Living Museum

Ryan, Zane, and I visited the very awesome Virginia Living Museum recently.

We took Zane to see the turtles, what little boy doesn't like turtles?

They got a lukewarm reception at best.  What about dinosaurs?  Boys like dinosaurs! Especially T-Rex!

Nope.  Not interested.  So we handed Zane the map and let him choose his own adventure.

"Hummm..."

"Hey Daddy!"

"I want to go here."

"He he."

"What's over there?

"Dead things!!! Dead things I can play with!!!"*

This looks neat.

"Heya fisy."

"Over here."

"This.  I want to see this."

"Cool." (At least I was in the right genus with the dinosaurs and turtles.)

I was ready for him to crash at any second, but he didn't stop or slow down once.  At the end of the afternoon Ryan and I were so tired from running behind him that we wrestled him into the carrier just to get a break.  He didn't argue, much.

My little critter is growing up.

*They were actually dead things.  Taxidermied tails and pelts from raccoons and opossums and such.  Aren't we the most awesomest parents EVAR?

Liver, Like From a Cow

Let’s talk about liver. Yes, LIVER. Specifically, cow livers.

We love liver. We’re eating it two or three times a month. It helps that we’ve got a local farmer who can’t unload the stuff fast enough (along with tongues, hearts, and other tasty bits) so she sells it to us for ridiculously low prices. RIDICULOUSLY low. It seems that most folks around here are under the mistaken impression that they don’t like liver.

I bet you’re under the mistaken impression that you don’t like liver.

I would bet that you actually don’t like over cooked liver. Like eggs, most cooks will keep liver on the fire until it’s nothing but a sad rubbery hunk. (Yes, you’re over cooking your eggs too, but that’s a discussion for another time.) This is wrong, wrong, wrong. Good liver is never chewy. Liver should be cooked till it is firm, but still pink in the center. It’s tender, sort of sweet, and tasty. VERY tasty.

It lacks imagination, but we make the same recipe every time. Liver with Spinach Salad, Croutons and Pine Nuts via Food and Wine. The recipe calls for calves’ liver, but using full grown cow liver hasn't caused us any trouble. I think the grass fed cow’s livers that we buy are less bitter then their corn finished cousins'. It could help that they’re “organic” too. Or it could all be in my head.  

To make this fantastic, iron and b vitamin packed, salad you first cut up your bread and stick it in the oven along with your pine nuts to toast. Pine nuts take less then 5 minutes, croutons take about 15. Don’t mix that up. Trust me. While they cook wisk together the dressing for the salad. Then comes the fun part.

Dredge the liver in some flour. Your hands will look like this.

I just lost you didn’t I.

I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist. Does this make up for it?

Whew! Back to the liver. This is the tricky part. You cook it. Remember, don’t go too far. About three minutes on each side, possibly less, just under medium high heat.

You have to baby sit it a bit. This is why Ryan is in charge of the liver. I am too easily distracted by über cute toddlers holding spoons.

You then dress a TON of spinach and add in the pine nuts and croutons.

Heap the salad in bowls, add the liver, and top with some remaining dressing.

Looks tasty doesn’t it. Not like what you imagined liver to look like, right? Still a skeptic?  Zane likes it.

He likes it a lot.

* I know that I totally missed focus on just about every single one of these photos. In my defense I was very hungry and delirious from the heavenly smell of cooking livers.  I may also have had a glass of wine.