For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 23, 2009

Every mom has that one moment when she tries to get her kids to eat something healthy in the worst possible way. Mine served us an unseasoned piece of steamed broccoli the size of a potted plant when I was about 7. I’ll let you know what I do when I have kids.

Mmmm, liver, smothered in onions, fresh baked biscuits, gravy, and spinach does sound very appetizing. Pie and ice cream for dessert.

My brother’s kids eat just like this! His son has his face an inch from the plate and sort of snow plows the food in, like he’s afraid that if he lifts it off the plate it could fall and bruise!

I also know that as an adult I’d gag on liver and spinach- as a kid I’d have gone into a coma!

Hmmm, yeah, liver with lots of onions and steamed spinach cooked the right way sounds pretty good right now.

Liver, onions (grilled of course) and spinach. Two of my favorite things! Now I will have to go to the store today.

You could visit Pigtown (Toronto) Elly, and get some ideas on how to cook these from the lots of desi and Mideastern restaurants there.

(admittedly, they’ll be more likely to use goat or lamb liver rather than beef liver, but…)

You spinach nay-sayers should try the baby spinach. The frozen and well cooked stuff alone is bleh but the baby stuff is as good as lettuce and as neutral in taste. It mixes in perfectly in salad and nobody would know unless you told em. It’s also pretty decent only lightly cooked in something like a primavera pasta.

Save your well cooked frozen spinach for the spinach dips when you can load it up with cheese :)

For a kid, she should be grateful he’s touching it. My kids would rather eat dirt and leaves, lol!

Liver with fried onions and a bacon strip across the top, delicious! And a spinach salad with hard boiled eggs, red onion, and sweet and sour bacon dressing, good eatin’ I say!

Yum!!! Drystyha your a person after my own heart.

spinach I can handle … liver, hell no I won’t go!

yea sugie we know good eats when we see it, don’t we?

prasrinivara: I’ve lived here most of my life and never heard Toronto called ‘Pigtown.’ Hogtown, yes, but not ‘Pigtown.’

My mom used to make liver and lima beans. I learned to take the smallest helping I could manage, cut everything up in tiny pieces, and pour about 1/4 bottle of ketchup on it.

About the only food item I really try to avoid is tofu. I can eat it, I just get no enjoyment while doing so. I was turned off by liver for a long time, after enjoying it for years. A girlfriend served it to me, but she boiled it instead of frying it, yuck! It took years before I would even try it again.

Can’t live with liver, no matter how you deliver it–but spinach is just fine, raw, sauteed, steamed, or in a pie.

I hate liver so much I have been trying to kill my own for about 30 years!

Eating liver and other organ meats can give you gout. How healthy is that?

Well ewennick, it’s not uncommon (though technically incorrect) to use the terms “hog” and “pig” interchangeably for swine–so, I applied the same for Toronto.

pibfan868, spinach is excellent when combined with ricotta cheese in dishes (lots known, I’ll use the “simplest”, paalak paneer).

Many children do not like these foods so why serve them both at the same meal? I now like spinach but was glad when I found out liver wasn’t so good for you - cholesterol and any toxins the animal may have ingested.

the only time i was ever able to eat spinach was when it was cooked in ravioli and i have always liked liver w/ sauteed onions

I had to laugh! Why do mothers serve liver with spinach? I couldn’t stand either as a kid so I asked my mom to serve them together so that only one meal would be a total gak and not two (liver with one and spinach with another) so she did. I can’t think of two more disgusting foods on the planet. Needless to say neither spinach nor liver ever enter my home.

I never eat liver and onions any more. Many years ago I had that at the work cafeteria and when I got home, guess what my wife had fixed for dinner. NEVER AGAIN.

My mother would occassionally fix liver because it was supposed to be healthy. Of course, turns out it’s cholesteral and toxins far outweigh it’s benefits on the health scale. Of course what matters for me, then and now, is that it’s nasty sh*t. I’ve little use for spinach either. But I will say, the stuff’s so tough and hearty it would grow through the snow in NY!

With either one, I wouldn’t masticate them, I’d just chew them until they were in small enough pieces to wash down with milk.

I wonder how many people hate liver and spinach just because it’s a stereotype to do so. But much of the real reason for hating a particular food is because it’s cooked badly. Now, nobody here has yet mentioned chicken livers, or calf liver (as opposed to beef liver), both of which can be wonderfully tender when cooked properly, till just pink in the middle. Cooked wrong - you get the texture of shoe leather - easy to hate.

My mother never served spinach with anything, so I didn’t learn to hate it. And I agree that baby spinach is wonderful.

When I ate liver, I wanted to have fresh beets with it. That was a taste treat!

Oh! I love to eat beef livers with onion and bacon bits and either baby or regular spinach with red wine vinegar. The beef livers need to cook well, not overcook; therefore, it will turn like shoe leather. MMMMMM! YUMMMMY! :-P

Michael has to accept eating the liver and spinach. Too bad!

Since Liver stinks to high heaven when it’s cooked, you’d think Mike would have run to his friends house and begged him to have him over for dinner.

RinaFarina, my wife happens to love chicken liver (on a road-trip, she was quite surprised to find out that KFC sells the livers cheaper than “regular” chicken cuts such as breast or thigh), for me it’s so-so.

Goat liver (which we’ve had in biryani at our pastor’s home) also tastes well.

As for calf liver–isn’t that generally what “liver” (without descriptor) means?

I never cook liver myself, but there is a restaurant near my home that has a dinner special. Liver with sauteed onions with strips of bacon and I have a side of mashed potatoes with gravy and a tossed salad. Only have it once in awhile and I’ll only have it there!!! Also love spinach and brussels sprouts. Lima beans … not so much.

Spinach, nay! Liver, yay! Although a teensy amount of raw spinach in salad is ok. Pondersa during our geezer happy hour here serves a real good chicken liver/onions combo.

We lived in New Mexico when my kids were that age and I soon discovered that the kids would eat nearly anything if it was chile flavored and had beans with it. We had a LOT of chile with liver as the major meat (con carne). I was also not above adding a couple of handfuls of spinach to the chile-liver. Cut the liver up in tiny, bite sizes (so it is not exactly easy to identify that it IS liver!). Add the favorite beans (our kids preferred dark red kidney beans). Season with chile and other favorite seasonings - toss in a couple of hands full of spinach - and - call it coyote chile - and - magically - a kid’s dream dinner!

prasrinivara - that’s like calling New York “The Big Tomato.”

Lamb liver’s good too, but only if you cook it very little, they used to fry it for 20 minutes, it was hard and dry. I cut it into strips, fry for no more than a minute each side and serve with a stroganoff sauce. Uhmm!

Funny, I liked spinach and lima beans. I cannot remember any foods I was finicky about save for ones I am currently allergic to, which is not that many. I guess after a long day anything my mom served me looked good!

Liver for kids?