Beets and the holidays: a deep sense of resignation.

Why will no one stand beside me

and admit they hate beets?

Anyone? No?

Damn...that means it's just me.

I was watching an episode of Portlandia and there was a skit which involved 911 operators reassuring the callers that what they were seeing wasn't blood but beet juice.  Time to make peace with beets.

Thank goodness the November issue of Martha Stewart's Living magazine included a recipe for a vegetable tian composed of tomatoes, potatoes, and BEETS.

I'm not going to say something crazy now like, for instance,

"I love beets,"

but this veggie dish was delicious and the beet flavor tolerably mild.

I love seaweed.

I saw this seaweed snack at a store and decided to give it a try.

Delicious!

It reminded me of the hijiki dish I order whenever I see it on the menu at Japanese restaurants: thin, "light" seaweed shreds with a sweet glaze.  The only problem with the Sea's Gift snack is that the package doesn't contain a set of tiny chopsticks with which to eat it. Very messy affair.

While working outside...

I became the victim of a chicken caper.

They were gobbling down my smoothie behind my back.

I enjoy their company but you gotta keep an eye on 'em.

I have some beautiful new additions to the flock:

I always turned my nose up at the ubiquitous leghorn chicken, equating it with white eggs which of course were the symbol of everything wrong with factory farming.  Poor maligned hens!  It's not the color of the egg that's important.  It's the quality of the chicken's life that matters and these spry, energetic hens with their upright fanned tails are living la vida loca.