Beets

Beets are a very controversial vegetable. There are those who hate them, and those who love them. My son Daniel, who falls into the latter category, upon seeing the massive bunch of beets in our box, requested that we have them that night. We didn't, primarily because beets were the one vegetable that weren't going to wilt and rot in a short period of time.

We also have some beet haters in this family. Zachary is one. Rich was one, but he's being a good sport when he's not singing "salad shooter" (see yesterday's post) and Conrad is not exactly a fan, either. I understand this attitude. I really do. I don't think I was willing to eat beets at all when I was a kid, but I'm not sure I even tasted them. My hatred of beets was related to their ridiculous color, their tendency to stain every other food on the plate that same magenta, and possibly my grandmother's favorite beet treatment: pickling in vinegar.

In addition to the beets themselves, I had the beet greens. After having said beets and greens taking up an inordinate amount of space in the fridge for a week, I decided I'd cook it all. I washed and trimmed the beets and popped them in a bot of water to boil gently until they were fork tender. When they are done, it is easy to just slip the skins right off of them. I sliced them and added a little butter and fresh parsley.

For the greens, I washed and chopped the leaves. In a skillet, I cooked a couple of slices of bacon, when it was crisp I removed it and added some diced onions. Once the onions were soft, I added a little water, a teaspoon of sugar and the beet greens. I allowed that to cook down until the greens were wilted and tender. I plated up the greens with the beets on top. The other side of the platter has some oven-roasted potatoes.

I made London Broil as a conciliatory gesture for my guys, for their beet-eating trouble, but that didn't turn out. More on that later.

Anniversary Dinner

On any other anniversary or special occasion, I'd insist upon going out to eat, but this year, on the occasion of our 14th wedding anniversary, I decided we needed to eat at home, even if it meant that I'd be cooking. After all, I have a ton of vegetables in the fridge.

To make things at least a little bit special, I figured I'd feed the kids early so that Rich and I could have some quiet time while enjoying our meal. It's a little crazy, of course, because that meant I was cooking and cleaning up two separate dinners.

For the kids I made an oven-baked tilapia. I melted a little butter with some parsley and basil from my share, along with a little bit of garlic powder and salt. I poured that over the fish in a glass baking pan and topped it with a handful of bread crumbs. I baked it at 425 alongside some OreIda french fries for about 15-20 minutes. My kids love plain steamed broccoli, so I served that as their veg. Easy, easy, easy.

Rich and I needed something fancier, of course. One of his favorites is scallops wrapped in bacon. In fact, if you wrap anything in bacon, he'll eat it. At one point he was making bacon martinis. This is what I'm up against in trying to cook vegetables for this guy! At any rate, I pre-cooked the bacon a bit, skewered it around the scallops, which I had brushed with butter and lemon juice and seasoned with fresh-cracked pepper, and popped them on the grill alongside some baby bok choy. The bok choy was a hit a few days before, so I figured I'd use up the rest. A little ponzu sauce and sesame oil before grilling with a sprinkling of sesame seeds when it's done makes it so tasty! I didn't want to over extend myself, so I made some toast with some sourdough bread we had in the house to round things out. We are not, after all, on an Atkins diet. I was pretty pleased with the results, considering the fact that we had managed to kick a whole bottle of wine before we even sat down to eat.

Drinking while cooking has never worked out too well for me, and when it came time for dessert, I remembered why. I was taking the shortcakes out the oven and managed to touch my pinky to the heating element just long enough to singe off a good piece of skin. My always helpful husband exclaimed, "I can smell it!" Great. I was tough, though, and the show went on: a little more liquid general anesthetic and some homemade strawberry shortcake with freshly whipped cream (none of that canned stuff for me!)