Huckleberries: You can be a good person and still eat liver and onions

I know that good people eat liver because my father was a good person and he ate liver. Occasionally, he would ask Mom to fix liver and onions. I and my five siblings had a choice. Eat or go hungry. I always opted for the latter. Liver? Yuck. Why am I telling you this? Woody McEvers, owner of Rustler’s Roost in Hayden, says liver and onions is a popular dish at his restaurant. “It still amazes me how much we sell (at $7.50 per plate),” he says. “Mostly older folks.” Woody, who doubles as a Coeur d’Alene councilman, checks in with his customers after their meal arrives. Usually, they have a personal back story re: liver and onions. They can remember the day of the week that their mother cooked the dish. Which vegetables came with it. Catsup or not. Often, only one member of a couple has a taste for liver. That’s why they dine at the Roost. The other half complains that the meal stinks up the house. Does Woody eat the restaurant’s liver and onions? No way, he says. Without making a face.

Liver, Take 2

State Sen. Bob Nonini of Coeur d’Alene and wife, Cathyanne, are liver lovers. But they kept that fact from each other until recently. Consider. They met 20 years ago this month. They have been married 17½ years. Yet, neither Nonini knew where the other stood on the liver issue until the subject came up during a trip to Leavenworth, Washington, in November. Quoth Cathyanne: “It seems we both love the dish but never wanted to be the first to admit it” … Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger plugs Mulligans restaurant at the Coeur d’Alene Inn as a top-notch place to order liver. Quoth Ben: “Almost as good as Grandma used to make” … John Austin isn’t as charitable. When asked by Huckleberries Online to name the best place in town for liver and onions, John responded: “Garbage” … Cis Gors of Kootenai agreed: “I do not like liver. And I do not like peas. I will be polite and eat peas. But I will not be polite and eat liver. Liver is for dogs or wild animals.” What? You thought Donald Trump was the only thing dividing us?

Huckleberries

My cousin, Florinda, is among those who were affected by the possible failure of the Oroville dam in northern California. Daughter Selena evacuated her. But Florinda wouldn’t leave without the Portuguese beans she was cooking. Any Portuguese worth his/her salt would agree with the delay. Portuguese beans. hmm-hmm … Chris Guggemos, of Coeur d’Alene, last smoked a cigarette on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in 1997. You mathematicians out there can join me in congratulating Chris for being smoke free for 20 years … Not only did Fleur De Sel land on colleague Adriana Janovich’s list of most romantic restaurants in the region. But the Post Falls restaurant was named “Most Romantic Date Spot” in Idaho by online Business Insider … So a guy in a white Ford F-150 speeds out of the Kroc Center Monday afternoon, flipping people off. Must have been a lousy workout.

Parting Shot

Corinna Hunter, describing the snow-blowing process of hubby, Ron, in this icy Winter of our Discontent: First, you fix the snowblower. Secondly, “you push with all your might to blow the very hard snow because of the repeated snow-rain-snow and freezing-melting-freezing.” Then, you’re back to fixing the snowblower. All of which led her to dub her semi-retired Nazarene pastor hubby as “my hero.” No dragon to slay there.