cover image RUBY ANN'S DOWN HOME TRAILER PARK BBQIN' COOKBOOK

RUBY ANN'S DOWN HOME TRAILER PARK BBQIN' COOKBOOK

Ruby Ann Boxcar, . . Citadel, $15.95 (206pp) ISBN 978-0-8065-2536-5

Free of the restraints of haute cuisine, the Michelin guide and roofed kitchens in general, Boxcar weighs in with highly entertaining recipes and helpless hints, straight from her double-wide trailer at the High Chaparral Trailer Park in Pangburn, Ark. It should be noted that the term barbecue, in this context, refers to anything edible that has come into contact with a heat source in the out-of-doors. The results are rarely pretty but make for the kind of entertaining reading often associated with milk coming out of one's nose. The necessity for a third volume of such détritus-blanc delicacies (Ruby Anne's Down Home Trailer Park Cookbook started the wheels rolling) was brought about not by the public's overwhelming demand but rather, as the author suggests, by a scarcity of government-surplus cheese, which was a staple of so many of her previous creations: budget-conscious chefs will have to dole out for Velveeta this time around to fill their Armadillo Eggs (a.k.a. stuffed jalapenos). Other frights from the cupboard show up in Billy Bob's Kabobs, a skewer full of Spam and bell peppers. Yes, one could try their hand at El Wienie Mexicano, which takes taco seasoning to a place it best ought not to go, but the better bet is to hit the Taco Bell drive-thru and then settle in with the trailer park updates and cooking tips that bookend the Pork Entombed Trout and the Born-Again Baked Beans. It is here that one discovers how to cook in a lightning storm ("send someone else out to flip the burgers") and that 57-year-old Donna Sue, over in Lot #6, is still headlining at the Blue Whale Strip Club. (May)