Weeknight Dinner: Sauted Liver and Broccoli Pesto Pasta

Sauteed Liver and Broccoli Pesto Pasta

 This is a dinner of loves and hates.  I love liver.  I hate broccoli.  I love cooking, but I hate cleaning up.  I love blogging, but I hate taking, uploading, and editing pictures.  So you get a little of both worlds a little liver, a lot of broccoli, an easy meal with not too much clean up, and a blog post with only one picture.  :D

Maybe you're the opposite of me you love broccoli but you hate liver.Liver has a bad rap.  Maybe you tried it once as a kid and it was gross dry and weirdly pasty with a texture like eating glue.  Here's the thing liver is delicious--if you follow two simple rules: one, marinate; and two don't over cook it.  Liver should still be slightly pink inside when you serve it.  The liver here is prepared in simple marinade of store bought dressing.  

As for the broccoli, I followed a recipe I found over at the Smitten Kitchen,  with only a few minor tweaks.   I used mozzarella cheese instead of parmesan because that's what I had on hand, milk instead of cream for the same reason, and I added more garlic and a pinch of red pepper for flavoring.

So give liver a shot and enjoy a simple meal.

Pork Liver marinated in Italian dressing

1/4 cup Italian dressing  ( I used two different kinds to use up the last of both bottles)

1/2 lb Fresh Pork liver

1 tsp olive oil

Rinse the liver and pat it dry place it in a shallow bowl or dish.  Pour the dressing over the liver and use a spoon to make sure each piece is coated.  Set aside for 20 mins.  Use this time to prepare your broccoli pasta.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium low heat. Add oil and coat pan.  Add the liver and cook for 2-3 mins on each side or until the center is slightly pink.

I'm back!

Well after a long unplanned sabbatical,  I'm back.  Sorry for dropping off the face of the Earth.

I thought I'd jump right into the thick of things with a WIP Wednesday.  I bough this yarn earlier this summer from a Craftsy deal.

Nashua Handknits Summer Gardens

When I saw this yarn I knew it would become something for my sister Mel.  You see, I grew up in a very conservative household. We went to church on Sundays, and Wednesdays and often Saturdays, Tuesdays or Thursdays as well. We watched G and occasionally PG rated movies, we didn't have television, and the first tie I wore a tank top was in college.  So when my oldest sister started reading Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, my parents were, of course, quite horrified.   They tried to ban the books which as any person who's ever been teenager knows is much easier said than done.  I never read The Vampire Chronicles,  but Mel and I do share a love of a vampires (and other supernatural beings).  This is all a very long way to tell you that I knew that the lovely reds, and purples and almost blacks in this yarn made me think of all things vampire and gothic.

So here is my V is for Vampire Shawlette.  

This is my first attempt at knitting anything remotely cabled or lacy.  So although both the cables and the lace are fairly simple I am exceptionally proud of what I've managed to do so far.  Now that I have started on the second side I am pretty sure I did the decreases completely hay wire wrong on the first side.  I am planning to tear back and redo the whole first side after I finish the second side. It's weird though because I am feeling remarkably zen about the whole ripping out half a shawl thing.  Though I really hope I can get faster at knitting--that's the only complaint I have about knitting its terribly slow.

Drop by Tamis Amis, What you doing Wednesday, and Frontier Dreams  to see other great works in progress.  Have a Happy Wednesday!