This pregnancy has been nothing like my first pregnancy.
The first time around I was nauseous for most of the first trimester. Not the awful stuff, but the run-of-the-mill “give me all the ginger ale” stuff. My husband was sympathetic, but I didn’t see the wave of recognition until I likened it to the sea sickness that he felt on the deep sea fishing boat on our honeymoon. But ALL.THE.TIME.
This time I’ve been T.I.R.E.D. Like, I’m doing well, making plans, ready to head out the door with my toddler and then WHAM. Never mind. I don’t even take off my shoes before lying down on the couch. Ugh. I’m a doer. I like to be on the move. And my toddler likes it when we do the things that I’ve told her we’re going to do. But she’s been really good. After a few strong willed toddler attempts to get me off the couch and up to “walk? Mommy walk?” she has accepted that the most that she will get out of me during these episodes is a book. That she brings to me. She has even made me snacks. One time she pulled the food processor bowl out of the cabinet, filled it with play food, made whirring noises as she stirred everything around and then dumped it on me. It was delicious. 
Another time she laid her baby on my pillow and, after lots of button pushing on her play oven and play dishwasher, brought us both an ice cream sandwich in a muffin tin. I think that she’ll make a great big sister.
At my last prenatal appointment the midwife said that my hemoglobin levels were slightly low, which might explain my fatigue.
While she said that I might need an iron supplement in my third trimester, I would likely be fine for now if I just added more iron into my diet. My tired butt looked at the list of iron rich foods: Red meat, pork, poultry, seafood, beans, dark green leafy vegetables, dried fruit such as raisins and apricots; but Ms. pregnant lady over here just thought “Yum! Food! Let’s eat!” Then I remembered the food that I made tons of as my toddler was making her first forays into solid foods: pate! Breastfed babies tend to be a little short on the iron front and often benefit from extra iron in their diet (holistic circles often recommend liver as a first food for babies). Pate has such a snobbish reputation, but it is entirely unearned. It’s essentially pureed “waste” meat. Mmmm, I just sold you on it, didn’t I? But stay with me here. It’s also almost 1/4 butter (so French!). And it is incredibly easy to make, crazy nutritious and really delicious. And I realize that my toddler’s food choices may not be “classic” but pate is a huge hit in her book.
If she can see it in the fridge she points and says, “Pate, Pate, Pate!”
I used to think that pate was a great vehicle for hiding vegetables, but I was wrong. I mean, you can put a little of something in there, but as a means of getting real veggies into you or your loved ones, it’s pretty lame. You don’t eat much of it at a time (remember the nearly 1/4 butter thing?) and the veggies can really change the flavor. I dumped a bunch of frozen peas into my last batch of pate and the whole thing was weirdly sweet and not very good. So we didn’t eat much of it and it languished in the freezer until I gave up on it. So when I got my tired pregnant butt off the couch to make pate, I decided that I was going to go pure. No experimenting with lamb liver (holy moly that is a strongly flavor), no random unnecessary vegetables. No skimping on the butter. And easy. Because that is all that I had the energy for.
In Vermont we have access to really good meat. I forget how easy it is for us to buy good, humane meat compared to most of the country until I travel to visit family. My family lives in a food mecca where you can get just about anything anytime sourced from just about anywhere in the world. But the farms are about 100 miles away, Whole Foods is almost the only place that you can buy humane meat and it’s several highways away from most of the people who shop there. Their farmers market has one meat farmer and he may or may not have what you want (think sausage, not offal). And holy moly expensive.
But in Vermont, we’re lucky. Considering that the livers are the part of the body that filter out the gross stuff, buy livers that contain the least amount of gross stuff. If you’re planning on buying your livers at the farmers market though, it’s worthwhile to call the chicken farmer ahead of time. Some chicken farmers sell their livers with the gizzard in the bird. Farms that sell chicken parts (breast, thigh, etc) are the best bet for buying livers.
The general recommendation for making pate is to soak the livers in milk for at least an hour to remove their bitter edge. I didn’t get around to doing that because, you know, tired. So I soaked the livers while I was prepping everything else and called it good enough. I put A LOT of garlic and onion into my pate (and almost everything else that I eat) because we are an allium happy family. Even the munchkin is all about the garlic (she’s not huge on pieces of onion, but seems to enjoy them when they’re incorporated into things). Did you know that if you eat a lot of garlic when you’re pregnant that your amniotic fluid smells like garlic? So I like to think that when my toddler eats garlic that she is getting womb-like comfort from it.
But if you’re not so into garlic and onion, choose something else instead. Traditional pate has a lot of spices in it. I thought about looking up that spice mixture, but my phone was aaaalllll the way over there. And the spices were aaaalllll jumbled up in that lower cabinet that had a child lock on it. That just seemed like too much work to figure out.
So I melted a stick of butter and added 3 sliced medium onions, two heads of sliced garlic, a sprinkling of salt and a couple turns of the pepper grinder. Peeling all that garlic meant that I had to take a few breaks for some shut eye (fortunately the kiddo was doing the same). I cooked that all over medium low heat until the onions started to soften. Then I removed the livers from the milk and placed them in the pan and cooked them for about 8-10 minutes, flipping once until they are cooked on the outside but still pink on the inside. If you have bits that are starting to stick to the bottom of the pan use a splash of wine, bourbon or water to deglaze and scrape those bits up. If nothing is sticking, you can mix into the yummy alcohol, but don’t bother with the water.
Pour the liver mixture into a food processor and puree! Scrape down the sides as needed and add salt and pepper to taste. The pate will be pretty soft, as the butter is still melted, but it will firm up in the fridge.
The traditional thing is to now spoon the pate into ramekins and clarify butter to seal the surface. Um. No. Pregnant? Toddler? No butter clarification going on in this house. Put the pate into several 8 oz plastic containers filled to the top and close. Boom! Airtight seal complete! Pate freezes very well and I usually keep one container in the fridge (plus any partial container created) and freeze the rest. Just thaw them in the fridge when you run out.
And you bet my tired pregnant butt that our afternoon wake-up snack was toasted local rye with “PATE! PATE! PATE!”
Simple Pate
1 lbs chicken liver
1 cup or more milk
1 stick butter
3 medium onions (red or yellow)
2 heads garlic
salt
pepper
splash of wine/cognac/rum/water
1) Drain blood from the chicken liver and place livers in a small bowl. Add enough milk to cover the livers and let soak for about an hour.
2) Peel and slice the onion and garlic.
3) Melt the butter in a large sauce pan or frying pan. Add the garlic, onions, about 1/2 tsp salt and about 1/4 tsp black pepper. Cook over medium low heat until the onions begin to soften.
4) Drain and discard the milk from the livers and add them to the pan, not overlapping. Cook for 8-10 minutes, flipping once, until the outsides are fully cooked, but the inside is still pink.
5) If things are starting to stick to the bottom of the pan, deglaze with a splash of wine, cognac, rum or water.
6) Pour everything into a food processor and puree until smooth, adding salt and pepper to taste.
7) Portion into 8oz airtight containers and freeze any pate that won’t be consumed in the next week.
Makes 2-3 8oz containers
