happy food: beet stacks

I was an odd child.

And perhaps the fact that I find the mention of beets salivation-worthy continues to contribute to my oddity as a young adult.

But guys, this recipe is fantastic.

Perhaps it is their refined, solid smoothness, or maybe their distinctly earthy flavor, or, simply, it could be their fantastic color... but beets hit my happy button.

Seriously.  Give this goodness a try.

4 beets (small to medium sized)
4 ounces goat cheese
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup walnut oil
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, roughly chopped
salt and pepper

-  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-  Scrub, rinse, and pat beets dry, then rub with a small amount of olive oil and wrap tightly in foil (two beets per foil packet).  Roast for one to one and half hours until beets are tender and easily pierced with a knife.  Allow to slightly cool, then carefully remove skin.  (The beets will stain your hands and clothing!  It's a gorgeous color... but beware).  Set aside.
-  In a small, dry frying pan, toast walnuts until slightly browned.  Set aside.
-  In a small bowl, whisk together balsamic vinegar and walnut oil, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
-  Once skin is removed, slice beets width-wise into three or four sections (depending on the size of the beets).
-  In layers, alternate beet slices and crumbled goat cheese.  Drizzle stacks with balsamic walnut oil vinaigrette, fresh thyme leaves, and the toasted walnuts.

Bam.

happy food: baked oatmeal

Food is always a happy subject.  It just is.

Unless you burn it.

But ketchup covers a multitude of culinary blunders.

And so it is still happy.

Due to the undeniable felicity of food, and because we are friends, I believe it highly appropriate that we share some o' the cheer, eh?  Today I am thinking of baked oatmeal.  This stuff is the super-duper-est easy baked breakfast in the world, and it tastes magical.

Baked Oatmeal
(from Mennonite Country-Style Recipes & Kitchen Secrets by Esther H. Shank)

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
(raisins, cranberries, nuts, etc. as you like)
3 cups quick oatmeal

Mix all but the oatmeal together thoroughly.
Stir in the oatmeal.
Pour into a greased 8x12 baking dish (it looks super soupy going in, but don't worry).  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 25 minutes.
Serve warm with milk.

Yield: 6-8 servings


This is a recipe with which you can easily be creative.  Imagine getting peanut butter or chocolate or various fruits involved.  Oooooh yeh.

Savor the magic, my friend.

a tasteful predicament

source

I don't know about all y'all, but I love spicy food.  Like when the sauce bottle cautions, "Use one drop at a time." No, really.  (If you've ever had Dave's Gourmet Total Insanity, you know what I'm talking about.  If you think that stuff hurts going in...).  Whether it's salsa, sauce, or some other form of the blessed kick, spicy shows up on a daily basis in my diet.  Great, right?

Well.

That all changes when your taste buds grow - and I'm not talking about developing a pansy-er palate as you get older.  I mean, something is wrong and they swell to three times their normal size.  Your tongue hurts and every taste is amplified.  You can still taste what you ate last Thursday for your mid-morning snack kind of amplified.  You never knew that dish you are currently masticating does not, in fact, comprise ONE flavor, but thirty-four - and now you can identify each of them.

As an individual unfortunately prone to cold sores for the past couple years (apparently people in the U.S. start getting them when they hit age 20), I am used to taking a collective month-long fast from spicy foods each year (acids/spicy food exacerbate symptoms).  This past week, however, has been a novel adventure.  Yes, I have a cold sore... but no, this is not the typical experience.  My tongue looks like it's a petri dish of pink warts (too grotesque? sorry...), and needless to say, my regular consumption of spicy foods has been drastically altered.  I've waited it out a while, but recently I've decided to get others' opinions:

Mom:  "Oh, Sara, you better get that checked out."
Christian:  "Whoa, sweet."
Dad:  "Buck up."
Dentist:  "I'm not alarmed."
Internet:  absolutely nothing helpful

Although these sources have been largely unhelpful, I have learned that enlarged taste buds are probably the result of the same things that spike cold sores: stress, heat, tiredness, eating spicy foods, etc.  I tend to get pretty severe cold sores, so the taste bud weirdness is probably part of the package.  Ugh.  Hopefully these puppies cool down soon.  Seriously.  This whole being-burned-by-mild-salsa thing is killing me.


In the meantime, given the probable causes, I think I have ample argument to go sleep in a nice, air conditioned room.  For a long time.  And have ice cream when I wake up.  Eh? :)