Beets Slaw

Beets...Beets... Beets!!! I was never a big fan of beets. I just though of those canned things that you put on salads and are a strange purple color that made the whole salad a scary brown/reddish color. At the beginning of this blog I made beets. I had broiled them and they turned out awesome and sweet but very messy. I am pretty sure my hands were purple for 2 days after that. I was excited to try them again. Its just not an ingredient that I pick up often. Not sure why. They are really good for you. Full of antioxidants, anti-inflammatory and detoxification support with in this little round root jewel. This is something we all need at this time of year. We are all starting to take better care of ourself. (Or you better be!)

I have found that the more I try new things, the more I am opt to eat healthy foods in general. For a while I joined a co-op of fruits and veggies every week and our family tried all sorts of things such as jicama and different types of squash. If you have the opportunity to do one of these I strongly suggest it. It is fun and exciting to see what you get each week. It is also great to try to be creative in what you use it for. Ok, now that I have gone on a tangent, lets get back to the beets.

This recipe called for yellow beets. (It said you could use red/purple beets but then the whole salad would be purple which just, to be honest, freaks me out for some reason.) I looked at my regular grocery store without luck so I went to my favorite food store, A.J.'s. I can always count on them having what I need. As you recall, I have also bought duck, tuna, and the prior beets there. Here are the beets with the stems cut off. Now I am sure that the beet greens are just as tasty but I don't have any idea how to use them. Do you?

Since this topic is about roasting, we placed the beets in the foil pouch and placed them in the oven. Easy!!! Yes, I did say we. I was luck enough to have my mom, dad, and grandma lorraine here at that time so we all got to enjoy the benefits of this blog entry.
We roasted the beets at 425 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. I admit that having the oven on for that long is a pain but on this particular day it was fine because it was freezing outside and I wasn't looking forward to "salad" for dinner. Soup was sounded better.
The beets were taken out of the oven and the skins were removed. The were easy to peel off.
I then used my box grater on the large holes and graded it up. Easier said than done by the way because it basically turned into mush.
The next ingredient was broccoli. I love broccoli. It might be one of my favorite veggies and especially in a salad. I was interested to make this one because you use the stems of the broccoli and not the florets. I simply pealed the outer layer of the stem with a paring knife and then graded it as well in the box grater.
Next came the "salad/slaw" ingredients including thinly sliced red onion, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, sugar and white pepper. (I'm sure you can use regular pepper. I just happen to have white pepper) I mixed this all together and then placed into the fridge overnight to "marry" the flavors. Cole slaw is aways better the second day right? Honestly I don't know because I DO NOT like traditional cole slaw. I have to trust the experts on this one.
This made about 4 side servings of slaw. Because there was 5 of us, we each got a couple of bites for tasting.
We all relatively liked it. The red onions were still pretty big and it seemed like there were ALOT of them. Symon of course liked it. (I am so grateful that he will eat anything) I felt that alone it was pretty strong but to my grandma's suggestion, it would be nice with a piece of chicken or beef that could stand up to the strong flavor. Of course my dad didn't say a word. Just took a bite and moved on. :) I have to be honest though. There was some leftover in the fridge and nobody ate it. So overall I would say it was good but not memorable. We all chose to eat sweets instead. :)

I want to keep trying beets so if you have a good beet recipe let me know. Next up, tomatoes!!!

Not MY mother's meatloaf

Mom... I miss you!!! (and your meatloaf too)

I am not a great fan of meatloaf. Of course my mom made meatloaf and of course I ate it. (I was a really good kid) But lets be honest, I would not ask for meatloaf if I had a choice. Right? I was really excited to make this recipe. I want to LOVE meatloaf. I am not a big protein eater so I thought this would work out great. Secondly, I was hoping to learn how to hide veggies in the meatloaf to get some in for me and my kiddos. This started out like mosts meatloaf do.

Preheat to 350 degrees. Beat eggs.

Add raw onion, minced garlic, paprika, salt and pepper.

Add 2 slices of white sandwich bread sliced. (For the record, I do NOT eat white sandwich bread. It actually grosses me out and took everything not to buy whole wheat bread) I also did not eat another piece of the leftover loaf of white bread.

Then add parsley, ketchup, red wine vinegar, and worcestershire sauce.

Then add two pounds of ground beef chuck. (I just bought regular ground beef because I had my two kids with me and was not about to wait for the butcher to grind it for me) This also seemed like A LOT of meat to me.

Mix with hands lightly!!! Do not over mix!!!!!

At this point it suggests to create a small patty and cook it on the stove to adjust seasoning. My feeling at this point was...." Seriously? I payed for this book so I wouldn't have to do this and get ANOTHER pan dirty! " I therefore refused to do this part. LOL

I placed the mixture into a loaf pan and then placed the pan over a cookie sheet and then into the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

At this point I was thinking, I should have make the baked potatoes at the same time so I could could kill two birds with one stone. Of course I didn't. :)

After 1 hour and 15 minutes I took it out and it was really watery with lots of grease on the top. I just kept cooking it for about 20 minutes more but it was still watery? And it did NOT look like my mom's meatloaf at this point. I took it out because I was starving and let it rest in the pan for an additional 10-15 minutes. It wasn't even that yummy brown color. Gross!!!!

I then removed the meatloaf from the pan and then got rid of the rendered fat. When I took it out of the pan and placed it onto the cutting board to slice and it fell apart. After the panic passed, I cut and served with sweet potato fries and roasted broccoli.

Doesn't it look sad? I was not even looking forward to eating it.

After making this, I really missed my mom's meatloaf. Still not my favorite thing to eat but I am planning on making her recipe tonight instead of Alton Brown's. Stick to your mom's meatloaf. I think it may be the comfort factor that heightens the flavor. Of course ketchup does too. :)

Hot Potato

Hot Potato!!!!

I love baked potatoes. Yummy. This will be a short one which is pretty self explanatory. It was so easy, Symon did this one for me while I was at work. I always buy potatoes and then I ended up making mashed potatoes every time. I am not sure why I forget to make baked potato. It is quiet simple. Turn on oven to 350 degrees.

Wash the potatoes.

Poke with fork.

Get other ingredients including oil and kosher salt.

Place ingredients in the bowl and mix potatoes in the ingredients.

Put in the oven directly onto rack in oven.

Remove potatoes after tender to touch which takes about 1- 1 1/2 hours.

Cut open and dress with butter, salt and pepper, green onions, sour cream or whatever you like. We only had butter and sour cream this time.

This actually turned out really well. The only thing that I never though of before what seasoning the potato before I cook it. I usually don't eat the skin but this one was super good with the crispy skin and salt. I really enjoyed it. Tell you hubbies to whip you up a potato. If Symon can do it, so can they. Enjoy!!!

BTW: Sorry for it being so boring!!!! In my opinion, potatoes are boring. Its the toppings that are important. :)