// This is me sparing you a photo of raw beef liver. //

That’s right, I said liver.

A few weeks ago I was on the phone with a friend of mine (who happens to be an M.D., a GAPS-certified practitioner, and the mother of three boys so adorable I could just eat their cheeks) and giving her the update on how we are eating nowadays. Admittedly, she’s been gently modeling this way of eating for years, so she was thrilled when I told her, “Deborah! I’m one of you!”

But the thing about good friends is they always ask the hard questions. Deborah’s was, “So…are you eating any liver?”

I did what I bet many of you reading just did: I swallowed hard in an effort not to lose my breakfast.

As she told me about all the health benefits of liver, I dutifully made a note: BUY BEEF LIVER. (Shout out to the amazing Nick Wallace, our local grass-fed cattle farmer who supplied us with five glistening pounds of the stuff.)

First we added it to these meatballs (we made ours with ground beef instead of pork) and tonight we put about 5 oz. in our burgers. Let it be known that when it comes to liver, there is no delicate handling of the meat with our hands, gently mixing the ingredients together to form a tender patty. No. That sucker goes straight into the food processor to be obliterated into the ground beef. I don’t care how tough it is, as long as I don’t have to taste the liver.

And guess what? I can’t taste the liver. At all. At least I think I can’t. I don’t actually know what liver tastes like–and I’d like to keep it that way.