everyday foodie

I have loved beets ever since I was a child. I’m fairly certain it is the color that does it. I remember Mom or Dad telling me at the time that they thought that beets taste like “crayons” but it didn’t deter my love for the root vegetable.

It wasn’t until I got married that I had real, fresh beets in Russian beet salad. Every area makes it differently, and every time it is made, it tastes just a bit different.

It’s a fantastic salad, earthy and cool (beets), tart (granny smith apples), crunchy (walnut pieces), and garlicy.

Here’s the version I made (with the help of DH) this past weekend.

Russian Beet Salad

5 fresh beets
3 fresh granny smith apples
1/2 C crushed walnuts
1 head (yes, head) of garlic, crushed and minced
mayonnaise
1/2 C fresh parsley
1/4 C fresh dill

Boil beets until soft, about 20-40 minutes (depending on how large the beets are). Under cool running water, wipe off the skin — it should just come right off. Let beets cool.

Once beets are cool, grate beets into a large bowl using a fine grater.

Peel and core granny smith apples, then dice. Cubes should be about 1/2″ on all sides.

Mix beets, diced granny smith apples, crushed walnuts, and garlic in a large bowl. Add mayonnaise to taste — some people prefer a lot of mayonnaise, some prefer very little. Add parsley and mix in.

Refrigerate, if you prefer it cool. It’s also good at room temperature.

Just before serving, top with a bit of dill.

After Monday’s laziness regarding grocery shopping, I forced myself to the grocery store last night. I try to plan out a week’s worth of meals and buy groceries for the week, but sometimes I just go to the store and see what I come up with. Last night was one of those “see what I come up with” trips.

I came home with food for two meals — asparagus and steaks or chorizo tacos. I asked Nick which meal he wanted — he requested tacos.

One benefit to living where I do is that we have a large Latin population here. The regular grocery stores carry a number of fresh sausages with different flavoring. I purchased fresh Salvadorean chorizo but they also had Mexican chorizo and a few other varieties.

I diced a yellow bell pepper, half of a large yellow onion, and crushed some garlic. I tossed these into a pan with a touch of olive oil and then squeezed the chorizo meat out of the casing into the pan and sauteed everything together. I also added a touch of salt and black pepper.

While the meat mixture cooked, I chopped iceberg lettuce (tacos being the only thing I like iceberg lettuce with), plum tomatoes, and the other half of the yellow bell pepper.

By the time I had finished preparing the toppings and put them on the table with the tortillas, the meat was done cooking. I drained it a little to get some of the oil off of it and it was ready.

These tacos are an extremely simple meal, but there is something incredibly refreshing about cool vegetables (and fruit) paired with slightly spicy warm meat.

Prep Time: 10 minutes plus extra for vegetables
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: around 30 minutes

Last night I did not want to go to the grocery store after work, so I had to figure out dinner based upon what we had in the fridge and freezer. We usually keep a bag of frozen raw shrimp in the freezer at all times — shrimp works well for quick dinners because it cooks quickly and works well with so many vegetables.

As I poked through the fridge, I found some fresh broccoli, bacon, fresh rosemary. I decided that I would just make one of my staple appetizers– bacon-wrapped rosemary balsamic shrimp– as an entree. I just had to make a lot more of it than usual.

First, I defrosted the shrimp quickly by letting them sit under some running water. While the shrimp defrosted, I cut the slices of bacon into thirds– since I wanted to make enough bacon-wrapped shrimp for our entree, I decided to use less bacon per shrimp than I usually do.

Once the shrimp were defrosted, I dusted them with a touch of sea salt, black pepper, paprika (for color), oregano, and basil. Then I added fresh crushed rosemary to them, wrapped the bacon around them and secured it with a toothpick or the stems from the rosemary. After all of the shrimp were wrapped in bacon, I drizzled them with a little bit of balsamic vinegar.

I popped them under the broiler until they were done — approximately 7 minutes for the size shrimp I used.

I added a touch of fresh squeezed lemon to the shrimp and we ate it along with steamed broccoli.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 7 minutes
Total Time: less than 30 minutes

Everyday Foodie is intended to be an everyday look at food by a married professional in the US who doesn’t always have the time she would like to prepare meals.

It is an effort by me, your loving narrator, to:

• cook at home more
  
• get more experience in food photography
  
• keep track of fun meals we’ve created in a searchable format so I can go back and search for them later
  

Join me and we’ll see where we go! Thanks for visiting.