Insert your own beet pun here.

Hi All,

I considered "Beet it", "Can't beet this", "We got the beets" . . . you get the idea.

So my roasted red beets - I recommend getting a bag of cheap plastic gloves (preferably without the powder - not, as Alton Brown would say, "good eats") and donning them to rub the skin off.  This avoids the pink-to-purple staining that lasts for 2-3 days on your hands. 

True confession:  I tried several things with the beets, but none of them worked as well as my two tried-and-true approaches:  (1)  roasted beets are just good on their own with a little salt and pepper or (2) when cold, they can be cut into 1/4" cubes, salted and peppered, and dressed with 2 parts lemon juice to 1 part olive oil. . .then add some toasted walnuts (candied walnuts are nice, too) and either feta or mild bleu cheese and enjoy as a salad.

The greens, however, cooked beautifully.  For 2 people:  Cook two fairly large links of Italian sausage - as spicy as you like - in a small casserole dish in a 350 degree oven with about 3/4 c. of red wine for 30-35 minutes, until they're cooked through. When I say "fairly large", think 2 hot dogs stuffed into one. . I used sweet Italian sausage from Star Market.  Pull them out of the wine and set them aside.  Put the greens (thoroughly cleaned, see last night's entry) from one bunch of beets into the wine (add 1/4 c. water if the dish seems dry).  Using a spoon, turn the greens over a few times so they're all slightly wet.  Cover the dish with foil.

Cook at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until tender.  Add salt, a dash of cider vinegar, and if you like it spicy, some crushed red pepper flakes.  Use a slotted spoon to put the greens on the plate and serve with the sausage and a potato preparation of your choice - boiled, baked or fried. And just so you know things don't go perfectly at my house either, I was baking two baby potatoes and one exploded in my oven.  I'll be cleaning that up later!

Tomorrow's another adventure . . . 'til then, I'll see you at the market!