Liver & Onions With German Potato Salad, Bacon Fried Brussel Sprouts, Pickled Red Cabbage and Buttered Mushrooms With Sliced Jalapenos

Gathering the Ingredients

Ingredients:

• Liver
• Bacon
• Vinegar
• Olive Oil
• Butter
• 2 Onions - 1 Chopped - 1 Sliced
• Garlic - 3 Cloves Chopped fine
• Brussel Sprouts
• White Button Mushrooms
• Jalapeños
• Red Cabbage
• Potatoes - I used Trader Joe's Baby Red, Gold and Purple- so cool!
• Garlic Powder
• Parsley
• Salt 
• Pepper
• Cornstarch
• Cold Water
• Stevia

Get the bacon frying.

Wash the Brussel Sprouts, Potatoes and Cabbage.

 Rinse and then clean the Brussel Sprouts by chopping off the end of the stem and peeling some of the outer leaves off.  Slice them in half and wash them again.  Rinse the whole head of Red Cabbage well, shred it and then rewash.  Rinse the baby potatoes (I love the red, gold and purple colors) and slice into 1/4 inch slices, place in cold water and set aside.

Pickled Cabbage

Prepare the Pickled Cabbage:

Sprinkle a good amount of salt and pepper,  then drizzle vinegar and olive oil over the shredded red cabbage and place in fridge to chill and pickle itself.

German Potato Salad

Once the bacon is done cooking, remove it onto a plate, retaining the fat in your pan.  Add the Brussel Sprouts to the pan and stir fry them very quickly, 1 to 2 minutes.  Remove them and keep in a covered dish to keep them warm.  Next add a few tablespoons of butter and the drained potatoes to your pan.  When the potatoes are tender add the chopped onion and the garlic.  Sprinkle a little garlic powder, parsley, salt, pepper and pour vinegar (1/4 cup to 1 cup depending on how sour you want it). Add 1 or 2 mini scoops of 100% Organic Stevia Powder to sweeten.  Just a few minutes before serving add 1 Cup cold water (with 1 Tbs. cornstarch stirred into it) to thicken up the vinegar/butter/bacon fat and to make a light sauce.

Adding the Onions to the Liver

About half-way through cooking your potatoes (above) add a few Tbs. of  butter to a heated iron skillet and throw in the liver.  Brown nicely on each side before adding your sliced onions.  Cover and let simmer.  Right before you add the cold water/ cornstarch mix to your potatoes, exchange the onions to the bottom of your pan and put the liver on top of the onions so that the onions will caramelize on the bottom of the pan.

Button Mushrooms with Jalapeños

In the meantime, rinse and clean the mushrooms by chopping a small portion of the stems off the end of the mushrooms and washing them well by gently cleaning each mushroom by hand.  Wash the jalapeños and chop into slices (you may remove the seeds if they are too hot).  Put them into a microwave safe bowl with butter and cook on high for 2-3 minutes.

You may want to pop the Brussel Sprouts in the microwave for a minute before serving.

Voilà:  Liver and Caramelized Red Onion with Mustard; Hot German Potato Salad with Red, Gold, and Purple Baby Potatoes; Bacon Stir Fried Brussel Sprouts; Buttered White Button Mushrooms with Jalapeño slices; Pickled Red Cabbage Salad.  Enjoy!

Liver & Onions with German Potato Salad, Bacon Fried Brussel Sprouts & Pickled Red Cabbage

Grocery Shopping and a Quick Brunch Afterwards

Melorange from +Sam's Club

Our shopping trip to +Sam's Club  was quick and uneventful except for finding a new fruit, which seems the norm lately.  Last week we found +Apriums, which my youngest son renamed Plumpercots.  This week we found +Meloranges.  As you can see from the photo, the one we cut up disappeared rather quickly  even before I had time to remember to take a picture.  They are a firm slightly less melony version of a Cantaloupe.  My first thought as I bit into it was vanilla ice cream.  It would be so yummy if you scooped out the seeds and replaced it with a scoop of some really creamy vanilla ice cream.  Would be perfection, actually.

Fresh cherries in bulk from +Sam's Club

We found some in season cherries at a decent price, so we had to buy some.  They are sweet and of good quality.  If any survive until tomorrow I will freeze some of the darker ones to add to drinks or to top my yogurt.  Cherries are one of my favorite fruits.  I love boysenberries, raspberries and blueberries as well.  My mouth has become more sensitive to the real sour fruits like mango, kiwi, pineapple and raspberries.  I develop small tiny blisters around my lips so I try to avoid those fruits except for the occasional taste.
As soon as we got back home, we threw one of the dual packs of Applewood Smoked bacon from +Sam's Club into our large iron skillet and got it started cooking while we put the groceries away.  Everything was finally put away except that I had left out the double-pack of French Green Beans and the pack of Roma tomatoes.  I like to let the tomatoes ripen on the counter before putting them in the fridge.

 

 French Green Beans cooked in Applewood smoked bacon.

I had bought the bacon thinking of making a B.L.T.'s with avocado without the bread, so it would be more of a salad, actually.  Then I thought of green beans cooked in bacon and then adding a fresh cut Roma tomato.  It was a deliciously satisfying brunch dish.  The photo above really does not do it justice.  I served it with a homemade ginger ale.  Ginger powder, stevia, vanilla and sparkling water served over ice.

 

My homemade ginger ale after I downed half.

 We browned the bacon in a large iron skillet.  When done we removed the bacon to a plate and added the washed French Green Beans to the hot pan and stir-fried it in the bacon fat, scraping the bottom frequently to get the flavor all through the beans.  When the beans were heated through we served them in a shallow bowl, topped it with a few slices of bacon and freshly sliced Roma tomatoes and a few sprinkles of salt. 

The Ginger Ale can be pre-made or made individually as you need it.  For a pre-made syrup: I mix large amounts of powdered ginger (to taste), organic green leaf stevia (to taste), a few drops of vanilla to a small amount of very hot water in a wide mouth mason jar and stir thoroughly.  I keep it in the fridge to add over ice and then I pour sparkling water over that.  I like a lot of ginger so I pour a lot of syrup over my ice.  Some people just like a bit of syrup for a slight ginger taste.

All in all we had a great morning shopping and cooking.  Happy Eating!