Chicken livers

Half a carton of chicken livers double battered in heavily seasoned flour lightened with a scant amount of baking powder. 

Sweet onions fried in butter with fennel seed. 

Man, oh man, this is good with a ton of flavor POW! right in the kisser. 

* heat a deep pot of oil 1/2 way full with vegetable oil to 325℉/163℃. When chicken livers are cut to small bite size pieces and trimmed of all the messy gunk attached to some of them, they cook within seconds and they splatter violently as soon as they're done. That is the reason why you should use a pot much deeper than actually needed to fry something -- to protect yourself. If you hear that spattering, that means your little pieces are done and they should be removed immediately. It's fast!

* 3 tablespoons a/p flour

* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

* generous heaping grinds of black pepper. No messing around here, really pour it on.

* 1 level teaspoon cayenne pepper.

* 1/3 teaspoon baking powder, a meager amount to barely lighten the coating.

* 1/2 cup milk for the drench. 

Dredge trimmed liver bits  in seasoned flour. Drench in milk. Dredge again in seasoned flour. Deep-fry for mere seconds. Stand there and watch it. 

The onions are fried in butter and sprinkled with fennel seed. If you don't have fennel seed or if you don't like fennel seed, then just forget the whole thing ! I'm done with your persnickety ways. No, srsly, the fennel seeds contribute significantly to the whole flavor-wonder thing going on there with the onions. 

Fresh cucumber slices served on top of homemade tzatziki. The coolness of this contrasts/compliments so nicely the nearly oppressive flavor punch of the livers that it really is the perfect thing. This was such a serendipitous thing to have on hand. It's perfect. 

At the first bite of liver I thought, "This liver is a bit much, it could use some kind of contrast." I opened a jar of honey and used a dinner knife to drizzle honey on individual pieces as I went along. The combination of the dull flat but strong liver and the light crunchy excessively seasoned exterior coating, and the sweet honey, all combined to something quite extraordinary.  I would not serve this to anybody. It must be our little secret. Right now I have the worst liver/onion breath on Earth. Hang on. 

* Brush brush brushy brush brush. Rinse. Spit. Brush brush brushy brush brush. Rinse. Spit.*  

There. Back. So as I was saying, go on and have this for yourself but only in the privacy and security of your own home. 

You know what? It is quarter after twelve at night and this is the first thing I've eaten all day. I do not understand  myself sometimes. I've been devoting a few hours each day to the production of a pop-up card to pace myself and finish by tomorrow, but that wouldn't have interfered with meals. The card could just as easily be a single page and it would be just fine, but in this case I got carried away again and I wasn't satisfied with the idea until I had four pages that conveyed a fantasy forest. Honestly, at this point it's just showing off. The first two pages are somewhat realistic and they're a misdirection from the third page, which is the main page, and which depicts little houses built from (poison) mushrooms. The last page is a closeup of one of the little mushroom houses. The card weighs in at just under half a pound, and it will be handed personally to a birthday person tomorrow at a party so I'll have the rare chance to gauge reactions. I love it. I'm narcissistic that way. I expect to be carried through town triumphantly on the shoulders of revelers or at very least handed a fresh hamburger. Here, if you care to see it, have a look.