D. Walker - The Snacking Dead

2 In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, honey, eggs, and baking soda. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ones until just combined.

3 Place a 9-inch cast-iron skillet over high heat until hot. Melt the butter in the skillet, swirling the pan to coat the bottom and sides with butter. Pour the butter into the batter and stir to combine. Stir in the corn kernels if using. Scrape the batter into the skillet.

4 Bake until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

5 Meanwhile, prepare the honey butter. In a small bowl, mix together the butter, honey, and lemon juice. Serve cornbread warm, slathered with honey butter.

Save your heavy cast-iron pans for small groups of undead. For braining larger packs or swarms, lighter pans or chef’s knives will prevent muscle soreness later.

I t seemed to him the wood began to move.

On the hill above where he sat by the creek the line of trees teemed with walkers. Not just with one walker, and not a pack, but a swarm that didn’t end, like someone had evicted a cemetery.

Well, I’ll die with my bolts used up.

When Daryl was little, an old man up the road had kept bees. He’d spied the man, “robbing” the hive a couple of times every summer, digging sourwood honeycomb from the hollowed gum stump out back of his field. The old buzzard wasn’t one for sharing.

One day his brother Merle had dared him to get some. Daryl had watched the old man enough to know not to fight or swat when you approached the bee hive, and the bees pretty much laid off him at first.

But when he pulled back the cover the bee swarm rose against him as a single cloud of stingers. His brother laughed and laughed as he scuttled back through the woods, but he stopped laughing when he saw he hadn’t let go of the comb. He was a month healing up from the stings.

It had been worth the stings. Mountain honey, thick and raw, was better than any food he’d ever tasted. Besides, it shut Merle up.

Daryl measured the walker swarm’s approach. Armed with knife and hatchet, he plunged in where the biters were thinnest. His leg slowed him down, and the walkers flailed at him like he was entering hell through a car wash.

He lost his footing on a wet slope and slid headlong into a deep, muddy swale. A couple walkers tobogganed down after him. He stabbed their heads as they sluiced by. He scrambled up the far side where the walkers’ rigid limbs couldn’t climb. With a glance back at the godawful horde, he continued eastward along the creek, torn and limping.

The swarm had nearly got him. But he still had his jar of honey.

makes 4 sandwiches

8 slices white Pullman-style bread

½ cup peanut butter (not unsalted)

6 teaspoons honey

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 Spread each of 4 slices of the bread with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter. Drizzle each of these slices with 1 teaspoon of honey, and then sandwich with the other bread slices.

2 In a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, melt 1½ tablespoons of the butter. Let the pan heat for 30 seconds and then add 2 of the sandwiches. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes, or until golden brown, and then flip and cook for an additional 1 to 2 minutes to brown the other side. Transfer sandwiches to a plate and repeat the process with the remaining butter and sandwiches. Halve the sandwiches on a diagonal and serve drizzled with the remaining 2 teaspoons of honey.

Honey is antiseptic and keeps for centuries. You can bring crystallized honey back to liquid by warming it by the fire, as long as you’re sure there aren’t any walkers nearby.

T he creek continued under a chain-link fence and he followed it out of the woods,dazed and near dead, and soon found himself in a long clearing overgrown with Bermuda grass. He could make out a large building with a tall portico on the other side. He needed to rest.

There was a loud crack behind him. His face had already hit the grass before he figured out something hard had hit him in the skull.

He woke tied to a stainless-steel table in a large kitchen. He could feel a knot the size of a meatball in the back of his head. Should’ve known better than to walk onto a damn golf course. He looked around for his knife and his crossbow, but they were gone.

A tall man in a bloodstained pink polo entered the room, followed by a small woman in grass-stained chinos. The man glared at him.

“What the hell hit me?” groaned Daryl.

“I tapped you with a putter,” the man said. “You’re lucky I didn’t use a nine iron.”

“You better next time, if you’re thinking of taking another shot.”

“You looked like a walker.”

“You came about that close to making me one.”

“What do you want here?” asked Pink Polo. “Who are you?”

“Nobody. I’m just passing through. And I don’t need anything from you people, except my crossbow back.” He caught a whiff of something grilling. “Well, I wouldn’t say no to something to eat.”

“We bagged a feral hog near the eighteenth hole just before we caught you. We can spare a meatball, but then you’re out of here.”

“What the hell is this place?”

“Spalding Country Club. And unless you have pepper flakes on you, it’s members only.”

The last place in the dying world he wanted to be was a country club. But that hog smelled good.

Just then they heard shouting from outside. And then screaming.

Daryl muttered, “Must’ve forgotten to mention the biter swarm coming up behind me.”

makes 4 grinders

MEATBALLS

1 pound ground pork

2 large eggs

⅔ cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

¼ cup finely shredded pecorino Romano cheese

¼ cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons finely chopped basil

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

Coarse kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

RED SAUCE

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

1 small bunch fresh basil

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Coarse kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 (24-inch) sesame Italian loaf, halved horizontally

1 garlic clove, halved

8 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced

½ cup fresh basil leaves

¼ cup Parmesan cheese

1 Prepare the meatballs: In a medium bowl combine the pork, eggs, panko, pecorino, Parmesan, basil, red pepper flakes, garlic, salt, and pepper. Use your hands to mix just to combine then form into 8 large meatballs.