Liver and Onions

This is a picture of the beautiful country where my gardener and I live. It's acres and acres of rolling hills in North Central Montana. In the distance are the Bear Paws, aka the Bear's Paw Mountains. 

(From Wikipedia): Native oral history (of the Bear's Paw Mountains) ties the name to a lone hunter in search of deer to feed his clan. He killed a deer but, while returning to the prairie, encountered a bear. The bear held the hunter to the ground, and the hunter appealed to the Great Spirit to release him. The Great Spirit filled the heavens with lightning and thunder, striking the bear dead and severing its paw to release the hunter.

There are deer and antelope in these rolling hills. You might look at the rather flat land and think "Where would a deer or antelope hide?" There are no trees, but there are plenty of coulees. A coulee is a ravine in the land. You can walk these rolling hills and see nothing, but come up to the top of a coulee and there down in the ravine... if you're lucky...

... you might see a deer or, on this day, an antelope. Well, what do you know about that... this just happens to be opening day of antelope season.

I asked my gardener why we never have liver from deer or antelope. He said "It really isn't good for you." Well, yeah, but neither are Doritos or Twinkies, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't eat them every now and then! So, on this trip I took a plastic bag just for the liver. I'm sure I've lost some of you by now, just because we're talking about liver, but look at that... that's the most beautiful liver I've ever seen. It's fresh, it's perfect and it didn't come from a container from the grocery store that might have been who-knows-how-many-days-old.

I haven't eaten liver and onions in many years, but this was nothing like what I remembered. So tender, so succulent, so fresh! All I did was slice the liver and dredge it in a little seasoned flour before frying it. I caramelized some onions and it was the perfect dinner after a good day of hunting.