Weekly weigh-in: inch by inch; plus--variety meats, the spice of life?

Today's numbers:

• Today's weight: 204.0 lb
• Change since last week: -1.0 lb
• Cumulative weight loss: 130.0 lb
• Average weekly weight change: -1.73 lb

Okay, so I won't pretend that I'm not pleased about hitting the 130-pound cumulative weight loss milestone. It's a nice round number, and that's pretty damn cool.

Even better, though: my bedroom closet in my new abode has mirrored sliding doors, so I essentially have a floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall mirror greeting me every morning. In the past this might have been a real bummer. But now--even though my bod does have various saggy-baggy things going on (I'll spare you the details--aren't you glad?--but weight loss, surgery, and just plain age will do that to one) ... I say, even despite all that, I'm actually pretty darned pleased with seeing my reflection these days. I can look in the mirror unclothed and say to myself, "Y'know, if that's how things remain, I could happily live with that."

The key thing for me is that my bod, though still hefty, no longer looks like it's encumbered by fat. At my top weight, even I had to surface from denial long enough to admit that all that excess flesh made it look like I should be nearly immobilized. And in many ways, I was. Now, even though my crapped-out knee and other whiney joints still interfere, I feel pretty liberated in my physical movement--and not only is that a sweet feeling, but the point of the exercise after all.

Meanwhile, on the "Cooking for E." front, I have been pleased to discover another surprising food favorite of his: sauteed liver and onions. When I think of all the people I've known, even some diehard foodies, who detest liver, I am all the more gleeful over the fact that my picky eater E. actually likes the stuff. Myself, I adore "variety meats" of all sorts, so I am thrilled to have someone with whom to share that enjoyment. So I fixed liver and onions for E. and myself last night, and E. just loved it.

I happen to think that the reason most people think they hate liver is that they've never had it properly cooked. It is ridiculously easy to over-cook it--only a few moments of inattention turn it into dried-out nasty shoe leather, which is what most people complain of when they say they dislike it. For those of you who want to overcome your liver aversion, here are my secrets: use moderate heat, get the pan fully warmed up, and then let the slices of liver stay in the pan barely a minute on either side--so short a time that it's still reddish inside and you'll think it's undercooked. Trust me--it isn't. Especially if it's thin-sliced like most stores have it, the carry-over heat will continue to cook the insides once you remove it from the pan; and even though it'll still be a little pink on the inside when you cut into it, that's totally okay and safe. In fact, that's how it should be served! Trying to get rid of that pink is what turns it into the shoeleather that everyone, including I, hate. You have to deprogram yourself from that myth that pinkish middle == unsafe undercooked meat, and once you do you'll discover some fine--and inexpensive!--eating.

Another secret: especially if you're working with beef liver, a preliminary soak in milk will help draw out some of the stronger flavors. As little as 20-30 minutes will help, though I've seen some cookbooks say as long as a couple of hours. Discard the milk afterwards. Here's my basic recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 lb liver, thinly sliced
• 1 large onion (a sweet onion like a Vidalia is especially nice)
• milk -- about 1/2 to 1 cup
• flour for dredging the liver -- maybe about 1/2 cup or even less
• seasonings to taste (salt, pepper, paprika, etc.)
• Your cooking fat of choice (oil, butter, non-stick cooking spray, etc.)

Equipment

• Heavy-bottomed skillet, preferably big enough to hold all the liver in one layer with a little room to spare
• Non-reactive bowl (glass, stainless steel, etc.)
• Shallow dish for holding the dredging flour--a pie plate works great
• Paper toweling for drying the liver.

Method

1. Give the liver a little rinse in cool tap water. Put it in the non-reactive bowl, add milk just to cover, and set in the fridge to soak a bit while you deal with the onion.
2. Peel and halve, or even quarter, the onion, and slice thinly.
3. Put the skillet over moderate heat, add a little of your cooking fat of choice, and sweat the onions with a little bit of salt at least until they are very soft and translucent. If you have the time and inclination, let them keep going until they are golden-brown and caramelized to your liking. When done, remove them from the pan and reserve. If it's going to be a little while longer before you cook the liver, put the onions somewhere where they'll stay warm (like a very low oven).
4. Put the flour in the pie plate, and season to taste.
5. When you're getting close to serving time, take the liver from the marinade and layer it between some paper toweling to dry it off a little.
6. Put some additional cooking fat in the big skillet and put it over moderate heat. Have the liver and the flour just nearby the stove.
7. When the skillet is fully warmed up, dredge each slice of liver lightly in the seasoned flour, gently shake off any excess, and lay it down in the pan. Work quickly so that you get all the liver in the pan more or less at the same time.
8. By the time you get the last piece of liver in the pan, the first will probably already be ready for turning--I'm serious! It happens that fast! Turn each piece to cook the other side and then watch it like a hawk--it'll be done before you know it. If you'd like you can cut a slit with a sharp knife to take a look inside--the outer edges should be brown, but while the middle should have lost the raw look it should still be quite pink. Whip that stuff out of the pan right now!
9. Serve the liver with the onions next to and/or slightly draped over it. A nice green salad and a baked potato make great accompaniments.

Variations: my mom never bothered with the flour dredging, and her liver turned out great too. You can also use liver from other critters--veal and chicken livers are also great. Chicken livers, because they usually come whole and have got a bumpier surface area, will require a little more active sauteeing action--but still, don't let them lose that pink in their centers. And you can augment the onions with other vegetables--sliced mushrooms and bell peppers are especially simpatico.

A word of caution: Since one of the liver's bodily function is to filter out impurities in the bloodstream, liver from the mainstream livestock industry may well contain unhappy amounts of environmental contaminants. Since I don't eat it very often, I don't worry about these issues too much; however, if I've inspired you to go on a variety-meat odyssey, you might want to buy your liver and other offal-ly bits from natural food stores, that carry meats from animals protected from pollution and drugs and raised on natural organic foods.

Comments

[Kathy]

For me, the issue with liver is twofold: the texture and the taste. The texture is just *wrong* somehow to me - not like meat at all, doing weird things on my teeth. But the taste...that's what really trips me up. I can't stomach that taste even a little bit. Even when I pinch my nose closed so I can't smell I can still taste it. But hey - that just leaves more liver for everyone else, right? :-)

[mizducky]

Right. :-)

I mean, really--if you've tried it and you just don't care for it, there's no sense in torturing yourself. Food's supposed to be a pleasure, after all. (And yep, I'll happily eat your portion.)