Like Motley Crue, my weekend was full of girls, girls, girls. Must have been 12, 15 of 'em around. All of them under the age of 7. Quite the tsunami of happy, silly, fun energy. If this is what it's like at 7, I can hardly wait til they're all 12 or 14 - I'm definitely going to need reinforcements.
I almost certainly moved a few steps closer to being allowed into heaven after taking 4 girls under the age of 7 to buy a hamster at the local mall on Saturday. They ooh'ed, they ah'ed, they squealed, they shouted "daddydaddydaddy" a few hundred times. They told me that when this hamster dies, they wanted a horse.
But the trip was a success and we're now the proud owners of a miniscule, smelly rodent that bites and poops a lot but the girls just adore. Depending on who you're talking to - and when - it's either named "SqueakSqueak" "NumNum" or "Stripey". It was sweet though; I got to be hero for a day and was justly rewarded with a nap afterwards. We'll see how attentive the girls are to the new pet. I certainly don't intend on shopping for a horse any time soon.
If that wasn't enough, I decided to have a few friends over for an ad hoc BBQ on Sunday. A "few" turned in 15 or 16, luckily most of them were kids. Teresa brought over some lamb shanks (we think - they were in her freezer for a long time), a large hunk of beef she thinks was a London Broil and a large variety of sausages. I cooked up the corn and potatoes, there was plenty of wine, swimming, running around like banshees and everybody had a good time, it seems. The kids certainly slept well.
While we were cooking, the adults ate a big hunk of really ripe Valencay (a French goat cheese that, after an hour or so in the tropics, resembles Jabba the Hut - though far tastier) with some sliced baguette and Wasa crackers. And a chicken liver pate I made earlier in the day.
We buy chicken from the same guy at the wet market every weekend and sometimes he gives us a bag of chicken livers as a bit of a bonus. We got a pound of them on Saturday and since I knew we'd be having the bbq, I thought I'd try something new with them. The "Silver Palate Cookbook" has been on my shelf for a long time and many of its recipes seem a bit dated - kind of 70's. But every once in awhile, I can still find a gem in there, and this is one.
The pate is quite easy to make and people were literally licking the bowl clean. That may say more about my bbq skills than the pate, but people genuinely seemed to like it and it disappeared pretty quickly. I substituted vermouth for cognac with no ill effects - and I added about a spoonful of rendered chicken fat we had skimmed from the soup the day before. Oddly, I didn't have a 2 cup terrine vessel lying around, but a standard bowl worked fine.
My own pictures to come shortly.
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup finely minced yellow onion
2 cloves garlic; peeled chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 cup celery tops
10 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
6 cups Water
1 pound chicken livers
2 tablespoons Cognac
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
5 teaspoons Water-packed green peppercorns; drained
1/4 cup heavy cream
Melt the butter in skillet. Add the onion, garlic and thyme and cook,covered, over medium heat for about 25 minutes, or until onion is tender and lightly colored.
Meanwhile add celery tops, black peppercorns and bay leaves to 6 cups of water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add chicken livers to water and simmer gently for about 10 minutes, livers should still be slightly pink inside.
Drain livers, discard celery tops, bay leaves and peppercorns, and place livers, butter, onion and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add Cognac salt. pepper, allspice and 4 teaspoons of the green peppercorns. Process until smooth.
Pour in the cream and process again to blend. Transfer to a bowl and stir in remaining teaspoon of green peppercorns.
Scrape mixture into a 2 cup terrine, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. Let pate stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.
(Yield: 2 cups)
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