beet it!

i was going to write to you about a thing i made with beets, and then i got busy and didn't. and then there were some other things with beets and i guess i could save them for a slow day and trot them out then, but i already have a backlog, so i'm consolidating the beet posts.

it doesn't matter what you do with beets; your knife and board and your hands always look like a small scale massacre has gone on.

first i made a lovely roasted vegetable sandwich, like the roasted vegetable sweet potato wrap i told you about, only this one had roasted beets mixed in and that was good.

then i decided to make a little thing with a beet cake rolled up around mascarpone cheese in a spiral and that was pretty awesome, too. i used this recipe and it involves first roasting the beets and pureeing them and then making a big pancake with it. my mom used to do something similar with a pumpkin roll and a cream cheese filling, only this one isn't dessert-y.

so then i did a simple thing with roasted beets under a balsamic glaze because cr likes beets and it was getting to be time for her surgery and i was maybe going to be done with beets for a while, except that a recipe just happened to cross my desk that was too good to pass up: candied beet slices, which are beautiful and sweet like dessert only still fully beet-like and did i mention beautiful? on the plate they look very much like rose petals, and they leave behind a deep red sugar syrup that i put in a jar and i still don't quite know what to do with it, but if you have any ideas, send them along.

other than that, i think i'm done with beets for a while.