FAUX CHOPPED CHICKEN LIVER For My FAUX BOOK GROUP

FAUX CHOPPED CHICKEN LIVER

For My

FAUX BOOK GROUP

As some of you know, I’m in a Book Group.

But not your ordinary book group. No one moderates our discussions. Why? We don’t have discussions. Why? We don’t read. Well, we DO read, just not an ‘assigned’ book for book group. We’re a non-reading book group. A “No-Book Book Group.”

Let me explain. We’ve been together for almost two decades and for the first 10-12 years we read and discussed the monthly ‘assigned’ book. Then, even though we read the 'assigned book', we became so busy catching up on each other’s lives, we stopped discussing it… That didn't deter us, however.  We kept ‘assigning’ a book a month, but one thing led to another… since we had stopped discussing the ‘assigned’ book, why read the ‘assigned’ book?  So we didn’t. Oh, every once in a while one of us still recommends a book and a couple of us may read it that month or that year, but now we talk about our lives, loves, careers, children and the price of rice… and we eat. We have appetizers and sip wine. We have entrees and sip wine. And then we have desserts... fattening desserts.

This month was my turn to host Book Group and I decided to throw my NuAtkins/South Beach/Weight Watchers low carb, low fat diet out the window (actually, I did that a month ago, but I digress) and make mac & cheese for the main course. A three cheese, gourmet mac & cheese w/ tons of gruyere, fontina and cheddar – milk, cream, butter, nutmeg, dry mustard, cayenne pepper, white pepper, panko and pasta shells. Cholesterol heaven. Just stirring the cheese sauce is hazardous to your health.

My chosen dessert: homemade lemon semifreddo w/ fresh blueberries. Ingredients: a pint of Haagen-Dazs lemon ice cream (sorbet need not apply), heavy cream, honey and crushed lemon short bread cookies… oh, yeh – and blueberries – probably added to combat all the fat and sugar.

Feeling guilty over my cream and cheese menu, I decided to make healthful appetizers. Some herring in white wine, a shrimp cocktail on top of cream cheese spread thin on a platter that you spread on whole grain crackers AND faux chopped chicken liver.

I love chopped chicken liver – it’s my favorite “Jewish” food group… but talk about cholesterol heaven! No way, Jose! But, recently we were at a friend’s for dinner and she served a faux chopped chicken liver appetizer. If she hadn’t told us what it was, we’d never have known it was ‘faux.’ And it’s healthful. I mean like really healthful. AND delicious. It’s not often I find healthful food I actually want to serve ‘company,’ so I thought I’d share.

MY FRIEND MARGIE’S

FAUX CHOPPED CHICKEN LIVER

Ingredients:

2 cups of water
1 cup of lentils
2 cubes chicken bouillon (it they’re large cubes, just use one)
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup of walnuts
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

(What did I tell you – healthful!)


Directions:

Place water, lentils and bouillon in a pot. Cover pot and cook about 30 minutes or until tender. Drain well.

Heat oil in skillet, saute onion until it becomes translucent.

In an electric food processor, grind lentils, onions and walnuts until your desired consistency.

Chill before serving.

Serve w/ crackers or sliced toasts or baguette.

Oh, and after all that mac & cheese and ice cream cake, I’m back on NuAtkins/South Beach/Weight Watchers. I know. I know. I have a multiple diet personality disorder.