colonial times. When I lived in the U.K. there were tons of desserts similar to cobbler. They are traditionally served with hot custard in the winter. They are very "rib sticking" which you don't actually mind if you are bundled up working on a film set in the cold drizzle. So, I'm relatively sure that our Scots/Irish/Brit ancestors brought something like cobbler with them.

I remember fondly the first time I saw the words "Spotted Dick" on a menu. It's such an outrageous name for a hot rolled up bread pudding log with raisins that is then served with treacle sauce and hot custard.

So, cobbler does come from the long and honorable tradition of stodgy hot desserts. We prefer to serve it with ice cream.

I have several cobbler recipes in my cookbook, but I'm going to share the most unusual and most satisfying one with you. It has some odd steps and it's a very old recipe. When I say very old, I'm talking 1900. My oldest cake recipe from my family is from around 1810. I have copies of the same recipe written in the hands of 5 generations of women.

But this one, this one was from my grandfather's sister, Emma. I have tested it, and it has quickly become my favorite cobbler since the boiling water step produces an extremely satisfying crunchy/chewy crust. You can substitute your favorite seasonal berry or stone fruit for the blackberries.

Yeah, baby...That's what I'm talkin' about!

My mother and uncle grew up during the Great Depression in Savannah, GA. They didn't have it too bad since my grandfather worked for the Southern Railroad and they ran a boarding house out of the old house on Jones Street up from Clary's. My grandfather kept a garden out on Hutchinson Island where he also trapped and raised rabbits. Still, it left my grandmother with an unfortunate case of OCD geared toward saving scraps of tin foil. I was always a little afraid as a child that upon opening the pantry door I would be crushed to death by the largest tin foil ball known to mankind.

Ribs had a shady reputation as poor folks food. It was one of the few cuts of meat you could afford to buy during the Depression. But still, even after my uncle became a kazillionaire designing mines in the African Congo and being an aircraft magnate in South America, he remained stubbornly in love with the humble rib. I remember the long letters he wrote my mother always telling of how they cooked ribs in such far away places as Ankara and Morocco. The man never saw a rib he didn't like. He had to have them everywhere he traveled.

So...Tuesday, Betsy and I met over at Wanda's B.B.Q. Garden and Cafe to sample these legendary ribs and some of Wanda's other offerings.

I'd seen the BBQ garden across from the Cosby Elementary school on Cosby Highway next to the House of Douglas Bakery, but had never gotten around to trying it out. So when Betsy told me about these ribs...well, what can I say. It's in my gene pool.

The cafe is basically an old soda fountain/bakery set-up with booths and tables. Some funky art and lots of potted plants. It's a nice place to go during the cold winter months. It reminds me of some of my old haunts in the Virginia Highlands area of Atlanta. Back before VH became so precious.

But the really wonderful space at the BBQ Garden is the patio. Wanda built a large screened in dining area with a stage for the Bluegrass performers that frequent the garden during the high season months. It's very "down home". Plastic tablecloths and food served on disposable plates. The day was warm so we ate out there. But you know me. I'm more interested in what's on the plates than the plates themselves.


We took Betsy's daughter Dori along with us and she ordered the ribs. Everyone had to put up with me sampling their food. Anyone who eats out with me knows this is not unusual. I was born with a silver stealth fork in everyone else's plate.

I had the pulled pork plate with garlic green beans and sweet corn. I must say that those green beans are quite possibly the best green beans I've ever had. They were crisp french beans drenched in butter and garlic. Very yummy and will sneakily make you think you are staying on your diet. The pulled pork was served on a tomato basil roll. It was really wonderful and I didn't even ask for some mustard to convert it to Lowcountry style. ('cause you know where I stand on that side of the great war of the bbq sauces!)

Betsy had the pulled chicken also on a tomato basil roll. Her sides were french fries and the baked beans. Betsy loves Wanda's baked beans.

We also ordered the amazing onion rings pictured. Yes...they were every bit as good as they look.



I'd say the stand outs from the excursion were the BBQ Pork Ribs, which are amazing. The garlic green beans and those amazing onion rings. All of the food was delicious, but those were my three favorites. I'm told that her corn fritters are to die for. I have no reason to doubt this since it sounds like she makes them just like I make mine. The menu is best described as down home eclectic. Every once in a while your eye will be drawn from the expected BBQ joint fair to something like "jasmine rice"(the only sort of rice I eat at home), or those garlic green beans or that tomato basil roll. The prices are very reasonable with the most expensive item, the barbecue sampler, being 12.95. The median range is in the 6 to 8 dollar range. The place looks extremely kid friendly with lots of finger food available and paper towels.

If you are traveling down I-40 between Asheville and Knoxville, it's a nice side trek to get off on the Foothills Parkway then turn right onto Cosby Highway. The BBQ Garden is on the left just a few miles up the road.

I stayed for a while after our meal to talk to Wanda. I really like her. She's a bit of a character and I'm all about characters. She came to this area from Baltimore back in the 70's when Gatlinburg was still sort of a sleepy mountain town with a growing tourist trade. I'm not surprised she has food in her blood, being from Baltimore which is one of my favorite food obsessed cities. She's been working around restaurants all of her life. She doesn't follow any specific philosophy of barbecue, preferring to "do her own thing" so to speak. And it does seem to be working for her.

I was fascinated by her description of living here then, in a sort of hippie tent camp for three years, outside in all weathers when the winters were still very cold here. They used to have to go to town and pay a few bucks at the old bath house to take showers.

She mentions that her kids would sometimes ask why they couldn't go camping.

She'd say, in that husky Mercedes McCambridge voice, "Hell, NO. I did that for three damn years!"

Go see Wanda. Eat her food. You'll like her. You'll like her food.

It's March and the time when all gay farm girls' fancies turn to poultry, baby chicks and the oncoming spring. I can't tell you how neat it is to come downstairs in the morning to hear the first cheeps coming from the incubator. Those fuzzy little sweet biddies with their promise of eggs and all things egg related.

When I was last at the Co-op in Newport, I checked out the bulletin board as I usually do. And saw the notice of when the chicks were going to arrive. I'm currently henless at the moment. I did get a bit disheartened by the predation issue here and just let my flock go. But I know what an idiot sucker I am for baby poultry. They are even going to have guinea keets for sale. I've been very desirous of getting guineas. Their eggs supposedly make the best french toast on earth. But now that I'm down to only two geese in the poultry department, I'm starting to miss all the fresh eggs.

Of course, once they start laying real good, you end up scouring ancient cookbooks for those egg rich recipes from the days when everyone had a home flock. You will find eggs in places you never expected. And it's true. An egg in the mix of almost anything makes it taste better, fry up better, or just add an extra bit of protein to the diet. And you have all these dozens of eggs that you hate to just feed back to the hens or give to the dogs.

Have I mentioned that I have a freakishly low cholesterol level? I'm not sure if I mentioned that before I moved to an agrarian lifestyle that I had a freakishly high one. In all of my years of city living I was a devoted member of the 200 + club. And I didn't really eat many eggs then.

Today's Food Porn Friday is all about getting rid of absurd quantities of chicken ovum in the most delicious ways possible.

When the eggs really start to add up, my favorite big egg user is home-made pasta.

Basically all pasta is flour and eggs. It's super easy to make and once you get used to it, it's a fairly easy thing to make. Semolina flour is preferred as a base flour. Bread flour mixed with a bit of cornmeal is a good substitute. Home-made pasta keeps well in the fridge for about a week. I usually make a larger batch than the recipe given so to have enough for a few meals. The more whole grains you use in the pasta, the better it is for you. Fiber makes a great "diet" food and is much more filling than a straight white flour pasta.

The equipment for making pasta by hand is very affordable. A hand cranked pasta machine will run you about 30 bucks at the kitchen supply. Atlas is the preferred brand and you can get all sorts of attachments for doing different shapes. Mine has angel hair and linguine and those are my favorite two textures. It will also roll out very thin sheets of pasta dough for making your own ravioli and gnocchi. I mix my dough in a food processor, but if you want to get real "old school" about it, you can do it by hand making a well in the middle of your flour and gradually incorporating the eggs.

Since a few people got a bit distracted by the words "goat milk fudge" in one of my previous posts this week, I decided, since dairy season is gearing up, to feature it this week.

You don't actually have to use goat's milk. You may use cow cream. Goat's milk has some interesting properties that make it especially suited for candy making. For one, you can literally boil goat's milk and it will not separate. It condenses very easily on the stove top so you can make your own sweetened condensed milk. It is naturally homogenized.

Many people are aware that people who cannot tolerate cow's milk with its large protein and fat molecules can tolerate goat's milk. It is the absolute best milk for hand-rearing baby animals...including human babies...out there. My father, as a child, had a pet nanny goat that provided milk for most of the colicky babies on 37th Street in Savannah during the 1920's.

So, I do encourage using goat's milk. You can find it at the store, but many people mistakenly believe the grocery store goat's milk tastes like goat's milk. It just doesn't. It's a little gamy quite frankly. The taste does come through. Fresh goat's milk is sweet, very rich and pure tasting. That goaty aftertaste only comes on with age. It's not something you want. So if you have access to fresh goat's milk, by all means use it.


My recipe is actually altered from the old Charleston Creamery fudge icing recipe. This is a boiled fudge, rather than a fudge made with powdered sugar.
Thinned out, it also is a wonderful boiled frosting, which is great spread on a chocolate sheet cake and sprinkled with chopped pecans.

My mother always liked to make fudge on rainy days. I didn't realize until later that she was sort of bragging...sugar is very sensitive to humidity. I use a candy thermometer just to be certain. You should too. After making as many batches as I do during the season, I can guesstimate it fairly accurately. But why bother? Get a candy thermometer.


I do sell this stuff to support my dog rescue, Rosie's Cocker Rescue Referral, if you'd rather not try to make it. I've had people from all over the country including a few west coast chefs order from me. This stuff gets rave reviews everywhere it is sent. It's probably the foodstuff I'm most identified with. I make it in chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter, peanut butter/chocolate, and chocolate with either walnuts or pecans. I make it strictly to order. It's 11.50 a pound and it comes in blocks. If you need it in rosettes it is a bit extra. If you want to set up an order, just email me .

There are so many things I want to show you on Food Porn Friday! I was just going over my fresh pasta photos and some, quite frankly, obscene blackberry cobbler photos. But for next week...I'm going to invite Betsy, The Goat Yoda, to guest blog for FPF. She's been sharing with me some of the most amazing goat cheese recipes and I'd like her to share her Goat Yoda food wisdom with us all. She doesn't know I've decided she's doing this yet. I hope she's okay with that.

Honestly, I think Betsy and I could turn into an Appalachian version of The Two Fat Ladies if we aren't careful.

"Hurrah! Get rid of all lentils. You've no idea how randy they make vegetarians".

~Clarissa Dickson-Wright

To celebrate my freakishly low cholesterol and triglyceride values on my recent bloodwork, I made this for dinner tonight!

When I was growing up, we had this meal with the addition of some bothersome green thing at least once a week. Now...I make it maybe once every two or three months. This really is a food best served on a quarter annum basis if you want to maintain your freakishly low cholesterol levels.

Some of my work has been appearing on Dew on the Kudzu these days. I was really pleased to see Larry Hambey's piece, My Mother's Annual Family Reunion, with an excellent footer on how to fry a chicken. My only addendum would be, if you are using a yard chicken, to make sure you age it for a few days before frying it. I generally soak it in salt water in the bottom of my fridge for about four days. That makes it really tender. If using store bought chicken...you can leave out that part. Just remember to salt the pieces before you dredge them in flour. Self-rising flour seems to make the most satisfying crust.

I do indeed fry my chicken as Mr. Hambey describes. Just a bit of oil in the bottom and cooking on medium heat after browning with the lid on the pan. Turn often. I prefer to use an electric skillet to fry chicken. Spices are a matter of personal preference. I rely heavily on Old Bay and have been known to marinate the pieces in Tabasco sauce before dredging in flour.

For the gravy, just pour out most of the left over oil from your pan, then make a roux with some flour. Add milk and let thicken. It should be a bit lumpy from the bits of chicken left in there, but if you are picky about such things, just put it in your blender and smooth it out.

The way to make perfect rice every time without fussing with measurements is to boil the rice in water for about five minutes then drain into a colander. Fill your pot back up with water and put the colander on top of the pot. Put a lid on the colander and steam the rice until done. Works every time. No fuss.

And, of course, fried chicken is good cold the next day. My mother used to fry up a batch to take out on the boat when we went cobia fishing. Really good with pineapple sandwiches made with white bread and mayonnaise.

Pecan (pronounced Pee-Can, thank you very much) Pie must be one of the most readily identified desserts in the South. You really have to have a well-developed sweet tooth for this. I'm not sure how the idea to make a ultra-rich caramel custard with karo syrup and eggs came about, but I often wonder how we came up with some of these combinations.

My sister had an Brit boyfriend who developed an unfortunate addiction to the stuff. He came for our big Thanksgiving bash one year with Simone. We cut into one of the many pecan pies there and found that somebody had eaten all the gooey center leaving just the nut crust on top. All eyes went to Stuart. And this was a grown man!

Yes...pecan pie addiction can be an ugly business.

Back when I was still bumming around working on movies, there was this one caterer who got me addicted to Bourbon Pecan Pie. The wardrobe guy and I could almost always be found sneaking extra slices back to our trailers at lunch time. So, of course, I had to learn how to make it.

This is one of the more simple pecan pie recipes. Here's the recipe:

Bourbon Pecan Pie

1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
3 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 to 2 cups pecan halves
2 tablespoons good-quality bourbon
1 (9-inch) deep-dish pie shell, unbaked...or make your own if you are so inclined.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar and melted butter. Add the corn syrup, eggs, pecans, and bourbon, and stir until all ingredients are combined. Pour mixture into an unbaked pie shell, and place on a heavy-duty cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and continue to bake for an additional 25 minutes, or until pie is set. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Notes: I add more bourbon and prefer to use the cheapest, strongest tasting bourbon I can find. Personally, I'd rather have my Maker's Mark or Wild Turkey with a bit of branch water. This recipe gives a hint of flavor to the pie. There are a few ways to give the bourbon more emphasis. One is to soak the nuts overnight in bourbon. Another is to put some bourbon in a spray bottle and spritz the crust with it.

Ideally, I would serve this warm with vanilla ice cream and drizzle with a whisky sauce.

Remember the possum I trapped last week?

Well, it wasn't for dinner that night, because, silly...it had to age in the bottom of my fridge for at least a week.

I emailed my brother about trapping the possum and he enthusiastically related to me the technique of "perishing" the possum to make it fit to eat. This is because adult possums are pretty nasty and very fat. Perishing involves starving the possum down for a week to decrease the fat content. I'm not sure I'd be up for doing that...even to something as nasty as a possum.

A neighbor down in the holler, told me that they just fed the possum corn until all the nasty things were out of its system.

Well, it was too late for me to do any of this since I'd already kilt the damn thing. Plus, he was a real young male and didn't have much possum fat to speak of.

He turned out quite tasty. I fixed him up pretty much like I do my coon surprise, except I used sherry instead of red wine and went a bit heavier on the garlic. It's basically possum braised in sherry with carrots and sweet potatoes, then served on a bed of baby spinach (should be poke, but poke isn't ready yet) and glazed with a ginger lemon sauce. Cornbread on the side.