We might be a little obsessed with beets.  Last fall we discovered to beauty of a delicious beet.  yummm!  First, if you think that you don't like beets, you probably dislike bad beets.  Beets are like apples.  If the only thing I'd ever tried was a store bought unripe red delicious I might think that I did't like apples.  But a good fresh beet from a farm is soooo delicious.  Even the organic beets with the greens still on them at the grocery store are worthless (in my opinion). So every week all winter long Jared has been picking up 10 pounds of beets from Visser Farms on Wednesdays.  Then Wednesday night we fill up the big roasting pan, roast them, peel them and chop them.  Every Wednesday night the house fills with the smell of warm yummy beetness.  We chop them up, sprinkle them on salads, and eat them plain.  There are so many things that you can do with beets.  Thanks to Melissa I even have a recipe that uses beets in cake (like carrot cake).  But good beets need very little altering.  Just eat them. If this post is making you super jealous and you just can't hardly wait to get your hands on 10 pounds of your very own beets, I'm willing to share my secrets.  All winter long Visser Farms has been supplying our habit.  Every week I email lindsey@visserfamilyfarms.com with my order.  On wednesdays from 4-6 they bring a truck to the farmer's market and we pick up our order. And here's how you too can cook beets just like the Hendersons!  :-) Step 1. Put the beets in your sink and fill it with water.  Let them soak for 10 minutes or so.  Drain the sink.  Don't worry about washing the dirt off of them.  They just need to get wet so that they peel easier. Step 2. Place beets in a pan.  I use this huge Le Cruset knock off that I picked at Ikea clearance.  But any pan will do.  A glass 9x 13 pan works perfectly.  After they are in the pan drizzle oil over the wet beets, I use olive oil.  Pick up each beet and rub it with your hands to spread the oil all over the beet. Step 3. Cover beets and bake at 375 for an hour and a half.  Tin foil works great to cover.  This is when your house will start to smell like an upscale restaurant.  Then check the beets for doneness.  Do this by vertically stabbing one with a knife.  Keep holding the knife vertical and pick it up.  If the beet holds on to the knife then roast a little more.  If it picks up a little and then falls off it's ready.  Or just peel and eat one and decide if you'd like it softer or not. Step 4. Uncover the beets and allow them to cool enough to handle them.  Meanwhile rip some paper towels off the roll, about one per beet.  Once cool enough to touch, place one beat in one paper towel and wrap it up.  Using the paper towel rub the skin off of the beet.  It usually slides right off and the beet is ready. Chop and refrigerate for salads.  We use this chopper for super easy chopping.  Eat them whole cold or warm.  Chop them in quarters and serve them alongside any meat for dinner.  They really don't need butter or salt or anything.   Or look up any of a zillion recipes. They are low in calories AND super good for you. And they are Dale's favorite food.  She opens her mouth so wide when I'm serving beets, but not for anything else yet.  We've been calling her pureed beets borscht.  Then we started mixing some avocado into it and that became Borscht-amole. We have a picture of my little sister at about 1 year old in 1982.  She'd just fed herself beets from our garden and managed to get it everywhere.  In her hair, on her eyes, everywhere.  It's really cute.  I wish I had that picture to post.  Too bad my parents have been dragging their feet about getting our family pictures over to Scan Cafe (I don't know how to insert a  passive aggressive stare emoticon) Beets.  It's what's for dinner...and lunch and breakfast.   ***Update Johanna scanned that picture in and emailed it to me.