Fighting the urge....

Alrighty, it is an average Thursday morning here and I am yet again fighting the early on-set of "startitis"....grrrrr!!!! What is a girl to do? Apparently, I have access to the Internet at work (no telling for how long though), and this causes me the dilemma of being able to get to Ravelry during the day, enabling me to look at patterns I want to try and things I want to knit.

I have been thinking about the "February Lady" Sweater for the past 6 months or so. I really do want to knit this and think that it would be a lot of fun and a real challenge to my skills. The first hurdle though is making sure I have enough yarn, which then presents challenge number two....do I have the money to buy more yarn? I Think I have solved both problems with one easy solution....Caron Simply Soft. I really think that this yarn would work great to try this sweater and it would then be washer friendly and if I either, didn't finish the piece (yeah...this is a side effect of startitis) or simply didn't like it in the end (not a likely thing), I would not feel overly guilty that I spent money on yarn and didn't like it. Especially since Walmart is selling Caron Simply Soft pretty cheap right now, since they are trying to get rid of whatever they have left in inventory. Heck, I managed to get 2 skeins of it the other day for a mere $2.88 per skein. Not a bad deal for the penny-pinching yarn addict that I am.

Anyway, I feel better now that I have confessed my desires for all the world and Internet to see....(not that I think all that many people actually read this thing, but hey...)

Tasty Eats....

OK....so I thought I would share something that I tried tonight, completely unrelated to knitting.

Not sure who actually reads this blog, but for those of you who know me on a personal level, you probably already know that I LOVE to cook, for those of you that don't know me...now you know my true passion.

I guess I should explain where this is coming from. I found out last Friday that the company that I work for is planning some layoffs. Not sure yet of any details, such as who, when or how bad it will be, as soon as I know more I can stop stressing. Soooooo....anyway, after having a nice long heart to heart with my Dad and Stepmom, I took some advice my Stepmom had given me, which was to think about my passion.

Well, I have always had a passion for cooking. I have worked in several food service jobs, ranging from "coffee girl" to waitress and the last time was as a cook and kitchen manager (by far and away my favorite). I love to come up with new ideas, create funky recipes and just cook in general. The prep has always been the most fun, but my favorite part has to be the eating!!! Not sure which I like better, eating my own food or watching others eat my cooking and enjoy it. Either way, it is a gratifying experience for me.

So, I don't know how far the "exploring my passion" thing is gonna go, but for right now, I am having a lot of fun with it and hopefully my friends will get to eat some tasty treats, as long as the wallet can withstand it.

Anyway, tonight...on my way home from work I stopped at Central Market to pick up some beets for roasting. I had seen this nifty recipe in the New York Times online and figured I would give it my own spin and see if it tasted as good as it sounded (I will post my version of the recipe at the bottom of this post). It also didn't hurt that I had seen another recipe for roasted beets over the weekend on the Food Network....figured, apparently this was a sign that I might wanna try some beets tonight...LOL!!!

Along with my beets, I grabbed some turkey thighs from the Meat Department (was much cheaper and I generally like the taste better than chicken). Figured since I was roasting one thing I might as well take advantage of the oven heat and just cook everything at the same time.

I got home, grabbed the carrots and celery out of the fridge that I have come to keep as a staple in the house lately (mainly due to the recent bonding I have done with my crock pot and slow cooker meals). I chopped a few carrots and 2 ribs of celery to put in the bottom of the baking dish I would be using for my turkey thighs, seasoned up the turkey with a good sage-based poultry rub I had grabbed at the last minute for 40 cents while I was at the market (best 40 cents ever spent). Then I that in the oven to start getting brown and started to work on my beets. By the time I was ready to lower the heat on the turkey, the beets were ready to put in the oven (roughly 15 minutes of prep....not too bad for a week night dinner).

About 1 hour later, dinner was done and ready to serve. HOLY MOLY!!!! I have to admit, that was probably one of the best dinners I have made myself in a LOOOOONG time. I highly recommend thought. Only thing I might try different next time is to add some goat cheese on top as a nice salty compliment to the sweetness of the beets.

Now...here is the recipe (more or less)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Roughly 2 pounds of beets (red or golden, if you can find them), peeled and diced in 1/2 to 1/4 inch cubes
2 Tbs olive oil (or just enough to coat the cut up beets)
Kosher salt to taste
2 Tbs Red Wine or Balsamic Vinegar (I used red wine this time, since it was what I had on hand)

Peel and chop the beets, place in a mixing boil. Pour in the olive oil, just enough to coat the beets so that they don't stick to the pan or burn.

After tossing in the bowl, place in a metal roasting dish or pan. Sprinkle with salt liberally and then sprinkle with the vinegar (this is to taste...I like things with a lot of vinegar, so I was pretty heavy handed with it).

Place roasting pan, with beets in preheated oven for about an hour, depending on how small you managed to dice the beets. During the cooking process, check the beets for doneness, stirring at the same time to ensure that they are evenly cooked.

Once they are tender, take out of the oven to cool for a short period before serving. I added another splash of vinegar, but that is discretionary...finally...serve and ENJOY!!!!