On the 23rd, my father-in-law took me hunting at his brother's farm outside of Tarboro, NC.
Here's Jill, above, the family's English Setter, wagging tongue on the tailgate.
My father-in-law, Jerry, bagged these quail. Noble birds. Later that day, I dredged and skillet-fried the legs for hors d'oeurves while we drank beer around the kitchen island. My mother-in-law cooked the breasts in her famous sherry and mushroom gravy that night.
Eliza Bowen's justly famous mini ham biscuits. Bowen, a caterer and friend of the family, sells hundreds of these beauties in December. --Hunter Lewis
Photographs by Hunter Lewis