Bed beat beets

We got beets in last week's CSA box and thankfully they haven't started to soften up on me yet. I just haven't been able to bring myself to have the oven on long enough to roast them this week. I could make an entire meal out of roasted beets and goat cheese.

Just a few minutes ago, while showering off dog park dust I got the bright idea that I should pickle the beets tonight before they go bad. It's pushing eight o'clock and I have to meet my boss at the office by 6:30 am for a road trip. Under no circumstances should I be pickling beets tonight. (I am not one of those people who function with no sleep). I went as far as to start researching recipes when good sense kicked in and I decided a little cleaning, then netflix in bed was a better idea.

I probably won't get to the beets for another day or two, due to the road trip and all, unless I can convince Western One to jump in. This gives me time to solicit some favorite beet ideas from you fine folks and cross my fingers the little guys hang on...

of seltzer, soda and soapboxes...

We rarely drink soda in our house. Occasionally Western One will drink strong ginger beer by the gallon, but as it's too spicy for me I rarely partake. Don't getme wrong, there are times when a cold soda tastes really good (like when I'm too hungover, um, tired for hot coffee) but for the most part I'd rather just have water. I'm thankful for my beverage preferences because it saves calories for beer and cheese and leaves space in my synthetic food limit for more satisfying indulgences.

We drink a lot of seltzer and lately have been accessorizing with a dash of fruit juice. Tonight Western One went for a more substantial beverage of half Mandarin seltzer and half mango puree, while I, nostalgic for my days in Ireland, opted for black currant juice. The brand name made me giggle...remember that show?

Anyway, this post is about more than "look at me, I drink seltzer, not soda." As most of you who have read Green Peccadilloes for some time know, I like to spend time thinking about food policy. In the interest of full disclosure, I spend a good bit of my workday thinking about health policy more generally, so this isn't a huge stretch. One proposal that has been kicking around New York for two budget cycles, and is gaining national steam, is the "soda tax." While ostensibly the concept makes sense, the way it has been approached, at least here, puts me right over the edge. The tax only applies to "sugary beverages" or, in other words - regular and NOT diet soda. The implication of course being that people should switch from one evil to another.

Now there is plenty of room for debate about this approach generally. It, like most consumption taxes, is regressive, but in a world where hunger and obesity paradoxically go hand in hand and it is cheaper to buy your kids 2 liters of soda than a gallon of milk, I'm not sure I have a problem with that. There's the free choice argument, but this certainly wouldn't be the first time we used the tax code to influence behavior, and it won't be the last. I understand that the objective correlation between calories in regular soda and obesity and related public health issues is an easier connection to make than similar issues associated with artificial sweeteners and other crap in diet soda, but to completely ignore the latter strikes me as ludicrous.

I'll get off my soapbox now, but I'm very interested in the thoughts you all have as I know I'm not the only one out there thinking about how to focus on good food...

BLT Blasphmey

I am really embarrassed to admit this. We are weeks into a fantastic tomato season and it took me until tonight to make my first fresh BLT of the summer. What the hell is wrong with me?? Granted I'll give into a halfway decent sandwich shop version every now and again, but nothing beats a real BLT, piled high with fresh juicy tomatoes.

Wonderpup and I are on our own tonight and after a riotously good time at the dog park, I got home later than I wanted and just didn't feel like real dinner. I stuck my head in the fridge, prepared to settle in with a brick of cheese and a beer, when I realized we had bacon. BACON. The wheels started to turn... Amazingly, and without any planning, I had all the ingredients for the perfect summer meal - super fresh lettuce and tomatoes in the CSA box and bread, which much to my surprise had not yet started to grow mold.

Now I've seen all sorts of fancy takes on the BLT but I'm a purist. You don't cover U2, generic Cheerios suck, and you don't mess with the BLT. Bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo and toast. Take or leave the salt and pepper - I had pepper bacon so I skipped. It was so good I had two! (and yes, that is a New Yorker cartoon on my plate - best plates ever!)

We had a bunch of veggies to get rid of before the onslaught of today's CSA delivery, so last night I decided to use up as much as I could. Try as we might, we just haven't been as good about eating and preserving our bounty as much as I'd like. I'd reserved some of the sauce I made over the weekend so I just sauteed the veggies and made a quick pasta. It was done in the time it took me to boil water and cook the pasta. I LOVE dinners like that - it's so easy to throw together simple and tasty when you have great, fresh ingredients. I'm going to miss that.

I was walking Wonderpup the other morning and I could smell the end. Not quite the scent of fall, but there was that tinge on the air that foretells the demise of summer. I found myself taking a deep breath, savoring the smell and meeting it with ambivalence. I love fall, and not just because I'm a fall baby and self-centered, it's just my season. But this year, when for the first time in my adult life I've worked hard and almost succeeded at cultivating a garden, I'm meeting the end of the growing season here in the Northeast with a bit of sadness. I know, I know, it's not even Labor Day, but it's coming.

When did my garden become Sleepy Hollow?

I figured it was time for a quick garden update. While my tomatoes have been doing ok, I've had some setbacks in other areas. Below you can see that many of my strawberries have been consumed. Alas, not by me. The plants seem to be doing well and are busting out of their bed, but I am only managing to salvage a quick berry here and there (typically as a snack while I'm weeding the herb garden).

I tried out upside down tomato gardening. Supposedly it helps avoid fungi and other problems that can plague tomatoes. However, it requires very consistent watering. Not compatible with busy schedule (aka totally flaky) gardening.
And the most frustrating of all... headless broccoli. You can sort of see from the below picture how tall the plant got, but neither of the two I planted ever sprouted a head. What good is broccoli sans head? I thought I'd overlooked some simple step that every gardener knows, but apparently not. (or maybe my expert gardening friend was just trying to be nice to me on a bad day...)

See.... no head!

While not quite producing in bulk, my Caribbean red peppers are doing well and have produced some nice little fireballs. Of course my celtic roots can't handle such heat, but Western One enjoys them.

Slow Sunday Sauce.

The other day I made a quick mid-week sauce, but the huge pile of tomatoes in my kitchen was calling out for more. A rainy, lazy Sunday obligedand I set off to work.

I essentially start the same way as for my quick sauce - peel the tomatoes, give them a rough chop and toss them into a stockpot with onion, garlic, and olive oil. Since I'm going for a deeper, slower flavor this time, I added fresh oregano, bay leaf and rosemary in addition to the basil, salt and pepper I use in a brighter sauce. A touch of red pepper flake and a chunk of parmesan rind round out the core of the sauce. Later in the afternoon, after the base flavors have done their thing, I'll play around with it a little, maybe add some green peppers and tweak the seasonings.

With the pot set on a low simmer, I'm off to the couch for some good reading and trashy TV. A stir here and there, another handful of herbs at some point to help layer the flavor, and I'm off the hook for a couple of hours. When Western One gets home I can pretend I slaved all day...

Saucy!

It's clearly sauce time! To say we received an abundance of tomatoes from our CSA yesterday would be a gross understatement. Add that to my plants and we were drowning in tomatoes. Some of them were already a tad soft and the idea of wasting a single one was more than I could stand, so at 9:30 last night I decided to make sauce. I'm not totally nuts, I didn't make the simmer all day, deep, rich sauce (although that's coming...) but instead opted for a quick, bright and simple version.

Farmeshare onion, garlic, basil from my garden, salt, pepper, olive oil and the tomatoes. That's it. Oh, and a touch of a cornstarch slurry to thicken it up a tad. It maybe took me an hour, including peeling the tomatoes, and the last half of that just involved stirring. I dumped the sauce into a container, went to bed, and had dinner halfway done for tonight. Would someone please remind me of this next time I'm whining about not having time for real food?