Two Kinds of Liver

The first kind is from ducks. Anything I would have to say about foie gras, Ms. Chou covers beautifully this morning in the PI. The only thing I could add--and really, it's a different article--is that shopping responsibly isn't hard to do, and deserves the small amount of effort in thought it might require. It can also be slightly more expensive, which can mean that you have to choose your battles. But as of this week, farmer's markets have opened/are opening all over the city--get thee to a parking lot in your neighborhood. Even better, sign up for their email fresh sheet, so you'll know when your favorite stuff (remember they have cheese, meat and eggs along with fruit and vegetables) shows up.

The second kind is from humans. Last night, I got to watch two people ignore my warnings about the crazy Copyright Violation Pie I made on Sunday, eat too much, get the sugar zips, and crash, to varying degrees of crashiness. I don't typically warn anyone about portion control before they've even wandered into my kitchen, and I was surprised to be either ignored or have my words taken as a challenge (I'm not sure which). Part of this, I assume, was that we'd also been eating the results of a new brownie recipe--the same old cheater caramel brownies, with a layer of sweetened cream cheese added under the caramel. I am going to call them Jesus Christ Brownies, because that's what everyone said after their first bite. [ My changes to the linked recipe: ditch the pecans, use semisweet chips, add 3 Tbls unsweetened cocoa to the cake mix. For the cream cheese layer, stir together a brick of softened cream cheese, an egg and 1/4 C of white sugar. Spread this on top of the baked bottom layer, then proceed as directed in the link]

As something of an apology for taking a day off everyone's life because of all the sugar and far insanity, I suggest trying agave syrup when you need a sweet thing at home (do not take this as a challenge and go down a bottle). It's basically like a diet sweetener without any of the bad taste or questionable healthiness of say, Equal. QF(uckin)C has both light and dark version in the organic baking section; the light is a great sweetener for drink or added to fruit if you're baking it and need it a little sweeter. It is decidedly sweeter than sugar--I put about half as much of it in my tea than I do of sugar--and it doesn't have a flavor other than 'sweet'. I'm going to try it in candy in place of corn syrup, too. Supposedly the darker version has a bit more flavor depth; probably like dark corn syrup has more than light.

Comments

[the authority]

You didn't enjoy the sugar trip nearly as much as I enjoyed watching you drool on the table.

[Tyler]

I did hear your warning and I did in fact take it as a challenge. It was really just my natural reaction to authority / advice / wisdom / common sense. And, FWIW, I kind of enjoyed the sugar trip.

[your sister]

I'm ignoring you.

[Rob L]

I've told you twice now: I didn't hear your warning. I did not ignore you.