Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Beets with Honey Mustard

This is the only way I make beets lately. It's very good, and I just got stuck.

  • about 3 large beets
  • 2-4 tbs. mustard
  • 1 tsp rice or other mild vinegar
  • 1 tbs. honey
  • olive oil, salt, pepper

Peel the beets and chop them into small (1/2 to 1 inch) cubes. Put them in a large roasting pan with salt and pepper and a bit of olive oil. Cover the pan (aluminum foil works) and roast at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Uncover and roast for another 20-25 minutes until they look a little bit caramelized on the edges, stirring once or twice near the end of the cooking time.

While the beets are roasting, mix up the honey and mustard and vinegar in a bowl. When the beets are done cooking, take them out of the oven and turn it off. Add the honey-mustard mixture to the pan of beets, stir it up, and put it back in the oven for five minutes. Serve warm, though leftovers taste good at room temperature too.

Weighty Matters

This is my new kitchen scale, in action:

It was the floor model at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Now it has found a pleasant home in my kitchen, where I rarely measure anything by volume anymore. A cup and a half of flour? Put the mixing bowl on the scale, tare it, and pour in flour until the scale says 240 grams. A half cup of sugar? That's 100 grams. The precision is nice, but the convenience is what's really great.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Snow!

Today is a snow day! Sure, we only got two inches of snow, but that was enough to cancel my students' calculus midterm. I had a fun walk through the snow to the liquor store to buy some cognac for my grandma's cranberry sauce. Lindsay took a picture that shows how nice autumn snow is:

In other news, Lindsay got a haircut, and I'm going to Berkeley for a conference at MSRI in two weeks. Here's a picture of the haircut:

Haircuts make you happier.