Roasted Beets and Goat Cheese Salad

Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad has always been a favorite of mine at restaurants. Until recently I was completely unaware of how easy it is to make beets at home. I'm talking cooking them yourself, not out of the jar. Since it was so easy to make, cheap and delicious I'm sharing the recipe. 

Roasted Beets and Goat Cheese Salad

Ingredients:
One bunch of red beets
One bunch of golden beets
Plain or herb crusted Goat cheese
Quarter cup of crushed pistachios or hazelnuts
Optional- arugula



Preparation:

Heat the oven to 375°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Wipe the beets clean with a towel. If a little dirt really bothers you can rinse the beets but it is not advised. 


Trim away the leafy tops. Place the beets in a ceramic dish and wrap in aluminum foil. 

Pop them in the oven. Roast until tender and easily pierced with a knife, about 1 1/2 hours. 

This is how the beets will look
cooked. The skin will be wrinkly

Remove from the oven and let cool.When the beets are cool enough to handle, remove the skin with a paring knife or by peeling the skin with your fingers. (See tip)

Slice the beets in rounds. Add a small bed of arugula on which to the beets. Then arranging thin slices of goat cheese between every 4th beat. (red beet, golden beet, red beet, golden beet, cheese) 

drizzle with olive oil, add your crushed nuts and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Cooking tips: Beet juice does stain. If you're peeling them with your fingers you might look like you just killed someone by dinner time.

Stab town

Limerick, Ireland, the thrid largest city in Ireland. Sounds like a nice place right? You might vaguely remember having heard of it before. Must be nice. It's Ireland. Not the case. Limerick ranks in the top five worst cities I've ever visited. It's actually fighting Naples, Italy for first.

St. John's Cathedral. Across the street from
where I was almost mugged.  

I visited Limerick on my first day to Ireland, so this was my very first impression of the country. Rude cabby, no elevators, dirty city, and cat calls. Lots and lots of loud, embarrassing, cat calls. I mean, I was wearing a turtleneck, had no makeup on, and my hair was greasy from flying fourteen hours and I still go hit on. What are these men, starving for it? Well, that might be true because the women of limerick are an interesting bunch. If you haven't seen the BBC documentary of Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, do yourself a favor and watch it. They couldn't make that stuff up! And what's more is these people actually exist. From watching the show you'd think that this must be some small tiny sub-culture, when in truth, it actually seeps further into the mainstream culture than you'd imagine.

It's not everyone, but many women here dress like they are on the Jersey Shore. Mind you, it is freezing outside. The makeup taste is that of a Bratz doll. The worst offense has to be the animal print lycra. Grown women, in their 50s, are wearing lame, gold, cheetah print leggings with glitter shirts and giant bows in their hair. This might be acceptable from a fourteen year old, but isn't if you have a fourteen year old. Anyways, enough about their style.

My almost mugging... The city is full of loons. On our first day Ellie and I decided to walk the city and see some sights. While walking to visit St. John's Cathedral we pass a homeless woman, who was obviously drunk. She asked Ellie for a euro and Ellie obliged. Ellie looked in her purse for a euro, but found none and told the woman she didn't have any change. The woman then asked for five euros. Five euros is seven dollars. Not wanting Ellie to give her seven bucks I offered that I had change. While I was fishing out a euro from my change pouch this woman moved to the side of me. She told me, "Be careful with all that money in your purse." I dismissively told her, "I will." After giving her the euro, she began to touch my arm and back. I asked her, "Please don't touch me." She proceeded to tell me, "I'm not going to rob you." And then out of nowhere she says, "I'm not going to hurt you." With that said, she grabbed a first full of my hair from the back of my head and yanks me into a move from The Matrix. I step on her foot, elbow her in the the ribs, and begin to run away. Laughing at me she yells, "I'm going to get you," like the Wicked Witch of the West. I responded with, "I know kung fu, bitch!" Which I don't, but it guess it was some sort of odd defense strategy. All the while, Ellie is just standing there in a Facebook browsing oblivion! Her sister and only travel partner is standing a mere two feet away, getting accosted by an angry, drunken Irish woman. I mean passersby across the street are stopping to watch the show, and yet Ellie doesn't notice a thing besides the status updates on her stunning, new, 4-inch Apple retina display. Thanks Ellie. Thanks.

After I grabbed Ellie's arm, yelling to hurry, we ran across the street and ducked into the church. Sanctuary! What we failed to notice were all the people outside dressed in black. There was a funeral going on inside the church. We quietly slipped out the side door and headed back to our hotel. That was enough action for one morning.

The one redeeming thing about Limerick, other than the history, was Penny's. Penny's is the most amazing discount store I've ever shopped. Cheaper than H&M with more forward and fresh styles. I mean I found thigh high nylons for one euro! If you want the ones that stay up on their own without a garter belt only a euro fifty. That never happens. Anyways, it is a brilliant store and definitely worth a visit.

Once we were out of Limerick several locals told us that the city is nicknamed Stab Town. One man said it's called Stab Town because only a few wealthy criminals can afford guns. Great. Just great. I'm glad we made it out alive.

The year begins in the Fall

In The Great Gatsby, Jordan says that "Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall," and this couldn't be more true for me. I've always loved September for the crisp air and return of sweater weather. Everything is fresh and new. Fall always feels like the beginning of the year for me. Time to revisit my game plan for the upcoming months, see what I've done, and see what I can do. For the past several years I've taken a vacation during September to escape from the daily grind and refocus on my values and goals. This year's trip was a bit on the unexpected side. 

My lovely travel agent Lucy emailed me two weeks ago to let me know I had a travel voucher that was set to expire in October. I had complettly forgotten about the credit that was from a previous flight to Switzerland I didn't take because I kicked that guy to the curb. With my credit experidation date looming, I took to the internet to find a location both worthy of such a voucher and one that Delta services. At that point I was planning on traveling alone, still wishing my friends had either more free time or more money so they could join me. After several minutes of research I found that Ireland was third on the top ten list of places to visit alone. Great! They speak English, I've never been there, and the photos look awesome. Ireland will be my new adventure and Paris, my old faithful, will wrap up the trip. 

Now, last but not least, to call Delta and convince them to let me split my travel voucher for this trip and extend, let alone keep, the remaining balance. This may seem simple but with the rules of fare, achieving this was anything but simple. After a long chat with a lovely woman named Karen she finally talked to enough managers to make it happen. I was so proud of myself. I only had to get a little mad and fight for what I thought was fair. Being willing to ask for what I wanted, all of it, and getting it was a great feeling. Starting the trip with this good fortune anything is possible! 

Kale Chips

Fall is the perfect time to try something new in the kitchen. The farmer's market is bursting with veggies we never buy, eat, or try. There is no time like the present. The weather is crap, so inside is the place to be. I was at a local Portland store grabbing a quick lunch when I saw a bag of kale chips for $8.75... $8.75! Are you kidding me? Who has that kind of money? Sure they had crushed organic Oregon hazelnuts on them but really? Almost ten bucks? For a bag of healthy chips! No way. So last week at the farmer's market I bought some kale. Two kinds to be exact, since I was clueless on what variety to use. I tried both the original organic kale and Italian kale. Both were good, but the chips tasted best when I used a mix of both. The change in texture from chip to chip made my healthy snack more exciting. If you're up to try something new below is my recipe for Crispy Kale Chips!

Ingredients:
Kale
Olive Oil
Marcona Almonds or Hazelnuts

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or spray with PAM or olive oil spray.

2. With a knife or kitchen shears remove the leaves from the thick stems. (See tip) You can either keep the pieces long or tear them into bite size pieces.  

3.Wash and thoroughly dry kale. Place the cut kale in a bowl and add in olive oil, sprinkle with seasoning salt, sea salt, and pepper. Mix kale and seasoning.

4. Put the kale on the baking sheet and bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 20 to 30 minutes. Flipping them half way through. 

5. Remove from oven. Sprinkle with crushed marcona almonds or hazelnuts. Enjoy!

Cooking Tip:  If you don't remove the stems they become very hard when cooked and will stab you in the mouth while you're eating and no one likes that. 

Shopping Tip: Italian kale is flat and looks more like a collard green. Regular kale is ruffled like an 80's prom dress.