Americans generally eat anything that moves (possum, snake, turtle, squirrel, etc.) with the side dish of anything that grows (sprouts, green beans, asparagus, etc). That’s why it always surprises me when my co-workers make disgusted faces and puking noises when I say something about beets. Why beets were chosen for the role of the hated vegetable is still unclear to me. What’s clear is the fact that they are delicious, slightly sweet, low calorie and help cure everything from cancer to icy roads.
I, on the other hand, love beets and eat them frequently. They can be boiled, roasted, steamed, microwaved and eaten in soups (readers of this blog already know about borscht), salads,by themselves and with other vegetables. My favorite simplest beet recipe is just shredded cooked beets, little bit of minced garlic, mixed with some mayo or sour cream. For a more complex but still easy to make salad I like vinegret (mine is not exactly like this guy’s recipe but he took better pictures).
So forget your childhood fears and on your next trip to the store buy a bunch of beets. You’ll be peeing red for a week!
For more recipes check out Alton Brown’s “Beet it!”
P.S. No matter what you’ve been told by crazy vegetarians, the root is the edible part of the beet plant, leave the tops for your pet goat.
Today, on April 22nd all progressive humanity celebrates the n-Th birthday of the Leader of the World Proletariat, founder of the USSR and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Vladimir Illyich Lenin. Something like this would make a traditional headline in every newspaper in the USSR as recently as twenty years ago. For years Lenin’s likeness was everywhere, every classroom had a portrait, every school had a bust, every city had a monument or ten, and then there were countless pins, flags, medals, certificates, photos, paintings and other visual aids. On this picture I am posing with Lenin in the parade uniform which I had to borrow because I was too lazy to sew the badges onto my own. In my day, Lenin was not as revered as he was in years before, but we still had to read the stories about his childhood, his love for the common men, his wisdom, his humbleness, his bravery and genius. We didn’t care but it was something that had to be done. As we grew up he was growing up with us, from “Grandpa Lenin” to “Comrade Lenin”, always omnipresent, always watching us from every wall and every city square. Stories of his childhood were replaced by his works that we had to study and quote. Every respectable establishment would have all 55 volumes of his “Collected Works“,which were lovingly translated into every language known to man.We didn’t know about “Red Terror“, hunger, repressions, killings,murder of the Romanov family; people who remembered knew better not to discuss it, every mention of the horrors wiped out or edited to look necessary to establish and protect the new country. Just a kindly old man who cared about us.
No one knows how the world history would have turned out without Lenin. Probably the same. Lenin wasn’t the one killing, robbing, kicking out of the country, starving and raping. He was just issuing the orders.
His body is still out there as a morbid reminder of his genius, evil and determination, a lethal combination which affected billions of people in every corner of the world for generations to come.
Haphazard, light-on-planning style of travel we practice is not for everyone. Before leaving on the summer trip to Europe I haven’t done a lot of research, instead I directed my kid to find and write down everything she wants to see and do, while I would take care of the travel arrangements. So upon arrival, when I asked her what’s on her list for London, she said “Everything!”. That and Nando’s Chicken. And that’s exactly what we did.
Tourists roam Europe with textbook-sized travel guides constantly checking if they are doing it right. Someone on a large travel forum suggested taking a course in French gastronomy before visiting France. That’s in addition to a basic French language course and an overview of the French history. Visitors start their days with detailed and perfectly timed itineraries. A little more planning probably would’ve helped us to see more, save a bit of money and not show up at Versailles on the only day when it’s closed and leave the visit to Louvre for the day when its art gets a day off. People with a plan don’t have to wonder if they will have to sleep at a railway station because their credit card was declined when they tried to buy a train ticket at the last minute using a WIFI they found at a random Starbucks. People who didn’t spend their pre-trip days posting funny photos on Facebook don’t miss their stop on the way to the airport.
And then there are people like us, who get up every morning with just a faint idea where to go, or, sometimes, only a direction. We are the ones wondering around trying to make sense out of a souvenir map. We are the ones taking trams in the wrong direction all the way to the final stop wondering why our hotel is not there. We are the ones eating Mexican food in Amsterdam where the restaurant owner proudly calls it Argentinian, but which turns out to be neither. There is something to be said about spontaneity and sense of adventure, and we are the ones saying it. Loudly.
Don’t try this unless you are sure you won’t be divorced, disowned or dumped.
Face:
When God created London he said to the English people:
I will give you an awe-inspiring mix of the best architecture in the world,
As a veteran of the Cold War from way back, I am always happy to congratulate the American Veterans with their day. Last year I wrote about Bert Berkley – a local Jewish Veteran and a Civic Leader. This year I hope you will enjoy a set of old photos taken at the ROTC ball in Kansas City in 1945.
As always, if you recognize people and names in these photos, I’d be happy to hear from you. As unlikely as it sounds it had happened at least twice before. One of the images below is of Robert E. Arfsten – a long time owner of the Dime Store in Brookside.
Today, on April 22nd all progressive humanity celebrates the n-Th birthday of the Leader of the World Proletariat, founder of the USSR and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Vladimir Illyich Lenin. Something like this would make a traditional headline in every newspaper in the USSR as recently as twenty years ago. For years Lenin’s likeness was everywhere, every classroom had a portrait, every school had a bust, every city had a monument or ten, and then there were countless pins, flags, medals, certificates, photos, paintings and other visual aids. On this picture I am posing with Lenin in the parade uniform which I had to borrow because I was too lazy to sew the badges onto my own. In my day, Lenin was not as revered as he was in years before, but we still had to read the stories about his childhood, his love for the common men, his wisdom, his humbleness, his bravery and genius. We didn’t care but it was something that had to be done. As we grew up he was growing up with us, from “Grandpa Lenin” to “Comrade Lenin”, always omnipresent, always watching us from every wall and every city square. Stories of his childhood were replaced by his works that we had to study and quote. Every respectable establishment would have all 55 volumes of his “Collected Works“,which were lovingly translated into every language known to man.We didn’t know about “Red Terror“, hunger, repressions, killings,murder of the Romanov family; people who remembered knew better not to discuss it, every mention of the horrors wiped out or edited to look necessary to establish and protect the new country. Just a kindly old man who cared about us.
