And the recipe is so incredibly easy, you’ll never want to buy the canned variety again. Take it with you to Thanksgivings dinner, and you’ll look like a rockstar.
I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed beets until recently. I loved them as a little kid, but I think I was influenced by peer pressure sometime between my 5 birthday and my 25th. I avoided them, and when I did finally get a chance to eat them they were always the wretched canned variety. And then, during a date I was offered a forkful. I don’t remember the date, but I do remember the first taste of beets, paired with goat cheese and arugula. Bliss.
I have a confession; a deep, dark secret my mother has suspected for years: I go out far more than I should. Having an great social life is not something most people complain about, but there is one major consequence to having an active night life; primarily, an inability to be active in your day life. Though I haven’t figured a way to strike a balance between night and day quite yet, I have discovered a wonderful remedy that assists in reviving both my liver and my spirits. Low, the beet, carrot, apple and ginger juice!
Ten plus years ago when I moved to New York my good friend told me a story. Many years ago, when he was in junior high school in Brooklyn he had an Italian-American friend…let’s call him Joey. From his recollection, Joey was the sort of kid who had strong opinions and an even stronger voice when articulating his opinions. He both admired and loathed this particular trait in Joey. Joey’s loud voice was especially loathsome when he learned that my friend’s mother, a West Indian transplant, cooked him spaghetti and meat sauce by using a jar of tomato sauce. Joey protested loudly, shook his head and said, “Your mother doesn’t love you if she gives you sauce out of a jar.”
One of the wonderful things about being part of a diverse family is being able to visit my diverse family all over the world. As luck would have it, one of my very favorite relatives lives in Singapore. And I consider that lucky because the food in Singapore is a thing of beauty. I believe it’s because Singapore is comprised solely of immigrants (mostly from China, India, and Malaysia). And very good things come when cultures intermingle.
One of my favorite recipes I made for the Man with the grill, was a chili lime and cumin skirt steak. The beauty of this recipe is in the chili, lime, and cumin marinade. Now, there are a lot of cuts of meat where it would be an absolute sin to marinade the meat for an extended period of time. This is not the case with skirt steak. Skirt steak has a tendency towards being tough, and that makes it the perfect cut for marinades.
Sometimes the Single Chef is invited out and she has to be prepared. Last year I was invited to a last minute 4th of July BBQ and I brought this spiced-up variation on a Paula Dean recipe. I used the ingredients I had on hand and added a couple of tablespoons of dill and parsley my friend had chopped up for borscht, then packed it up and took it to the BBQ. The result was delicious (and I made a lot of male friends). If you’re vegan, use Bush’s Vegetarian beans and make sure to leave out the bacon.