Spring/Summer 2001

Hot Off the Press
with David Watts and James Cummins

Cooking Wild Game and Fish Southern Style
by Billy Joe Cross
Reviewed by David Watts

There is one thing that Billy Joe Cross knows how to do equally well with cooking and presenting game and fish for the table. It's hunting and fishing for the species that make up this fourth edition of his well known Cooking Wild Game and Fish Southern Style. A sportsman for more years than he cares to admit honestly, Cross is a household word when it comes to knowing wild things.

"If there's anything more satisfying than hunting and fishing, it's cooking the harvest," Cross says. He should know, because he has been turning food from the woods and waters into mouth?watering entrees all his life.

In this beautiful, four?color, hardback edition are recipes that any outdoor family should know how to prepare. I'm talking about such favorites as Deer Steak and Gravy, Quail Casserole, Fried Wild Rabbit and Mississippi Duck Stew. Quick now, wipe your mouth, you're drooling.

One thing Cross has included in Cooking Wild Game and Fish Southern Style that I like are the charts. Want to know the percent of water, calories, protein, and fat in certain wild game species? Look on page 187. How about a good wine to go with your wild entree? Turn to page 192 for that 'just right' red or white. Need a helpful list of basic condiment substitutions? You'll find it on page 190.

Cooking Wild Game and Fish Southern Style should be available through most local booksellers for $19.95. Or, you may write Cooking Wild Game and Fish Southern Style, PO. Box 12303, Jackson, MS 39236.

Canoeing Mississippi
by Ernest Herndon
Reviewed by James Cummins

I have known Ernest Herndon for many years and he has finally done it. Canoeing Mississippi (University Press of Mississippi) is now a reality. Until now, he has only told me what it was going to be about. He proves that canoeing Mississippi is not all swarms of snakes and mosquitoes. (Although my friend Barthell Joseph, who was lucky enough to marry Hodding Carter's daughter, says otherwise). Ernest feels there are many misconceptions about Mississippi's rivers, lakes and streams.

"Mississippi is blessed with rivers," he writes in his new book. Ernest points out that, yet, there are plenty of Mississippians who have no concept of the number and variety of streams, and plenty of non?residents who think they are all muddy stagnant sloughs.

"They may not be aware of the sandy streams of southwest Mississippi, the rock?walled creeks in the northeast, the backwater brooks of the southeast, the gem?clear streams of the Gulf Coast or the lustrous Pearl, in addition to those murky rivers of the Delta," Herndon writes. Canoeing Mississippi is a handy, instructive book showcasing them all for armchair travelers, as well as for paddlers planning an excursion. It includes history, folklore, geology, wildlife, ecology, fishing techniques, plus some rousing adventure stories.

Focused on Mississippi's environment, it provides information on boats, paddle strokes, gear, camping and navigation. Streams are described and charted and, at the end of each description, quick references of essential facts are provided for those planning a float.
Herndon says Mississippi boasts well over 2,000 miles of waterways, which range from tiny creeks and bayous to the mighty Mississippi River itself, not to mention vast swamps and countless lakes, many of which are profiled in his book.

Although these waters are relished by those who bond with the outdoors, the obvious problems of erosion, litter, pollution, channelization, crowds and lawsuits are of great significance. Canoeing Mississippi helps awaken the public to the sensible use and the preservation of this wonderful natural resource.

Ernest Herndon is a staff writer and outdoors editor of the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He has written several books and has been published in such anthologies as The Magnolia Club: Fine Times With Nature's Finest and From Behind the Magnolia Curtain: Voices of Mississippi.

Canoeing Mississippi should be available through most local booksellers.