Beets can be dangerous.  They look kinda funny before they're cooked, and once cooked, they dye everything a deep crimson.  But they taste GOOD!

Amanda Hesser, of Food52.com, shares her perfect method for roasting beets.  The trick?  Foil packets.  I followed the instructions exactly with great success.  Fair warning, my hands (and everything in my kitchen) were dyed a beautiful, beety red after I peeled the skins. 

The beets found their home on rich, salty goat cheese toast, topped with peppery arugula leaves. (Thank you to StaceySnacks for the continual inspiration!)

Roasted Beets:  
Follow these instructions

Broiled Goat Cheese Toasts:
Lightly drizzle olive oil on thick crunchy bread, and place in oven at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes.  Remove and top with a thick slice/spread of goat cheese.  Please under broiler for about 3 minutes.  

Place beets on top of toasts.  Top with arugula leaves and drizzle with favorite balsamic vinaigrette. 

Seeing other people fail is comforting. We can relate to failures.  Julia Child's charm only increased when she dropped an omelet on the ground or spilt an entire dish onto her counter.  I suddenly think, "Shoot,  I can debone a duck.  I might freak out and drop it on the floor?  Who cares!"

Let's boldly attempt life (and recipes) and boldly share our failures. 

Several friends have recently mentioned how tentative they are in the kitchen.  Here are direct quotes that shall remain anonymous:

"I feel terrified even thinking about the kitchen.  We just go out."
"I have sat in the parking lot of a grocery store and cried because I couldn't think of anything to feed my family."
"I read that recipe, but I just got scared."
"I smoked my entire apartment.  I don't want to cook with xyz anymore."

They say they admire the way I can whip up a dish in the kitchen, so I hope to comfort them by sharing some (the list is endless) of my kitchen failures.

1. The other day I made lentil soup.  The flavor was perfect.  But I left it on low heat for about 1 hour too long.  It turned into a pot of mush.  A big pot of brown mush.  I served it over rice for my lunch today.  It looked gross.  I ate it when I was all by myself.
2. I burn bread every time I toast it.  Every time.  I have to scrape off the top layer into my sink, which covers my kitchen in a weird black dandruff.
3. I have a tiny cutting board, and I get a little out of control when I chop.  Little slices of mushrooms and onions cover my kitchen floor.  You can feel them crunch when you walk around.  This usually makes me curse profusely.
4. I made zucchini pancakes the other day.  I was trying to be healthy but delicious.  They were disgusting.  They all went in the trash.  

So there's a few.  What are some of your kitchen fears/failures?

If you are currently unemployed/short on funds, a pricey bottle of aged balsamic is probably not on your shopping list.  Fear not.  You can use your cheap bottle of balsamic that you have in your pantry and simply reduce it on your stove-top.  (Thank you TasteDuds for the tip!) This enriches the flavor without enriching the cost. 

Simply pour a little balsamic in a small sauce pan, and let it reduce by half.  Let cool, mix with sliced strawberries and serve over vanilla ice cream.  I'm not going to say it tastes like chocolate sauce, but it's good!

Mark Bittman is a New York Times columnist and cookbook author. He's not a professional chef.  Just a regular guy who cooks good food.  He focuses on simple, comfortable food, and he inspires me.
I read his article (and watched the video) about bok choy and thought 'I could do that.'  This was my first time to ever eat bok choy, a chinese leaf vegetable, and it's good!

Here are the shots from girls cooking night with Yvonne.  (Every good cooking session starts with good wine.)

Bok Choy with Shiitakes and Oyster Sauce
Recipe by Mark Bitten for The New York Times

1/4 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
1 1/2 pounds bok choy, trimmed
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic (optional)
1 cup fresh shiitake mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and sliced

1/2 to 3/4 cup commercial oyster sauce.

1. Soak shiitakes in one cup of very hot water until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, reserving liquid. Trim mushrooms and chop. Separate leaves and stems of bok choy; cut stems into 2-inch lengths and slice leaves into ribbons.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. When oil is hot, add bok choy stems, garlic if you are using it, reconstituted mushrooms, and about 1/4 cup reserved mushroom water. Cook, stirring frequently, until stems are crisp-tender, about 4 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a small skillet heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil; sauté fresh shiitake mushrooms over medium-high heat. Continue cooking until they begin to brown and crisp on edges.
4. Into the large skillet or wok, add bok choy leaves and oyster sauce and toss vegetables gently to combine; continue cooking until greens wilt, about 2 more minutes. Serve immediately, topped with crisp mushrooms.

Last night was a girl's-night-in sort of night.  My friend Yvonne invited me over to cook some recipes we've been wanting to try.  I brought one for bok choy in oyster sauce (coming soon.)  She brought one for beef stroganoff (coming soon.)  But when I arrived at her house, it smelled like bacon and I always like what that means.

Yvonne was whipping up some roasted brussel sprouts, drizzled in a maple syrup/shallot sauce.  Oh, and crumbled bacon on top.  I'm hooked.  We ate them like popcorn.

Yvonne's Brussel Sprouts
1 shallot, finely diced
1 tsp. maple syrup
1 tsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. olive oil
salt to taste
2 strips thick cut bacon
brussel sprouts (as many as you want)

1. Place two strips of bacon on frying pan and cook over low heat.  When crispy, set aside to cool.  Then chop finely.
2. Boil pot of water.  Drop in whole brussel sprouts for 2 minutes.  Remove from pot and place into bowl of ice water.  Cut brussel sprouts in half, and spread onto flat baking sheet.  Drizzle olive oil and lightly salt.  Place on high shelf in oven and broil for about 7- 10 minutes or until lightly blackened.  
3. In a saute pan, saute shallot in olive oil until tender.  Add maple syrup, brown sugar and apple cider vinegar and stir until slightly thickened.  Toss in brussel sprouts and toss until coated.
4. Serve topped with bacon.

All this cooking calls for a lot of grocery shopping.  Whole Paycheck Foods is my happy place, but my bank account makes me shop other places (sometimes.)

I often get to the store and forget that I need one hazelnut, or I can't remember if I need one can of tomatoes or four.  My paper list is crumpled in my purse, and I end up pulling out twelve old receipts while trying to find my stupid shopping list.

This is where my new favorite iPhone app comes into the picture.  ShopShop is a FREE app that will make grocery shopping a new joy.
Simple to create new lists, rearrange the items and the best part . . . when you tap an item, you see a satisfying red slash.  Cross it off your list.

If you have ever hunted for your crumpled paper list, let me introduce you to ShopShop.  I think you will be good friends.

(P.S. If you are a techie and would like to know about other apps for grocery shopping this article offers great reviews/comparisons of other grocery shopping apps.)

Merrill Stubbs, co-founder of Food52.com, is newly engaged and cooking with love.  Her New Year's resolution was to make more 'meat and potato' meals for her manly man.  (I could almost hear my boyfriend cheering in the distance.)

The professionally trained chef is bringing it back to basics with these Herbed Chicken Cutlets.

I have never cooked a meal without at least one freak-out moment.  The most simple meal can bring the 'we need to order pizza' panic.  The following equation brought about this momentary panic: Cast iron pan + high heat + smoking oil = extremely smoky apartment and slightly burned chicken cutlets.  My manly man played nice and ignored the slightly charred edges of the chicken.

I served with roasted potatoes and broccoli.  My man cleaned the plate.  Just like Merrill said.

Herbed Chicken Cutlets with Panko and Parmesan
Serves 2 
Original Recipe by Merrill Stubbs at Food52.com  
1 cup panko crumbs

Did you know you can make hummus in 10 minutes?  It's true.  (Having a food processor will help.)

I am now feasting on garlicky, lemony hummus spread over toasted pita.  This Tuesday is shaping up just fine.

I based this on Ina Garten's recipe, with some slight doctoring.

Hummus
Original Recipe by Ina Garten 
5 garlic cloves
3 cans chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved
1 teaspoons kosher salt
1/3 cup tahini (sesame paste)
6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
2 tablespoons water or liquid from the chickpeas
8 dashes hot sauce
2 teaspoons ground cumin
Paprika for sprinkling on finished hummus

Turn on the food processor fitted with the steel blade and drop the garlic down the feed tube; process until it's minced. Add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor and process until the hummus is coarsely pureed. Taste, for seasoning, and serve chilled or at room temperature.

This black bean dip is the dip-of-all-dips.  Rarely do I fawn so intensely over my own food, but this is good.

Get ready to please anyone within chip-dipping distance. 

Black Bean Dip
Based on this recipe with several modifications
Serves 6-8 hungry people
2 can black beans
1 can sweet corn
1 can diced tomatoes
1 medium sweet yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
1 bunch cilantro
1 cup monterrey jack cheese (shredded)
2 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp vegetable oil
salt to taste

1. Place black beans in a large bowl and smash slightly.
2. Heat oil in large saute pan and saute onion and garlic until translucent.
3. Add corn, tomatoes, beans, cumin, chili powder and heat through (about 5 minutes)
4. Remove from heat and add cilantro and grated cheese.  Stir until cheese is melted.
5. Serve with corn tortilla chips.

Turns out coffee is good for you!  Check out this article that discusses it's power to help prevent diabetes, colon cancer, and Parkinson's disease.  So take that 'Skinny Bitches.'

If you are in NYC, scoot over to Oslo coffee in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  It's my favorite coffee (and you'll feel like you can jump over tall buildings when you leave.)

I made meatballs for the Italian Wedding Soup (see post below.)  My man and I kept talking about the meatballs.  They were so good and we wanted more!!!

So tonight I made the same meatballs (actually they are turkey/chicken-and-pork-balls), and served them with spaghetti and marinara.

I used a store-bought marinara, but I think these 'meatball's' would be fantastic with a puttanesca. 

Spaghetti and Meatballs
Meatball recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa 
For the meatballs:
3/4 pound ground chicken thighs or ground turkey thighs
1/2 pound ground pork sausage
2/3 cup fresh white bread crumbs
4 cloves minced garlic
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
3 tablespoons milk
2 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lb spaghetti pasta
1 jar marinara

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
For the meatballs, place the ground chicken, sausage, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, Pecorino, Parmesan, milk, egg, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a bowl and combine gently with a fork. With a teaspoon, drop 1 to 1 1/4-inch meatballs onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (You should have about 40 meatballs. They don't have to be perfectly round.) Bake for 30 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside.
While meatballs are cooking, boil water and cook pasta until tender.  Heat sauce through, and add meatballs when they are finished.

Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.