Happy Earth Day!

Corn soup with arugula, beet, and walnut salad

Because it was Earth Day, I decided to make a vegetarian dinner. Here's how I worked it out in my head, "I don't know, I just felt like, you know, with all the stuff you read about how bad meat is for the environment, well... its a little something." It was a little difficult to do the
planning - I was really jones-ing for some bacon - but I stuck to my guns (stuck to my greens?) and made a totally vegetarian dinner!

Armed with 4 pounds of canned corn leftover from the weekend's chili making adventure, and a fresh box of produce from the CSA, I threw together a corn soup. It was FANTASTIC! Here's how it goes:

1. Heat oil and 1 tablespoon of butter in large pot.
2. Chop up one onion (I used red, but whatever you have on hand is fine) and put it in pot. (You want them fragrant and translucent - about 5 minutes.
3. While onions cook, chop 4 cloves of garlic, throw it in pot. Put them in the pot with the onions, cook until fragrant about 1 minute more.
4. Chop 5 small red potatoes into eighths, put in pot.
5. Add corn (probably 3-4 cans)
6. Pour in vegetable stock until it covers the rest of the ingredients in the pot.
7. Add salt, cayenne pepper, and saffron
8. Simmer, uncovered, for about an hour and a half - add more water if it gets too thick
9. EMULSIFY! Or blend it in the blender in small batches. (NOT big batches, trust me on this one, it is a recipe for disaster.)

While soup is simmering down:
1. Wash, peel, and slice golden beets. Put slices on baking pan, drizzle olive oil and salt on and put it in the oven. (Or if your oven refuses to work, as mine did this evening, put it into two batches and put it in the toaster oven. This does not give the same even cooking that using a big oven would have, but sometime you gotta do what you gotta do.)
2. Wash and chop arugula
3. Briefly roast walnuts
4. Make simple salad dressing of lemon, olive oil, and salt.

Happy Earth Day!

Caught Red Handed!

Roasted Beet Salad with Caramelized Shallot Vinaigrette

- 3 Medium sized beets, skin on, greens detached
- 1 Head of romaine lettuce
- 1 Cup walnuts
- Feta cheese
- 1 Large shallot
- Olive oil
- Balsamic vineger
- Salt & pepper

Whoever invented that saying clearly had been calling out someone roasting beets. That juice gets everywhere! I like roasting beets because its a pretty simple process: pre-heat oven, wrap beets in foil, stab with fork, take out eventually (about an hour, depending on the size of the beets).
About an hour after I put the beets in the oven, I chopped the romaine and feta, and roasted the walnuts. I was feeling fancy today, so I chopped the shallots and caramelized them, then added some balsamic vinegar for a warm shallot vinaigrette.
Keeping an eye on the shallots, I take the beets out of the oven and put them on the counter. I unwrap the first one and start to peel. It takes all of two seconds for my hands to be covered in bright pink beet juice. I am prepared for this. As far as I know, unless you are wearing gloves, there is no way to avoid it. I am okay with this. It comes off easily, and I like the way my Ms. Myers Clean Day soap smells.
What I am not prepared for is for the remaining two beets to gush beet juice all over the counter, pool up under the cutting board, and drip all over the floor. Why was this happening? Was it because I detached the greens? Or where they just exceptionally juicy? I have no answer. Whatever the case, it looked like a vegetable horror film. But, calm your fears, everything was cleaned up, good as new. Except my feet, which remain splattered with red. I hope that comes off in the morning.