Roasted Beets

Week Twelve, Monday

I'm going to skip days where I didn't cook much or didn't cook anything interesting.

As I said before, I had never cooked or eaten beets before. I was determined not to just let them sit there and go to waste. Earlier in the week, I looked up recipes in allrecipes.com for beets. Beets and cabbage only turned up recipes for borscht, which I did not want to try. I still had some fennel sitting in the fridge from a couple weeks back. I looked if there was a recipe for beets and fennel. Remarkably, there was and it didn't look too difficult.

The recipe called for honey Dijon salad dressing in the sauce, but since I had honey from Fair Shares, Dijon mustard from a previous recipe, and whatever other ingredients, I whisked those together myself rather than buying a separate salad dressing. I did have to buy apple cider vinegar.

I was careful with the beets. I wore plastic gloves so they wouldn't stain my hand, used a plastic cutting board. I peeled two of the beets and cut them up, along with the fennel and apple.

I was scared to eat it, but Roy tried it first and liked it. I think he liked it better than I did. Roy even liked the sauce on it, even though he normally hates mustard. The honey helped balance the flavor out. The apples cooked quicker than the veggies, and practically became apple sauce by the end. They soaked up the juice and color from the beets.



I wanted to serve this with something cooked simply, without a lot of competing flavors. I marinated chicken breasts in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper, and then I grilled them on my grill pan.

Cabbage

Week 12, Friday

I have to admit, I've never cooked with cabbage before. We got it from Fair Shares before, in Week 10. I was home for a week in between two out-of-state vacations, and I just never got to it. I don't like wasting food, and I wanted to do something with the new one we got for week 12. For one thing, the new cabbage head was smaller, so it seemed easier to work with.

I bought a cole slaw dressing at the market. I cut up the cabbage, last remaining carrots (from Week 9, they held up well), and half an apple. It turned out well. We had it with hamburgers. I have to admit again, we didn't use all of it this night, and I never went back to use it for the next week or so. There's too many other things to make. We tossed it down the sink. I hope to plan better in the future.

Here are the vegetables and fruit before adding in the sauce. I had some trouble chopping the cabbage thin enough at first, but I curled it up (a chiffonade cut) and that made it more sturdy. It looked like a cole slaw ingredient after that.


After adding the dressing.


With the burger and potatoes. I used pesto with the burger instead of ketchup.

Veggie Pesto Pasta

Week 12, Thursday

I used the pasta primavera recipe again that I tried last week. This time, I added the defrosted pesto sauce and used the angel hair pasta.

I used tomatoes, squash, carrots, and a green pepper. I got all of these vegetables from Fair Shares. Even the pasta and basil (for the pesto) were from Fair Shares.

Week Twelve Share

Week 12


Seven Thunder Bison--ground
Claverach Shoots
Thies Farm Beets
Lee Farm Yellow Squash
Berger Bluff Tropea Long Red Onion
Grass Farm Irish Cobbler Potatoes
Nermina's Sweet Peppers
Lee Farm Cabbage
Ozark Mountain Orchard Blueberries
Ozark Mountain Orchard Peaches
Mangia Angel Hair Pasta
Tomatoes - special order

I'd never cooked or even eaten beets before, so that was going to be interesting. I read that the leaves were edible, but I didn't want to deal with it, and I didn't have space for them. I cut the leaves off and tossed them.

The bison went right into the freezer. I've gone back to cooking a lot of chicken lately, but thankfully, the meats stay good in the freezer until I'm ready for them.

I was glad to get potatoes, pepper, and onion, since I've been buying them at the market throughout the time we've been with Fair Shares.

Isn't this the prettiest onion? It was almost a shame to eat it.