Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

Cooking a goose on my trusty Weber kettle grill tomorrow. No one in the ER household has ever cooked, or eaten goose. Call it a wild hare -- ar ar.

The 8.5-pound fowl cost 40 bucks at a hoity-toity grocery store in OKC. Free-range goose, it is.

Yesterday, per instructions in the "New York Times Cookbook," I scalded the puppy for 1 minute in fast-boiling water, then put in the fridge, nekkid, in a big pan, for 24 to 48 hours. This, the book said, is to let the skin dry, so it'll get crispy as it cooks.

So, onto the grill it'll go over indirect heat, for about three hours. I can find no mention of basting goose; maybe it has so much oil -- a quart or more per 10 pounds -- it doesn't need basting, especially if you want the skin to be crispy.

We're gonna have salt potatoes, baked sweet taters and YankeeBeau's famous lemon steamed brocolli. Oh, and a bread stuffing with green apples and sausage (a NYT Cookbook recipe).

I told Mama ER I'd bring her some goose to eat tomorrow night and she made a "yuck" face. :-)

Suddenly, I want to read "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle."

Mama ER apparently has a leak. They drew a bunch of fluid out from around a lung for the third time today. If it doesn't stop, they're going to treat it somehow, but the doc said it won't require another surgery.

About the odd pic: It's the closest I could find to a raw goose on the 'Net! :-)

--ER