summary: we love beet salad! It’s great with just about everything. (click on image to see larger views and more photos)

One of my very favourite vegetable dishes is stir-fried beet greens. When we’re at the vegetable store, I cannot resist beets if they still have their lush leafy tops attached.

This means that we always have lots and lots of beets in the fridge….

Luckily, both of us adore beet salad. Beet salad made with uncooked grated beets and cider vinegar. We make large quantities of the salad and leave it in a bowl in the fridge. It goes perfectly with just about everything: Indian food, Middle Eastern food, Western food, festive formal dinners, roasted ham, barbecues, sandwiches, hamburgers. I actually can’t imagine that it would be out of place anywhere.

If you haven’t tried beet salad yet, don’t scoff. It does NOT taste raw. It’s fresh and sweet and crunchy – but not too sweet and definitely not too crunchy.

The salad is always slightly different. The only constant is beets, onions and cider vinegar. Sometimes we add carrots, apples and/or pears if we have them. Sometimes we throw in a little clove or garlic. Thompson raisins are a very nice addition as well. Beet salad always tastes just as good the next day. And continues to taste wonderful for several days. (continue reading…)

summary: what? no bread this month? the other Bread Baking Babes managed to bake in time! (click on image to see larger view and more photos)

Bread Baking Babes (BBB) April 2012

We have all the ingredients on hand. But as you can see, the mixing bowl is empty.

Sigh. I wanted to bake this bread! I really did. And I will bake this bread. Just not in time… (continue reading…)

A nearby woodpecker is busy busy busy and a morning dove is calling gently.

Happy Easter!

summary: recipe for samosas and chole (chickpea curry); homemade samosas are fabulous AND easy to make; taking photos can be challenging when there is a kitten involved (click on image for larger view and more photos)

Whenever we go to Indiatown to stock up on spices, we arrange to go right around lunchtime, so we can stop at MotiMahal and get a plate of samosas and chole. Their samosas and chole are very good and the samosas are as satisfying as any we’ve had outside of India.

Or at least they were until last Sunday.

But I’ll get back to Sunday’s samosas. First, indulge me as I reminisce about the best samosas we ever had. Samosas so good that we vaguely considered backtracking to get more but weren’t quite willing to deal with the consequences. (continue reading…)

summary: Greek Easter Bread – with a few substitutions; SAVEUR magazine comes through again with a little help from Manjula’s Kitchen; BBD#48: bread with eggs; (click on images for more information)

Today is the deadline for bbd #48 – Bread with Eggs hosted by Astrid at Paulchens FoodBlog. I’ve made bread with eggs before, in the form of Challah.

But I thought I’d try making Saveur Magazine’s recipe for Greek Easter Bread After all, we have this wonderful new (to us) method for dying eggs!

We still haven’t finished all the cooking so I’m afraid I’m a little late for the BBD deadline. But here’s what we have so far:

(continue reading…)