Funny how kids can pick up on nuances about food I thought reserved only for adults. Henry at 10 thought the tasty "Burgoo" was a a meal for a cool Fall day. And, Oliver, 7, thought it tasted like a Thanksgiving meal, imagining the Indians and pilgrims with a dinner similar to ours: onions, beans, vegies, squirrel, potatoes and corn all cooked together. It's neat to hear what those two are thinking about, especially when it doesn't have to do with legos. For this meal, Fred boiled his four squirrels for about three hours and deboned the meat, thank goodness. Really, I wasn't too looking forward to that process. The rest of the recipe came together pretty easily. I had to make some substitutions: couldn't find okra for one thing, added parsnips for another. Parsnips-there is an underutilized root crop. The burgoo (not a term I've heard before and I feel a little fake using it, but wow, what a cool word it is!) turned out better than I expected. Squirrel is a rather sweet, rich meat that I find not at all gamey. The flavors were rich and complex-I somehow expected a more standard, bland affair. Unbelievably, our little O-meister ate every bite-onions, tomatoes, peppers, beans and all. So, it must have been something because I've never seen him work through a dinner like this without mining out the couple ingredients he can stand and leaving the rest.If you've never cooked with squirrel, I'd give it a try. I grew up not thinking there was anything wrinkle-your-nose funny about eating squirrel at all and am glad for that. Fried like chicken it's tasty. And, boiled and deboned it's very versatile. Just don't stare too hard at the pot of boiling squirrels because it's not the most appetizing site.
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