Text 2325, 116 rader
Skriven 2008-02-11 20:37:00 av JOAN MACDIARMID (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JIM WELLER
Ärende: holidays
================
 Hi, Jim,

 JM> I have no good holiday stories for you guys. I went
 JM> to visit my Mom, who had thrown her back out

 JW> I'm sorry it wasn't a better time for both of you. It sounds like
 JW> she would have appreciated the help though.

 Well, as a follow-up, her back finally relaxed, and
 she does dare sleep in her bed again. They prescribed
 a course of physical therapy, which she survived,
 though the "physical terrorists" put her through
 sets of exercises that left her sore for days! I
 wish she would do them, maybe at reduced levels, on
 her own, but she admitted she hadn't done so.

 I had thought I would need to go back when she had
 cataract surgeries, but they were scheduled and done
 so quickly I had no chance. A friend drove her to
 and from those appointments (thanks, Marilyn!).

 Sorry I wrote the grouch message, I was still
 recovering from the trip, I guess. I guess there was
 some good in the trip...I got out of Buffalo winter
 for a while, got some exercise walking around in
 the milder Alabama weather (cool but not cold) and
 I must admit I had decent driving weather for both
 850-mile legs of the trip. But maybe I should insist
 on making a trip home at times other than Christmas/
 New Years and make my own holidays here, just with
 friends. Then my nasty sister-in-law couldn't hold
 me hostage to a sort of ceremonial meal on Christmas
 (Mom might again be a victim, though). A visit on any
 other weekend would let us suggest take-out on some
 timely basis, paid for by me or Mom, so she couldn't
 feel so put-upon. I guess I should feel sorry for
 her, too, as she has to put up with Mom and me, both
 disliked, apparently, for a whole 2 days. But Mom
 hadn't been able to visit her grandkids the whole
 previous year, partly for health reasons. And Tom
 rarely brings his family to Mom's for any visits.
 For one thing, Sally refuses to eat Mom's cooking
 (which isn't bad, BTW), having expressed it as "I
 may have to come here to visit, but I don't have to
 eat this crap!" and she goes out for fast-food. And
 I have suffered through so many of her cardboardy
 pie crusts, and smiled! As your stories have
 illustrated, families can be both a blessing and
 a curse!

 JW> Here's a Southern thing even if it's not an Alabama thing....

 Maybe not specifically Southern (US), but this and
 another pork liver "mush" you posted recently are the
 closest things I have seen to the first family recipe
 I ever posted here, though the seasonings are different.
 Nice to see my family recipe DOES have cousins.

 JW> MMMMM-----Meal-Master - formatted by MMCONV  2.10

 JW> Title: Liver Pudding
 JW> Categories: American, Southern, Offal

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05

      Title: Liver Sausage
 Categories: Sausage, Pork, Breakfast
      Yield: 2 Loafpans

      2 lb Pork liver
      1 lb Fat pork or pork fat
      7 c  Water
      2 T  Salt (heaping tablespoons)
      1 T  Black pepper (heaping T)
      1 T  Ground cloves (heaping T)
      2 lb Graham (whole wheat) flour
           -OR graham and buckwheat or
           -cornmeal* mixed

     Cook the pork liver and pork fat pieces in 7 cups of water. Keep
  the cooking water, and make up to volume if deemed necessary (my Mom
  doesn't bother making up the volume). Put the meat and fat through a
  grinder, then add the salt, pepper, cloves and flours/meal. [*NOTE:
  my family has settled on 1 lb. of graham flour and 1 lb. of cornmeal
  for the desired texture and flavor, I don't even know where to get
  buckwheat flour! J.M.] Add back most of the cooking water, NOW making
  up volume if necessary, to get a thickish paste. Cook this slowly on
  a pan on the stove until thoroughly heated through, spoon into
  loafpans and press to pack down well. [I do cook the stuff a while in
  a pan on the stove, but the stuff tends to stick to the pan bottom,
  so after heating through well, I packed the paste into loafpans and
  then baked at 275 degrees F for about 1 hour to set and thicken up.
  J.M.] Cool and store your loaf sausages.

  TO SERVE: Slice the liver sausage from the loaves into pieces about
  1/4 to 3/8-in thick (careful, it may be a little crumbly!) Since the
  sausage is really not very fat (the one pound of fat is in with 2
  pounds of liver, 2 pounds of grain products and a fair amount of
  water), you need to heat some cooking fat like vegetable shortening
  in a frying pan (enough to sizzle the slices, not just for non-stick
  properties...don't use a spray of Pam!) and slide the slices gently
  into the pan. Brown gently on both sides, then serve on buttered
  toast with some jelly or preserves (grape or raspberry are
  recommended!) (Layers: toast, butter, jelly, THEN sausage slice(s)).

  This is a recipe I got from my mother, who got it from her mother, and
  before that, I don't know the origin. My grandmother was from a Dutch
  family in Michigan. There might be a relationship with the
  Pennsylvania Dutch recipes for Scrapple, but it is different from
  most Scrapples I have read recipes for. Anyway, I like this for a
  breakfast on a cold morning! Joan MacDiarmid

MMMMM
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