Prawns, Penne, and Cats

Prawns and Penne - Saturday, Laura and I enjoyed a wonderful feast: She grilled beautiful New York strip steaks and portabella mushrooms. Laura made a nice marinade for the steaks and mushrooms, and they were wonderful. While she grilled, I cooked a package of penne until al dente, drained, and set aside. I put butter, extra-virgin olive oil, minced garlic, red pepper flakes, ground black pepper, and ground basil in a large sauté pan. I sautéed this for a few minutes then added a package of baby spinach that I had julienned. I stirred this for a few minutes, added the penne, and stirred.

The meal was excellent, and there was a quantity of penne remaining. Sunday evening, Laura cleaned and marinated some enormous prawns. Last evening, she grilled the prawns quickly indoors on a special grilling pan. She reheated half of the leftover penne and added the prawns to the penne. Words fail me. This photograph will suffice:

Chicken Livers - Over the years, I have encountered many who express a contempt of chicken livers. Some allow this fear and loathing to manifest itself—resulting in hideous facial contortion and guttural speech sounds—the primary place of articulation being near the back of the oral cavity.

Laura and I, however, are aficianados of chicken liver cuisine!

I have determined that these chicken-liver haters are—for the most part—Democrats. Characteristically, they eschew the unfamiliar and profess their positions to be based upon scientific observation—unwilling to admit their belief system is fully flawed and solely annecdotal.

I do not recall having a conversation with a lucid individual that included a discussion of chicken livers—during the course of which discussion it was professed that chicken livers had been eaten and not enjoyed!

Laura produced a dinner last evening that featured chicken livers. The dinner was delightful. In preparation, I thoroughly rinsed a package of Foster Farms chicken livers, patted them dry, and coated them with a mixture of Panko bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, and red pepper flakes. Laura expertly sautéed them in extra-virgin olive oil—resulting in chicken livers that were crispy on the outside and delightfully firm yet tender on the inside. She steamed two packages of chicken-flavored rice with slivered carrots and broccoli. We used Oriental hot mustard and sriracha sauce as condiments. It was a wonderful meal.