377 Days - Blog #28 Of Beets and Vampires

So last weekend I was at the Worcester Art Museum’s Saturday art + Market.  The WWC was selling books.  Well, not really selling.  But we saw a lot of people and got to talk to each other.  It was a nice way to spend a Saturday morning.  

Kitty corner across from us was the row of actual farmers marketing the yield from their gardens.  I went over in one of our idle moments and saw the beets, then the fennel.  And I knew I had to make a purchase.  Of course I got to the register and saw the beets were $6 for three bunches, a much better deal than the $2.50 a bunch.  So, naturally, I got three.  I’ve been missing beets, you see.  After a few summers of a CSA box where they were a constant staple, I’ve found myself missing their delicious purple sweetness.  Especially in my pasta sauce.

Yes.  I make pasta sauce out of beets.  It’s really quite good.  In fact, I am so confident in that fact, I am going to write down the recipe.  And by recipe, I mean the general guidelines I employ more or less when I have beets and fennel in the house.

1. Get a bunch of beets.  Cut off the greens and roast them.  When I roast beets, I wrap them in foil (to trap most of the sugary drippings) and put them on my stoneware brownie sheet.  I cook them for about an hour at 400 degrees.

2. Cool them.  I’ve actually left the wrapped beets in my refrigerator for two weeks and this still works.  I’ve also unwrapped them the moment my fingers won’t get burned on the foil.  This time I waited a day.

3. Unwrap the beets.  Take off the skins.  They slither and slide… and it actually gets rather gory, like something out of a badly written horror movie.  Chop up the beets into cubes.

4. Slice up a medium yellow onion and a fennel bulb.  Saute/caramelize them in some olive oil.  I’ll add a bit of salt and rosemary for fun. 

5. Put the beets, the onion, the fennel, some ricotta or a lot of ricotta, maybe some goat cheese if you have it or some Parmesan in a food processor.  It turns a very pretty color.

 

6. Serve with pasta.  I’ve also made a lasagna using this sauce and a pumpkin spinach filling.  But my favorite is whole wheat spaghetti – the whole wheat actually absorbs the sauce a little more.  And really, it should be the Trader Joe’s kind.  But whatever.  It all basically looks like brains.

I’ve added chopped walnuts or greens.  But this is just so very yummy.

I confess I take a warped bit of delight when I’m cutting up the beets and making a mess with that purple dye.  That is probably the closest to gore I can tolerate these days.  And it isn’t just gory.  It is actually really pretty – even when it slithers down the sink with the pink suds from washing the dishes.

 

Tonight as I looked upon that image, I paused at the thought that I missed the True Blood finale last night.  Actually, I missed the whole season.  I’m sure at some point I’ll watch it.  Maybe I’ll even find myself bored enough for a binge when it is available for such.  Or maybe not…

I did pause, though, to think about how that show… not too long ago… was something I liked to watch very much.  Not to the degree of Dr. Who, but it did have some impact on my life other than television viewing.

It is curious how we associate pop culture with the events of our lives.  A song or a play or a movie or a tv show.  And that premiered in the fall seven years ago.  It gave me something to do with time I suddenly had after doing theater pretty much non-stop for three years.  And in that occupation of time, my imagination started turning and thinking about vampires - and combined with a whole lot of other details, I ended up writing my ownvampire story.

It’s funny.  I was really kind of over that show three years ago.  The writing was just so bad.  So so bad.  And it was super disappointing when Lucy Griffiths (from one of the best bad tv shows) turned up all plastic surgeried and Hollywood beautified in one of the later seasons.  But I still watched it… because it had that sentimental connection.  

But now I really am weary of vampires.  I think that’s why I didn’t sell many books at the farmer’s market.  I love my characters… but I think I need a break from the trope.  And yet… the funny thing is… well, if it wasn’t for vampires and to some part True Blood, I wouldn’t have been sitting at that table with a group of fellow writers… friends… trying to sell a vampire novel.  And I wouldn’t have bought those beets to make the pasta sauce for dinner tonight.

So, well, there’s that.