Beets - Roasted Bottoms & Sauteed Tops

Get a bunch of beets (or 2 or even 3) with the tops. Cut the tops off and put them in a sink full of cold water to rinse and refresh. I’ll get back to them later.

Rinse the beets to remove the dirt. Do not peel the beets or your hands will be very beet colored. Latex or vinyl gloves are an option; just don’t use the powdered kind.

Wrap the beets in foil with salt and pepper to taste and a tablespoon of butter per bunch. Fold up the foil and put the little package either on the ‘Que on Medium or in the oven at 350 degrees.

About 45 minutes later you will have a terrific feed of the best beets ever. Give them the poke test before opening to make sure they are done. Stab each beet with a fork and gently scrape the skin off with a spoon. I will guarantee you the best unpickled beets ever and no beet hands.

Cook's Tip: As you may have noticed, I am not a measurer of ingredients kind of girl when cooking. In baking however, it being an exact science, I measure carefully and have found that a lot of substitutions don’t work.


Now to the beet tops. Drain them in a colander but do not pat dry. In a skillet melt one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of oil. Add either half a cup of garlic scapes cut into 1" pieces or three large cloves of thinly sliced garlic. Feel free to add more if you prefer a stronger garlic flavour. When you can smell the garlic, start adding the beet greens. Saute for a few minutes; when they are good and wilted they are done. Just add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy.

This recipe may be used for all the Greens. If you are a meat eater, you may want to add a chopped up slice of bacon or a small piece of well-rinsed chopped up salt pork.

So, get your fresh seasonal produce and don’t worry about experimenting with food. It’ll be fun and taste great.

TTFN
Meg

Yummy Yum Yum Yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to Dana Short's last Friday for her seventh anniversary party. The place was packed with not only people, but all these food samplings as well. I was nibbling my way through all the goodies and found a man giving away tastes of his chocolates. Boy were they good. My tip for the day is run don't walk to Dana Shortt's place - 55 Erb St. E.

Waterloo

519-880-1555

and pick up some Ascot Chocolates.

519-603-0173

www.ascotchocolates.com

I do a lot of my Christmas shopping at Dana's place for gifts with some real OOMPH.

So try Dana's and try Ascot Chocolates.

TTFN

Meg

We're Back

At last we are back blogging away. Stay tuned for more reviews and fun food facts.

So, TTFN,

Meg

Our Milestones Adventure

Milestones, The Boardwalk Plaza, Ira Needles Blvd Kitchener, Ontario

Always eager for a new dining adventure, our monthly dinner companions Bob and Arlene, joined my husband, Scootor, and I to try out the new Milestones Restaurant. Unfortunately, the evening did not start well. When we arrived promptly for our 5:30 pm reservation, our table wasn't ready and there were no other tables available. So we waited. The hostess was so embarrassed she gave me one free starter coupon (a lovely gesture), but still we sat, and sat and sat.

I was getting tired of waiting so I went up to the hostess and upon finding out our table still was not ready, I requested three more free starter coupon cards. She was more than gracious as she gave them to me; however, we continued to sit. The waiting area was very warm and even Arlene, who is ALWAYS cold, said it was warm. After one full hour, Arlene and I both returned to find out the status of our table, and as we approached, she told us they finally had a table ready for us. It was not the table that we had reserved, but another close by.

When we sat down, our wonderful server, Julie, said that an appetizer had been ordered for the table. It arrived as we were choosing our four freebies. It was a lovely little loaf of bread with Bocconcini (little balls of fresh Mozzarella) sitting on some sort of a sundried tomato pesto sauce. It was very nice and took the edge off.

The appetizers we chose were Yam Frites, Risotto Balls, Spicy Asian Chicken Bites, Honey Phyllo Shrimp, and a Naan (more like a pita than naan) bread with Goat's Cheese and two chutney-like small dishes — fig jam and a cranberry relish — that came with only one little spoon. The fig jam was very tasty, sort of a savory sweetness, and the cranberry relish was the tartest thing I'd ever tasted.

The shrimp were wonderful, plump and moist on the inside and crunchy and non-greasy on the outside. The spicy Asian chicken bites were yummy. They tasted a lot like the General Tso’s chicken you can get at most Chinese food restaurants. It had a nice spicy sweet sauce and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. The Yam Frites (my choice) were good. They could go face to face with any others around. We figured they must be fresh-cut as some of them were still a bit crunchy in the middle. The three Risotto Balls were interesting. I've had rice balls before but the risotto made them a completely different texture. They were OK. They sat on a little puddle of a tomato-based salsa that I wasn't crazy about. I'm a sauce on the side kinda girl.

The mains listed on the menu are all over the place; they have something for every one. They will accommodate any food issues you have if they can and even have Gluten Free and Vegetarian choices. Kudos to them for this!

I ordered the Hamburger. It was good; not my favorite rare in the middle juicy yummy burger, but it was OK. The toppings were fresh and flavorful and the avocado salsa was divine. What was NOT divine were the roasted potatoes that I chose for my side. They were way over-cooked and sadly wrinkled. They really should have never left the kitchen like that.

Scootor ordered the Shanghai noodles with chicken, and he said the chicken was delicious but the noodles had a taste he couldn't recognize and didn't like much. He did, however, bring his leftovers home to have for lunch at work. Arlene was satisfied with the appetizers and chose not to order a main. Bob, the last member of our jolly crew, had the prime rib. He's a pink-in-the-middle kind of guy, and this came to the table without a hint of pink in it swimming in jus.

Now, I will admit that a major pet peeve of mine is the whole "au jus" thing. The stuff your French Dip Sammy comes with is JUS just jus. Au jus means with jus. So to say it comes with au jus is saying it comes with "with jus". Like Pizza pie, Pizza means pie, so repeating the word pie is redundant. Whew, I feel better for having set that straight.

Anyway, Bob said it was OK; but he is a very accommodating guy, who doesn’t enjoy making a fuss. I’m sure he almost had a stroke every time Arlene and me weighed in with our comments.

So to sum it all up, they have just opened up and are ironing the kinks out. We had several people stop by to apologize for our wait which was lovely the first few times, but grew tedious the fourth, fifth and sixth time. You'd have thought we were going to sue them or something to make them keep coming back.

The place was packed, so make your reservations early. I give the place a solid "B" and will probably be back.

Bon appetit!
Meg