dual personalities

I have returned from my morning walk and settled down with a cup of tea to write up this post. My life these last months has been so sedentary that I decided I had to take emergency measures; I vowed to take a walk first thing every morning, before I could talk my self out of it or the temperature rose high enough to give me a legitimate excuse. Two days and counting….

The week flew by, as they are wont to do, and the only thing I have to show for it is a fraught attempt to make pickled beets. I like beets and I’m not ashamed of it.

No one else in my family can stand them, so I’m on my own when it comes to eating them. The last time I got pickled beets from our grocery store they only carried ‘own brand’ and the product was disappointing. To top it off, I dropped the half-empty jar on the kitchen floor, sending glass and magenta beet juice everywhere. That was beet disaster #1.

Undaunted, I became determined to pickle my own beets and bought some fresh ones during my next visit to the store.

It isn’t really hard to make pickled beets: wash, top and tail them, and then simmer them for about 30 minutes. Let the beets cool before cutting them into smaller pieces.

Then it’s pickling time. Pour equal amounts of sugar, apple cider vinegar and water into a sauce pan (I used a cup of each, but next time I will use about half the amount of sugar) and then add a cinnamon stick, cloves, and whatever other spices you want. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for about 10 minutes.

That’s it. Cool, pour into an airtight container (you can discard most of the juice and all of the cinnamon and cloves) and store in the fridge. Easy peasy — at least I thought so until I tried to transfer the beets from the pan to the container. Then I spilled beet juice EVERYWHERE — on the counter, on the rug, on the wooden floor… Thus, I achieved beet disaster #2.

Dealing with beets in a mostly white kitchen is stressful. That lovely, magenta juice is apt to explode onto all surfaces — especially white counter tops and shirts — like so much blood splatter (sorry, I’ve been watching too many murder mysteries). Much as I like ‘nature’s candy’, I don’t know whether my nerves or, indeed, my kitchen can stand up to the stress of preparing them. Still, for lunch today I’m going to enjoy a salad with pickled beets!

I leave you with this charming poem by Mary Hayes from her book Vegetable Verslets published in about 1911:

Try some beets. You might like them, and the pun potential is exceptional!