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Beets. Apples. Battlestar Galatica.

The television show, "The Office" - ever heard of it?  I personally enjoy the opening scenes of each episode...especially this one.



The only thing that ties this clip to today's blog post is the mention of beets.  Otherwise, there is no relevancy whatsoever except that I wanted to try embedding a video from YouTube.  And it worked, so let's count that as Success #1.

Success #2 includes the vegetable mentioned in both The Office clip and my blog entry title today.  Beets.  Up until the last couple of years, I never gave beets much thought.  Most of the time I saw beets on salad bars in pickled form...and that just didn't excite me.

Until I learned about roasting them.  And then all of a sudden, beets were amazing and delicious!  And they are beautiful, too.  (Although, a word of caution, wear gloves when you work with them - you'll be grateful later)

And here was my latest brainstorm...I bought three beets earlier in the week, and by the weekend, the greens were wilting.  It was ready to do something with them or throw them in the compost bin.  And, as luck would have it, there happened to be an abundance of apples in the crisper drawer.  And with the weather turning colder, any extra apples go right into the crockpot to become applesauce.

But back to the beets - here's what I did:


Beets on the left.  Apples on the right.  Into the crockpot they go.  With some cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, brown sugar and a little apple and lemon juice (water would work too).  Two things worth noting here: if you do this at home, your house will smell awesome, and you will have a yummy product at the end of the cooking.

Crockpot on low.  Three or four hours.  Not long...enough time to soften up the fruit/vegetable.  Then, dump the mixture into the food processor and whiz for a few seconds.


The picture is not that great, but you can still see the color is beautiful.  No additives here either.  That's the natural color of the beets there.  Taste-wise, here's what you get: earthy, fruity, and a little sweet.  The consistency is that of store-bought applesauce, but the taste is something you won't find there.  I'd encourage you to play with flavors...any "hard" vegetable could be used: sweet potatoes, squash, etc.  Also, fresh ginger would be amazing in lieu of powdered.  Maybe some orange zest and juice for a little zing.  And I'm just spitballing here.

The point is: your crockpot is your friend.  Applesauce is great.  Beetappsauce is out of this world.  Even Dwight Schrute would agree...especially since he runs a beet farm.

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