For the Love of Beets...and Chickens

I hadn't had a beet in over a year.  Sometimes you can just overdo a good thing and then never want to look at it again.  But I decided since I used to love them that I needed to reincorporate them into my diet.  Over the last month I've seen a lot of beet recipes...burgers...juice...risotto...but if anything could help me like beets again it would be one of my greatest loves - hummus!  Or so I thought.

Around this same time I cleaned out my pantry and found a bag of dried fava beans, so I soaked 'em, not knowing what I was going to do with them.  They have to be shucked, which is rather tedious but methodically soothing at the same time.  I ended up using half of them in a "Sunday skillet" which I may share with you soon.  The other half of the favas I chose to use in the hummus instead of the traditional garbanzos.

The hummus was not a fail by any means, but it's not something I'll likely repeat either, as it really just tasted like toned-down beets and not so much like hummus.  So I'll just give you a quick run-down of what was in it, and you can take it from there:  Roasted beets (golden and red), fava beans, sauteed onions & garlic, lemon juice, cumin, evoo, and soaked sunflower seeds. 

My oldest daughter and I ate it for most of a week...with veggies, chips, traditional hummus, and even warmed up alongside mashed potato, rice, hot veggies, etc. 

As I was cutting the beets up to roast them, I realized I had never tried a raw beet, so I did.  And then I told my daughter to try it.  And we gave a piece to Chester the rabbit.  And then we ate a whole bunch more.  And now it's one of our favorite new snacks.  Raw beets - who knew?   I hated to put them in the oven.

It was a beautiful springy afternoon on that hummus-making day, so I took my late lunch out to the back step.

The chickens were out pecking around in the sunshiny grass and mud, and they quickly found their dust-bathing spot at the side of the foundation.  Sand in Vermont in February, you ask?  'Tis true.

I love my chickens.  They are entertaining, each with their own distinct personality, and there's nothing more head clearing/mood changing than just sitting on a stump and watching their funny antics.  Roosters get a bad rap, but mine is a good one.  His name is Elvis.  All my chickens were hatched and hand raised in my dining room for the first few weeks.  When I bring them scraps from the kitchen, Elvis will pick up a piece of whatever tidbit I drop and then he'll drop it again in front of a hen rather than eat it himself.  I never tire of watching this gentlemanly behavior.  Of course, he does have some ungentlemanly ways with them also, but the food thing is sweet!  ;P

So back to food.  Why not try something new this week?...or revisit something that either you never liked in your youth or you overdosed on at some point.  And before you dig out your pans and processors...try a slice of raw beet!