I just don’t understand folks who believe you ought to put away the grill the Tuesday after Labor Day. Why, in this region of the country, the weather’s just getting good! Temperatures in the 70s and 80s, low humidity, no more mosquitoes … why would I decide to start cooking inside every night right when the climate has mellowed?
So off to the grill I went tonight, armed with a new task: to make beets taste good. I know I should like them; I’m a root vegetable fan, after all, and beets are so healthy and nutritious. But so far, I’ve not been able to make them tickle my palate. I was determined to rectify that situation tonight.
The potatoes (picked from our local CSA, Great Country Farms) went into the oven as I fired up the grill, and while I waited for the flames to die down I prepared the green beans, snapping off the ends and topping them with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and curry powder. Then I peeled the beets, cut them into rounds about a quarter-inch thick, topped them with some salt and placed them on a sheet of aluminum foil. Once the grill had heated up, I put the beans and beets on, turning/stirring them about 10 minutes in. I cooked the veggie burgers for the last 10 minutes or so, warmed up the buns, and voila! Dinner.
I knew I’d like the potatoes, and the green beans, and the veggie burger. But I was nervous about those beets. Would this way of preparing them appeal to my senses any better than all the other ways I’d tried? It was time for a taste test.
Success!
I can’t say I went back for seconds, but I did enjoy a very hearty portion and cleared my plate with ease. Grilling them in rounds allowed the beets to caramelize a little bit and took away some of the earthiness that had given me trouble in the past. Today, I actually enjoyed them in a way I hadn’t been able to before, and I’m confident that after a couple more tries, my taste buds will adopt them fully!
All in all, it was a good night on the back patio. Now, here’s to a fall of grilling sensations!
The stats:
Veggie burgers: FREE (friends gave us two they weren’t going to use after a cookout)
Buns: $2.99/eight ($0.37/person)
Onion: $1.29 ($0.32/person)
Tomato: $3.00 ($1.50/person)
Green beans: Prepaid.
Beets: Prepaid.
Potatoes: $0.69 ($0.35/person)
GRAND TOTAL: $7.97 … or $2.54 per person.
BUT WAIT! We’ve got green beans, buns, and burger toppings left over for use in our lunches tomorrow. So the per-person price goes down even more!
:)
where have you gone again?….
Ha! You must have posted this right as I was writing my latest blog post! Great minds. :) In what was perhaps an ill-advised scheduling of events, I popped back in here (on the blog) right before leaving for a trip to visit family, rushing back up here in time to receive some friends who were coming in for a few days’ stay. But I’m back in the swing of things now … and will be at least until our family arrives for Christmas! ;)
Thank you for checking in on me — and for reading, despite my scattered schedule! :)