Modern Vespa

Nearly lost it today while turning. I didn't see a smushed squirrel until it was too late...damn those things are slippery. Be careful.

Reminds me of the song "Dead Puppies Aren't Much Fun"
I forsee someone getting mad about this post.

Only the fresh ones.

P.

Raise your hand if, "Eww."

<<---- Waving arm wildly in the air!!

Squirrel Stew

Ingredients:
1 squirrel, quartered
1 cup diced onion
2 large tomatoes (from your garden) or 1 can of tomatoes
Assorted fresh ,or canned veggies
Preparation:
Sprinkle seasoned salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper (optional) liberally on the meat. Pour some cooking oil into a large pot (dutch oven). Sauté the meat with the onions until well browned. Drain the excess oil, add about 2 cups water, and bring to a boil. Cut up the tomatoes and add. If you use canned tomatoes add them now. Turn down the heat, and let slow cook for at least an hour. Important: older squirrels may require cooking longer than an hour. Check periodically for tenderness. If you don't you will have a hard time chewing the meat. After the meat is tender, add the veggies, carrots, potatoes, banana pepper, what ever you like. Cook until the veggies are done. An option you can use is, cook up your favorite pasta and serve over the pasta. (eliminate the potatoes). That's it, nice and simple ~

exactly my first thought!

My dad makes a version of this for his cat...no pasta or carbs though...

Had a conversation last night about squirrels as a viable meat option...


But I agree about roadkill being slick, avoided one by Columbus Circle last weekend, slippery and they tend to make your ties stink if you hit them when they're fresh

"Great green globs of greasy grimy gopher guts,
Mutilated monkey meat,
Little birdies dirty feet,
Great green globs of greasy grimy gopher guts,
And I forgot my spoon!...."

From CNN.com

"Great Depression holds lessons for surviving tough economy"

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/10/13/depression.irpt/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Quote:

"...They also took advantage of available squirrel meat, a common food in the South at that time...'It was a uniquely disgusting thing ... to see my grandfather take a stewed, skinned squirrel's head, smack the skull's dome with a heavy silver tablespoon, and dine on the brains," LeBlanc said.'"

My personal food philosophy is I don't eat anything that lives in front of my house. As a born and bred Brooklyn kid squirrels fall square into my "never eat" category.

the older editions of Good House Keeping have a recipe for Squirrel Fricassee.


Though, I hear they are high in cholesterol.

If it's any consolation flat palstic drinks bottles have the same affect( as I can testify) without the EWWW factor

And wet leaves too...

Though my only personal experience was riding over smashed fruit under an apple tree (during a turn I might add) -- that was fun!

They're high in cholesterol?

Various game dishes "bergue" use brains to thicken the stew. There evidence that eating nerve tissue from game, is not healthy a pratice, these days. Pesonally I will not eat squirrels again, it reminds me of being poor in my youth. R

don't you hate it when they stick to your tire??? hahaha. SPLAT!!!

I ran over a freshly dead squirrel the other day. If I would have seen it earlier I would have swerved around it, but as soon as I hit it my whole body tensed up and I shuddered. It was like a soft and squishy speedbump.

some suggested reading

First start with 6 fat squirrels...

I have an Italian cook book with a recipe for frog soup. The ingredients include 40 frogs. Apparently you cook them a lot and then put 'em through a blender.


I hit a dead squirrel this week. Just a little bump but I was on a straight stretch of road.

Although I'm vegetarian now (no discussion about this please ), I remember eating frog's legs when I was young. It really did taste like chicken. Southern Louisiana cooking can be an adventure.

This island is a wildlife sanctuary with 65+% wild area. Road kill is an everyday encounter.

While snakes, squirrels, opossums, and raccoons seem to flatten out pretty quickly to a mere soft speed bump, I can attest that armadillos retain their three dimensional nature for a looong time and are a real hazard at any speed. Armadillos have a startle response that evolved somewhere else and which is not now a successful survival strategy. When a four wheeler rolls over one straddling it with the tires, instead of just standing still and being safely passed over they jump straight up and are hit by the underside of the car. They are also pretty stupid.

(Never eat armadillo, they are known to harbor Hansen's disease (leprosy.)

I also don't like that thump, thump, thump sound they make as you continue to drive with them stuck to the tire.

Not sure if anyone else remembers this, but one of my favorite moments of the US Presidential primary season was when Mike Huckabee talked about cooking squirrel in a popcorn popper:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj3QAzSWVA4

You could probably fit a popcorn machine under the seat of your Vespa in case you run into more of these situations

My early 1960's edition of "The Joy of Cooking" has an entire chapter on dressing and preparing wild game: rabbit, squirrel, possum, bear, raccoon, muskrat, woodchuck, beaver, wild pigs and (of course) deer. This will come in handy if my unemployment continues for much longer and I have to start trapping raccoons in Golden Gate Park.

Here's a completely serious television cooking show featuring squirrel melts! Yummy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RlK0Xd4c2c

Best line: (.28 ): Put his tender little butt in there...

This thread reminds me of the old Road Kill Cafe in Kemmerer Wyoming. Last Summer, when I drove through this town, I noticed that the cafe is no longer in business. A pity.

This morning on the way to work, I almost ran over a fresh, smelly dead skunk on the road. I'm happy I swerved around it -- would have smelled up the tires an awful bit.

Reminds me of that song " Dead goils don't say no"

<<<< diving under my desk awaiting the sh*tstorm , Duck!

I remember an afternoon gigging for frogs in Pennsylvania with the two older sons of my mothers friend. We ended up with 14 of them of various sizes. We cut their legs off and the mothers dredged them in flour and fried them in butter. The older brother turned green when he saw the legs kicking in the pan. So he let us have his. Yummm. Yep tastes like chicken.

God I felt bad but couldn't help laughing at a dead rat the other day. It was squashed flat in the road, and I mean truly CARTOON flat. On its belly, legs splayed out, tail perfectly straight out... it looks like Wile E. Coyote after a particularly high drop.

FOR his cat or WITH his cat? EWW either way.

If we're discussing eating critters, back in the mid-80's I worked at the American Embassy in London and the Chamber of Commerce people had a reception for the tourism industry.

One of the tourism boards represented was from Louisiana and the good folks served up 'Gator and Rattlesnake on little toothpicks as hors d'oeuvres. Nobody told the Brits that were attending what they had eaten until afterward. When the secret was revealed most of them turned a little green - and this in a town that has jellied eels as a local favorite.

FOR his cat... Yeah, ewww! He did grow up eating squirrel and other critters and does live in the country now and doesn't eat them himself now, but still... His wife was trying to figure out what was stinking up the fridge and it turned out that he'd put the leftover squirrel in there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UejelYnVI3U&feature=related

surprised no one has mentioned this yet