Beets and Cookie Dough
Beware the Cookie Dough
Don’t panic – I didn’t decide to turn yesterday’s beets into cookies. Boy, that would have gone over even worse than what I did do with them. At first I intended to cook the beets and put them in a salad with our grilled chicken. I was going to use the beet greens in the salad too. But when Louisa heard my plan, she was ready to boycott dinner entirely. Remember how I feared that I would influence the girls with my food biases? Well, too late. Louisa claims that she thinks beets taste like dirt, all on her own. Right.
So I changed my plan and did what I felt was the safest preparation for the beets. I cut them up and roasted them with olive oil, finishing them with a little sea salt, which is one of my favorite ways to prepare most root vegetables. Guess what? They weren’t half bad. They had just a bit of the earthy dirt flavor, but mostly they tasted like a roasted root vegetable. Joe loved them, Annie ate them without complaining. So only Louisa gagged while they were going down.
I also used the greens. I steamed them, chopped them, and sauteed them with a little olive oil and garlic, with a final drizzle of sesame oil to complete the dish. They tasted like spinach to me, but that’s where Louisa drew the line. She couldn’t swallow them, and I became tired of seeing cooked greens hanging from her mouth in a semi chewed condition. She was excused from the table.
I would call this a successful first experiment with beets in my kitchen, and I’m sure there will be many more throughout the summer, despite Louisa’s melodramatics. But I don’t expect to get as carried away as Mark Bittman reported in his blog yesterday, where he whipped up a Beet Cocktail for a friend who is obsessed with beets. Imagine, obsessed with beets? I mean they’re very pretty to look at, as long as they don’t stain your hands and clothing. But obsessed?
By now you may be wondering what about the cookie dough? Well there was a small piece of news to report, that got past me last week. Unfortunately, Nestle Toll House cookie dough was found to be contaminated with that dreadful E.coli H7:157 bacteria. No one is sure how it got into the cookies, since there’s no beef to be found in the recipe. The greater concern with cookie dough, as any mom will tell you, is salmonella contamination from the eggs. The FDA is investigating the source of the contamination, but I guess the best advice I can give is if you use those tubs of cookie dough, don’t eat the dough raw assuming the eggs have been pasteurized and is safe. And you should bake your cookies crispy, no matter how much you like them soft and chewy. Better yet, make your own cookie dough to minimize the amount of exposure your ingredients have had to possibly contaminated factories.
Today I Meet the Enemy – Its Name is Beets!
Since I always aim to purchase and cook good, healthy food, one might assume that I like all vegetables. But you would be wrong. Anyone that knows my eating habits knows that I’ve always disliked beets, in fact, I’m often teased on that account.
I can’t help it, beets have always tasted like dirt to me. Growing up, we were never served beets, I suppose they’re not a very Italian vegetable, so I never became accustomed to the flavor. Plus, any beets I ever tried were the nasty canned variety from a salad bar – yuk.
Today's CSA Share Included the Inevitable Beets!
I made a commitment, however, that when I joined a CSA I would train myself to find beets tolerable, at the very least. They’re a very healthy vegetable, and what’s wrong with a little dirt flavoring? Plus, I don’t want my daughters to be plagued with the same flavor bias.
I’ve actually been progressing down the path of tolerance already, since red swiss chard also has a beet-like flavor, and I’ve managed to cook and eat that earthy green. Further, I’ve tasted little bits of beets in the salad of dining companions in restaurants.
So I’m ready to meet a beet head on in my kitchen tonight. Wish me luck.
In the Latest Flip Flop of Science… Calcium
Milk - It May Do a Body Good, But It Won't Do Much for Your Diet
In the latest food and weight news, scientists have decided that taking extra calcium doesn’t do a thing to help us lose weight. So all of those people who were choking down calcium pills simply to lose weight, can find a new supplement to take the place of the hard work of dieting and exercise.
I kind of love watching these scientific flip flops because it just goes to prove how little we really understand about the magic that is the chemistry of our bodies. But any woman who has felt a baby grow inside her could have told you that there was nothing she did to make those little fingers and toes pop out at just the right time, to make the first smiles happen, or to teach that baby how to open her eyes. We don’t understand how the whole magic of life works, and I sincerely doubt that scientists ever will.