Hopping and hoping

F. Jasmine Addams may be confused as the rest of us about marriage and friendship and figuring out where she belongs. But she has her priorities in order when it comes to life's most important quandary --what food would wake the dead.

"Now hopping-john was F. Jasmine's very favorite food. She had always warned them to wave a plate of rice and peas before her nose when she was in her coffin, to make certain there was no mistake; for if a breath of life was left in her, she would sit up and eat, but if she smelled the hopping-john and did not stir, then they could just nail down the coffin and be certain that she was truly dead. Now Berenice had chosen for her death-test a piece of fried fresh-water trout, and for John Henry it was divinity fudge. But though F. Jasmine loved the hopping-john the very best, the others also liked it well enough, and all three of them enjoyed the dinner that day: the ham knuckle, the hopping-john, cornbread, hot baked sweet potatoes, and the buttermilk. And as they ate, they carried on the conversation."

I read most of Carson McCullers' "The Member of the Wedding" on Friday. It's hard to begrudge an entire day reading, but it wasn't how I had planned on starting the weekend. I was supposed to get on the train, ride out to a friend's house for a barbecue, then spend all Saturday skiing. Instead, I lay on the floor, nursing a pulled muscle in my back.

It was a long, rainy day, and I followed 12-year-old F. Jasmine through bar booths and dusty sidewalks as she bragged of her sophisticated plans to elope with her unsuspecting brother and his bride into a new life of open roads and fancy restaurants and Alaska's sky. When her plans fell apart, I could empathize. There's nothing like knowing there's a party going on while you're stuck on the outskirts. Age, it appears, can affect your social plans coming and going.

This is one of the many reasons I believe you should always have some black-eyed peas in the freezer, waiting to be reheated and spooned over rice. There's no great secret to making hopping-john: you boil up black-eyed peas (which you've soaked over night) along with a smoked hamhock, an onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, salt and pepper. I add a little ground cumin, to enhance the smokiness. It helps if you have a cast-iron dutch oven. You fry the hamhock, then the vegetables, then add the cumin, peas and cover with water. Once you've brought the peas to a boil you can continue to simmer on the stove or put in a slow oven, say 300 to 325 degrees. Stir every 15 or 20 minutes, and begin tasting after an hour or so. When they are tender enough for you, they're done.

I'm not quite as certain as F. Jasmine that hopping-john would be my final coffin test. I think my ability to wake up would somehow involve more butter. But on Friday night, the hopping-john did get me off the floor and into the kitchen, as least long enough to steam some rice. It's certainly a step in the right direction.