Beets are a favorite root vegetable here at this house. I know this is rare. I have other friends, even farmer's market-type friends, who turn up their noses at the lovely beet. The beet is nice and simple. I roast them with their skins on, olive oil drizzled, just enough so they don't stick to the Corning Ware dish. The outer skin just rubs right off except you are trying to get it off while they are steamy hot! Once I get them peeled I sprinkle with some sea salt and serve them piping hot. Sometimes a small dollop of sour cream adds to the eating experience. We've been eating them frequently as they were easy to find at our last remaining markets. Beets and Jitterbug Perfume go hand-in-hand. I started rereading Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins this week for my fourth book in the 451 Challenge, which finishes up at the end of November-I'm in a bit of a book-reading crunch as I have to catch up by two books (The Everafter and A Curse Dark as Gold) for my long distance book club and have to read My Abandonment by Peter Rock for my other book club. I hope to get all four of these books done before Thanksgiving.
This book has been one of my favorites since I read it the first time in my early twenties. I've read most of Tom Robbins books and his other's are good but this one takes the cake or well, the beet! It is a love story that transcends the normal confines of time and place. It entertwines several lives, including a few mythical characters, from New Orleans, Seattle and Paris and they all come together over perfume, immortality and beets. Yes, beets.
From the beginning:
The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious.and another three paragraphs about the wonderul characteristics of beets!
The beet is unusual for sure and Robbins' choice of this blood red veggie adds much charm as the beet is a character in this novel as much as any other.
Are you a lover of the lusty beet?
Have you read any Tom Robbins?
This post is connected to Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads.
Here's a great post about the nutritional value of beets at The Lunch Box Bunch.
9 comments:
I'm not a beet lover but my husband and one of the kids are. I haven't read any of Tom Robbins' books.
I like beets, too. :D
No beet fans in our house, but my sister loves them. Haven't read any Tom Robbins either.
I LOVE beets, especially picked ones.
I absolutely love beets. I've read some Robbins but not this one. I love this post with its book and food connection.
I never really liked beets, except in borscht -- but after reading this, I just might look for a recipe for roasting them like you said. :)
I love Beetroot ( as we know it here in the UK), but as it is not something that my husband likes, I don't tend to buy it.
I don't use salt in any dish, but the the idea of serving them with cream sounds good and something I might well try
Yvonne.
Great how you connected your food post to a book -- COOL!
I prefer Tom Robbins to beets, but confess I'm not a big fan of either. My poor husband loves beets, but I never make them for him because I don't like them.
Your method is so easy, though, I may just have to make a couple for Hubby.
Rose City Reader
I'm also a big beet lover. Unfortunately I'm the only one at my house who does. I still fix them for myself and then I store the leftovers in a jar in my Frig. That's a good thing because I really love them cold, in salads.
Good luck finishing your book challenge.
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