Back to Beets

If you have a slug of beets, why not can them or just mix cooked beets with sugar and vinegar and viola, you'll have a pretty tasty condiment for your salads. I used to can beets with sweet brine in a water bath; pickled beets they were called. We loved to eat the bright red slices plain or with salads. Here is a simple recipe from The Vegetarian Lunchbasket to try called Vinegared Beets": 3 cups diced cooked beets, 1 cup reserved beet cooking liquid, 1/4 cup cider vinegar. In a bowl, combine all ingredients. Marinate overnight.

Ugh! Marinate, marry-inate--yes I signed. Then I didn't sleep all night, feeling that great pressure on the chest that I can only liken to the ball and chain dropping to the ribcage after having returned the key to hubby. Sheez! But like everyone says, grief will have its way with you and then it will suddenly come to an end. And they say, take good care of yourself--so this morning I ate a chocolate doughnut and a cup of Starbucks coffee. That's caring, right? Well, probably there could have been better choices--but in a crisis, food does become a comfort.

You can also make a "Three-to-Five Bean Salad with a mix of honey, tamari, veg. oil, red wine vinegar and chickpeas, green beans from the garden, lima beans (also from the garden, and perhaps kidney and wax beans. A man gave me a sack of homegrown pinto beans when I lived in Yakima. They were the best beans I'd ever eaten. Maybe because he'd grown them, they hadn't dried as long as the beans we get in the store. They had more flavor than usual.

My bean plants have yellow leaves. Again I'm blaming the soil, but also, could have something to do with erratic watering. Sigh! Told you I'm a bad gardener.

Cheers!