My electric company sends out a magazine called Rural Missouri. The latest edition has a bunch of stuff I want to write about here. The first article is a recipe. Usually there is a page with pretty worthless recipes, like 15 ways to cook pears. This month the recipes are all about cooking different wild game. Here's a tasty dish I know you're going to want to put in your recipe files.

BBQ Raccoon

One 4 to 6 pound raccoon, cut into serving pieces
1 cup red wine
2 onions, sliced
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 cups of your favorite barbecue sauce
1 tablespoons paprika

Place the meat pieces in a large pan. Add wine, onions, bay leaves, salt, pepper and garlic. Add enough water to cover the meat. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for I hour. Place raccoon meat in a lightly greased baking dish. Mix barbecue sauce and paprika together and pour over the meat. Cook at 325 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.

MMMM, good eating.

Another article is about cougars. There have been 8 confirmed sightings of cougars in Missouri since 1994. There was one killed in a car accident in Callaway County just last August. The conservation department studied the body, and said it didn't have any tags or tatoos, and there aren't any signs that it's been kept in captivity, so they are convinced it's a wild cougar that wandered here from somewhere out west. Personally, I think that is just the coolest thing. I knew there are foxes and coyotes around here, but not cougars. I think there are brown bears or black bears in Missouri, too, but not near where I live. A few issues ago, this magazine said armadillos were spotted in southern Missouri. I wonder if there are wolves sneaking around here, too? I remember when I was little I used to wonder if logs floating down the Mississippi were really logs, or really well disguised alligators.

The last article I want to write about is a heads up for the whole world. There is a researcher at the University of Missouri studying thundersnows, snow showers when there is lightning and thunder. They usually drop a massive amount of snow. If you ever notice thunder and lighting during a snow storm, send an e-mail telling the location, time and date of the storm to http://weather.missouri.edu/ROCS/particip.html . I don't think you win a prize or anything.