Beet Chips Experiment

Because we'd gotten the striped beets again, I thought beet chips would be fun to do to show off the pretty colors. I even found myself passing by a Williams Sonoma, so I picked up a mandoline for the thin slicin'. I didn't bother peeling the beets, as the peels seemed pretty thin (and mostly I just didn't want to bother). As predicted, they made really beautiful slices:

I tossed them with some olive oil, put them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and sprinkled with salt & pepper. I'd looked at several recipes online, and some said to bake at a very low temperature for an hour or more; some said to do about 20 minutes at a higher temperature. Almost all the recipes said to watch them closely as they could burn easily. So, I put them in at 325 for 20 minutes, and removed the ones that were getting really done. I probably baked them about 10 minutes more and it looked like they were getting pretty browned. Most of the recipes said they wouldn't be crisp out of the oven, but they'd crisp as they cool. So, I waited...

And they didn't get crisp. I put them in the oven a little longer, then waited again...but they remained pretty chewy. Even left them out overnight, but...nope. I'm guessing I used too much oil, but I'm not quite sure what happened (the slices were pretty thin with the mandoline). Also, I think I used too much salt & pepper for my taste...couldn't really taste any beet. But rob's been munching on them through the day, so they're edible...just not great. And yeah, they're not as pretty as the raw slices:

Slightly more successful was tonight's dinner. The basil was on its last leg, so I made pesto (with walnuts instead of pine nuts). Also made the kale salad for the 3rd time...but since we didn't get much kale, I used up all the swiss chard from last week and this week.

I think I like it better with all kale, but it was still pretty good. Used lemon juice instead of cider vinegar and it was a little too tart. Also didn't have any goat cheese so I used shaved parmesan. Like the goat cheese better. And didn't use any oniony things, which I missed. But still, it's ridiculous how good this salad is.

So all we've got left from this week is broccoli, an onion and a bit of lettuce...but the lettuce is looking a bit sad, so that may have to go to waste.