It would be a very obnoxious cookbook.
I'm really not much of a cook beyond breakfast foods and anything I can make in a frying pan or cast-iron skillet (which includes STEAK!). But I'm fairly useless beyond that.
If you're making it from drippings when you've just cooked bacon (the ONLY WAY TO MAKE IT IS WITH BACON, SCREW SAUSAGE) drain off the grease, leave the rest of the crusty stuff in the pan, then return two tablespoons of the grease back in. Add three tablespoons of Wondra flour and cook that at...
I think that's his surface plan. But we all know he's nucking futs. He's got an angle beneath it. He's filled to the brim with assaults to his ego juxtaposed with confidence that reaches pimp level swagger - and just enough smarts to squeak by without getting all dead.
I have NEVER heard the losing it in the service story. To my recollection. I've done a lot of drugs. But yeah, the story I've heard from Daddy and the rest of the family is the model rocket engine thing.
He picked his nose and booger ate it.
Then, he stuck it in a fan and it was chopped off.
Finally, a model rocket engine blew up in his hand. His finger was found in a neighbor's yard.
Our two versions do not actually conflict. The only reason mom finally relented was the fear that I would not be there when she was sick from all that cigarette smoking and box wine drinking.