wuss

Eating at my grandparents' house was kind of a dangerous adventure when I was a kid. My dad would always fill my pockets with snacks so I wouldn't eat my lunch when my grandma would babysit.

I should clarify that my grandparents were Gypsies from Romania and Hungary. So, they didn't have a stove. They lived in a trailer and cooked everything over a spit or in a homemade Dutch oven. My dad went over to bring my grandma (mom's mom) something while she was packing lunch for my grandpa like 40 years ago. My grandma was slicing bread and spreading cat food on it. She didn't understand that it was food for cats... she honestly thought it was meat made FROM cats. She thought that was okay. There were plenty of things that were really good, like hobo bread baked with molasses in a tin coffee can on a spit. They also made stuffed cabbage in a giant pot... and scooped them out all smoky and good. Date pudding, holy yum... but, for every good there is a way more not good.

There was a smolder pot that would sit in the embers of a second fire, and it would cook for DAYS. Everyday my grandma would go out and skim off the top of the pot and put it in a container in the icebox. It took me years to look in that pot. Totally a sheep's head. Totally head cheese. Yes, my Gypsy grandparents-- also known for congealed blood pudding, cottage cheese pie, and chicken heart kabobs.

So, there is blood pudding, and there is krvavica
Krvavica is what everyone else thinks of when they think of blood pudding. Black sausage, made from 1 and 1/4 quarts pig's blood, 1/2 cup cubed brown bread, 1 1/2 quarts goat's milk, 1 pound of kidney fat, 1 lb of barley, 1/2 pound of oats, salt, pepper, paprika, and the topper... ground mint.

But, why my dad was adamant that I not eat at my grandparents' house... blood pudding. My grandpa loved to let sheep's blood congeal with cornstarch and chocolate powder and sugar and feed it to my brother and I by the giant spoonful.

Tomatoes don't scare me, I eat salmonella for dessert.