Things have gotten more interesting on many fronts, including the food front, here at LivingSmall, because we have a new sweetheart — we’ll call him the Mighty Hunter (MH). He hunts, and fishes, and pounds nails and cooks, and one night last week he called to say he was going to cook me dinner. “Great,” I said. “What are we having?” “Antelope liver,” he answered. When there was a long pause on my end, he said “Is that all right?” I’m not big on organ meats, but I’m game, so I said sure, but suggested that maybe we might need a backup plan as well. I usually think that liver is best served ground up with lots of pork fat and some cognac and spread on toast, but what is a new relationship but a big adventure, so after signing off from the Corporate Job, I went off to try antelope liver.

The MH sliced the antelope liver really really thin, and cooked it in a very hot cast iron skillet just until it carmelized on the outside. I still wasn’t sure but gave it a whirl and it was good — not too livery — I liked the crispier slices. I had three altogether before the organ-meat-texture thing started to catch up with me. I was a little surprised that I liked it as much as I did, but then, that’s been one of the themes of this summer. Being taken by surprise, finding that something I thought I wouldn’t like turns out to be a good thing.