Chicken Livers with Grapes and Carmelized Onions is an easy start to cooking chicken livers, up there with pâté and tacos. It’s real, simple food at it’s finest – sweet, savory and lovely.
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Liver Tonic, a high-octane Bloody Mary
“Tonic, noun, 1. a medicinal substance taken to give a feeling of vigor…Â Adjective, 1. giving a feeling of vigor or well-being; invigorating.”
The Bloody Mary has always been known as a cure for a variety of ailments. The tomato juice alone is probably the key element, as it is rich in vitamins and minerals. Most notably, these include vitamin C, the antioxidant lycopene, and the electrolytes potassium and sodium. However, with the Bloody Mary, there is always the risk of letting the cure become the cause.
To avoid any risk and maximize benefits, we skip the vodka and add raw grated liver. And there you have it, near and dear to my heart: the Liver Tonic.
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Italian liver piccata and how I learned to love liver
It wasn’t always this way. In the beginning, I had to force myself to finish a serving of liver. Week after week, I’d lovingly prepare this Italian Liver Piccata (adapted from Marcella Hazan in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking), if not with some trepidation. Then I would serve it with confidence – if not a ‘fake it til you make it’ kind of confidence – to my family.
I had learned that organ meats are the foundation of a healthful diet, with liver being the most important. And I wanted a healthy family. But I didn’t grow up eating organ meats, and my mom had not said kind things about her own experience. Yet, my 100-year old grandmother (my best barometer of ‘food’ and food quality) served liver every week and still loves it. I knew it was the best way to fortify myself and my family; I had to get on board.
Here’s how it would go down:
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Menudo: Mexican tripe soup, or affectionately, cow’s stomach soup
Even though I have a savory palate and wouldn’t mind soup most mornings for breakfast (especially through winter), the kids don’t love that idea. Â In fact, I would say that they don’t even like that idea. Â Unless, of course, it is menudo, Mexican tripe soup, as adapted from Rick Bayless in Authentic Mexican Cooking – affectionately known around our place as ‘cow’s stomach soup.’
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Vietnamese pho – (raw) beef and noodle soup
On Thursday nights we eat raw meat at home. “Hmm,” you might be thinking. It might sound exotic, or a bit scary, but it’s really no big thing. Steak tartar, carpaccio, a lot of ceviche in the summer. A pretty (ok, very) rare steak. “Oh right…” Maybe it’s not something you would usually eat, but not so strange. As it turns out, the kids are like little wild animals around this stuff. If you don’t move quick, you won’t get any. I think there is something to be said for that.
I never realized that Vietnamese beef pho was in this category, but it was a happy discovery.
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Chicken liver tacos & why I love Rick Bayless
This recipe moves me from eating chicken liver because I should to eating it because it’s awesome. I’m not the only one. My oldest son asked for these for his birthday this past year.
It’s inspired by the Azadura con Salsa Verde (innards in green sauce) recipe in Authentic Mexican Cooking by Rick Bayless. I confess that I love it so much I left a sort of love letter of appreciation at one of his restaurants last year, hoping that it might find him.
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Organ meats as an alternative to marijuana?
Fat-soluble vitamins available in organ meats activate the same cannabinoid receptors as active compounds in marijuana. Is this a good alternative?
Background
I recently read an article titled The Pursuit of Happiness by Chris Masterjohn. He’s an academic researcher and his work elaborates on the importance of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K. In this article, he explains how vitamins A and D, along with arachidonic acid are precursors to the internal production of endocannabinoids. The endocannabinoids are the natural compounds that activate the cannabinoid receptors.
These receptors are responsible for the regulation of both dopamine (needed for long-term goal-oriented behavior) and cortisol (the stress hormone). As he notes, “by curbing the excess production of cortisol and supporting adequate production of dopamine, endocannabinoids help prevent excess tension, anxiety, burnout, and feelings of self-defeat and help support the confrontation of challenges with the attitudes necessary for success.”…
Braised rabbit with offal
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, annual averages for 2015 time use surveys show women spending 37 minutes per day in ‘food and drink preparation.’ This is about 27% of all their household activities. Â This compares to 17 minutes spent by men; 20% of their total household activities. As I learned in Michael Pollan’s Cooked, this category basically counts up minutes spent opening packages and warming prepared food, assembling the prepared ingredients of a sandwich, and of course any actual chopping or preparation of food in a traditional sense that may occur.
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Brains and scrambled eggs
As long as I’ve been cooking brains, I’ve stuck with brain fritters and hidden within casseroles. Though the idea of this blog is to force me to try new recipes. Either those that have been on my list for a while, or new ones entirely. (Do you have one to share?) Â This recipe definitely falls into the former category – it’s been on my list….