When is chicken not chicken?

A local reporter has begun a new column in the Statesman called "Momma's Kitchen." He's going to write about favorite family recipes and the traditions that surrounded them and he began by writing about his momma's Chicken and Spaghetti - the penultimate church dinner dish.

His story was that growing up as one of six children in the household of a small-town preacher and his wife, the Chicken and Spaghetti dish was one way his mother could feed a family of eight with only one chicken - often a necessity in those challenging days. And that got me to thinking about my mother's Chicken and Spaghetti.

I don't think money was as tight when I was growing up as it was for the reporter - at least, if it was, it was transparent to me. I think the reason my mother cooked Chicken and Spaghetti so often - especially for church gatherings - was because she needed a way to disguise the rabbit. Yes, it's true. Mother's Chicken and Spaghetti was often really Rabbit and Spaghetti.

At one time we raised rabbits in a big way. The front of the garage had been replaced with two tiers of rabbit cages, and with rabbits reproducing like, well, rabbits, there was always an abundance of white meat that "tasted like chicken" at our house. It didn't pay to get attached to those cute little bunnies. There was just something wrong about hearing, "We're having Floppsy for lunch today."

Fried rabbit was better than fried chicken - it was all white meat - but one couldn't pass the dish off as chicken because the parts were just not the right parts. But in a casserole, who knew? I don't think anyone in Breckenridge was opposed to eating rabbit, but to my knowledge, Mother never gave away her secret to the church folk, and if they suspected, they were too polite to face her with the fact.

The reporter finished his column discussing the recipe he found as his mother's dish, and the fact that the recipe called for black olives. He claims his mother never put black olives in the dish; his sister says she did. Which got me to wondering - did my mother use black olives? I want to say yes, but that may be because of all the dishes at church luncheons for all these years that have included black olives. I simply can't remember. But I do remember that "chicken."