Happy National Liver & Onions Day!
Today we’re going to delve into the archives for the occasion. A version of this post first appeared on the DiS1972 blog August 2, 2012.
I decided to make No. 33 for my friend, Claire.
Before she arrived, I assembled the Jellied-Lime Cucumber Salad and the Jelly Roll.
I had success before with cake rolls–my lime sherbet roll was divine–but this Jelly Roll, not so much. I don’t know what went wrong. I refuse to blame myself so I will point fingers at my much-maligned apartment-sized mini oven.
That’s a pretty sad looking dessert. I rolled the bitch up, anyway.
As for the Jellied-Lime Salad, I found this recipe from the June 29, 1961 issue of The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA). I cut the recipe in half since I do not own a 3 quart Jell-O mold.
This was pretty straightforward and easy. But man, it took a long time to grate all of the cucumber. And the recipe didn’t specify whether or not to peel the cucumber so I did half and half.
The liver was simple, although I will say that I did overcook the meat a bit. The sauce went off without a hitch.
For the Onion-Mashed Potatoes, I bought a tub of Country Crock premade potatoes, caramelized some onions, and mixed. These were pretty damn good. For the peas, I totally forgot that there was a recipe for them on card #92, so I just cooked some peas with pearl onions.
So that was that. Dinner was complete. Dinner was served!
Inspired by Inspiration Soup, and the rest of my framed 1974 Weight Watchers cards, we went about my apartment finding assorted tchotchkes for the photo. We finally settled on an old geisha girl cocktail mug from a Benihana, one of those good luck cats that they always have at Chinese restaurants, and one of my old timey Heinz kitchen tins…
The collection was sufficiently weird in that they had absolutely nothing to do with each other or the meal. It makes just enough nonsense for a food photo.
I thought this was good.
The cucumber Jell-O was quite refreshing. It was a bit odd, all of that shredded cucumber encased in gelatin, but it tasted quite nice. And look how fricking GREEN it is.
And the jelly roll, although not much to look at, tasted pretty yummy.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening–lots of wine, lots of laughs, and in-depth conversations about how they just don’t make action movies like they used to.
Case in point, the 1989 classic film Kickboxer.
Absolutely breathtaking cinema.
Sadly, we no longer put our action stars in pleated pants and have them prance about like a drunken AC Slater in an inexplicable dance sequence that then culminates in a knife fight.
Maybe the world would be a better place if we started doing that again.
I love liver and onions. (There! I said it! Come at me, bro.) This recipe looks fabulous. And, as someone whose mom actually got those WW cards in 1974 and was fed the barfolicious concoctions, I’d say your tablescape is on point.