As many of you know, I am not much of a cook – except when it comes to Rocko’s food. This week it was time to restock our supply of liver. Ugh.
Last year Rocko wasn’t feeling well. He wasn’t acting different, he just had a look in his eyes that said something was off and he smelled different. That’s the best way I can describe it, there was just something different about the way he smelled when I would hug him. Something only a dog-mommy would notice.
Bloodwork at the vet showed he was anemic. It was very slight, he had just fallen under the line but it really shows how you have to be aware of every little thing before it gets worse. He has some fatty tumors that can’t be removed because he is too old to be put under anesthetic but the tumors can draw a disproportionate amount of blood. The vet advised adding liver to his food to bring him back up to normal.
Thus began the ritual of cooking liver. The first day I gave him about two ounces and within an hour he was running around like his old self so the benefit is worth the effort but yuck – cooking liver? I can think of a million other things I’d rather do. After a lot of trial and error I finally came up with a system.
Beef liver comes frozen in eight ounce packages. I make two pounds at a time which will last us about ten weeks.
The process begins with putting the thawed liver in the blender and turning it into puree. The puree is poured into the frying pan with three cups of water. Just in 
case you ever have to do this, let me tell you one thing – once you cook liver in your favorite frying pan you can never use it for anything else ever again. Liver flavor fried pita chips were gross.
As is cooks up it turns to a consistency similar to ground beef. I keep stirring and breaking it up until it is just barely done.
Once it cools I spoon it into small plastic bowls and store them in the freezer, adding plenty of the remaining liquid to keep it from drying out.
But that’s not all Rocko gets with his dinner -
Next week you’ll hear about the rest of the process . . .