Gotta Have a Plan...

I saw a report. It was a recent account of how former President Bill Clinton, who by the way does hail from Arkansas stood in a friend's kitchen and ate a half a pan of cornbread.  Howlin' Wolf, the famous blues singer (1910-1976) who hailed from Mississippi was reportedly able to eat 50 fried bream at a sitting. There is usually no size limit or number restriction governing fishermen on bream harvest so I would imagine that Wolf's dinner might have had specimens ranging from the proverbial "hand size" on down helping him ps the numbers somewhat. My friend Suzi, a long tall girl with a hollow leg can put on such a show at an all you can eat crawfish boil that the old Cajun back in the kitchen in a greasy wife beater t shirt, a crawfish fat and red pepper stained apron will come out and with a Picayune cigarette dangling from his lip cheer on her display of mudbug consumption in a patois of Creole/English/French that his grandkids can't even understand. 

My whole point here is that this type of eating takes planning and strategy. Setting up at a boiled crawfish joint with an unscheduled amount of time on your hands, catching 50 bream or entertaining Clinton for an evening who is also reported to eat "everything but the drapes" where free food is available are not insubstantial events.

You may nosh a gallon of Bluebell, eat an obscene amount of chips and salsa, donuts, slim jims, or chocolate but that's not eating. That's just buying crap. Bill Clinton had a plan when he stopped by that guy's house for the cornbread.  

So if you are planning to eat today take a tip from my heroes whose exploits I have described and often try to emulate. Eat big, eat good, eat often and plan it out. You can start by using my Aunt Ora Ledbetter's light cornbread recipe. I think the last time I had it was 2018 and since I've been keeping buttermilk on hand lately for making special fish batters and turning out cobblers with anything vaguely fruity I probably have all the ingredients on hand. 

That's not coincidence or accident.     

By the way if you use this recipe due to copyright laws please hit the old Venmo account. I promise to use the money to fund a Wiley/Ledbetter Fish Fry. Family roots stretch back to Arkansas so I'll probably at least send Bill an invite. There are cousins that can eat 50 bream and Suzi who is not even a relation will come and fit in just fine.