Making Chicken Liver Pate

When we butcher chickens, in addition to the meat, we save the gizzards, hearts and livers for cooking.  The livers are my favorite, pan-fried in butter.  That's some good eating.  In looking for other ways to prepare a bunch of chicken livers, Tricia thought about making pate with them. Chicken liver pate can be used as a dip along with some bagel chips or crackers.

Although we'd never made it before, she found a recipe in her Nourishing Traditions Cookbook, by Sally Fallon, and got busy.  Here's the ingredient list:

3 Tablespoons butter
1 pound chicken livers
1/2 pound mushrooms
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2/3 cups white wine
1 clove garlic, mashed
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon dried dill
1/4 teaspoon rosemary
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 stick butter, softened
sea salt

First Tricia melted the butter in a cast iron skillet, adding the livers, onions and mushrooms.  She cooked them until the livers were nice and brown, stirring them around.  She then added the wine, garlic, mustard, lemon juice and herbs, boiling until the liquid is gone.  Then you allow it to cool completely.  She poured it all into the food processor with the softened butter and processed until smooth.

Processing

Using a spatula, the pate was moved into a bowl and we opened a bag of bagel chips to scoop up the pate.  It tasted rich and smooth, a perfect appetizer or dip.

We ate a bunch of it and then did a little research and discovered that it freezes well, so we packed it into individual containers for freezing.

It can be frozen and popped out and thawed for use later.  

It is a really simple recipe that is a delicious alternative for pan-fried chicken livers.

Jalapeno Poppers for the Big Game

This weekend was the opening game for college football season.  Excitement was in the air and we couldn't wait for the LSU - Wisconsin game to come on.  Russ was home from college for the Labor Day weekend and we got ready to watch the game. First, though, we wanted to make some appetizers to munch on while watching the game.

I had just picked about 30 nice jalapeno peppers from the garden and Jalapeno Poppers seemed like just the thing.  We had a short time before kickoff, so we had to get busy.  We used this recipe that can be found Here.   We thought it was easy, quick to prepare and cook, and delicious.  Here's what you need:

1 lb breakfast sausage (like Jimmy Dean)
8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
1 cup shredded Parmesan Cheese
30 jalapeno peppers, cut in half lengthwise and seeded

Russ cut all the jalapenos in half and seeded them:

Jalapenos halved and seeded

While we were cutting up the jalapenos, we put the breakfast sausage in a skillet and started browning it. You want to cook it until it is no longer pink and then drain the fat off.

Browning the sausage

We began grating the Parmesan Cheese until we had a cup prepared.

Grated Parmesan Cheese

Combine the Parmesan cheese with the softened cream cheese.  Stir it up pretty good.

Combining the Parmesan with the Cream Cheese

Then mix in the browned breakfast sausage.

All ingredients combined - ready to go!

Now we took a spoon and began filling each jalapeno half with our cheese/sausage concoction and putting them on a baking tray.

Filling the jalapenos

We put the loaded jalapenos into an oven preheated to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and let them bake for 20 minutes.  You'll know when they are done because the cheese will be browned.

Jalapeno Poppers hot from the oven

We rated these Two Thumbs Up!  They were outstanding hot out of the oven.  Baking the peppers seemed to make the peppers milder - still spicy and hot, but tasty.  The cheese and sausage topping was very good and kept us going back to the warmer again and again during the game until they were all gone!

The jalapeno poppers were hotter than the Tigers through 3 quarters, but at the end of the game the Tigers came roaring back and delivered a winning performance - just like this appetizer!