Beet Success **RECIPE ALERT**

I realize my re-experimentation with the Earthbox posts isn't really working. We've had many weeks of boxes for which I have not uploaded photos nor elaborated on how we use them. Part of me feels defeated, and part of me feels non-chalant: truthfully, we haven't done much with our produce except grill, eat in salads, or use as pizza toppings for a causal 4th of July get-together. In the end, they wouldn't have made for good posts. I probably would have lost readers.

However, there may be a few of you-- I'm looking at you, initial 3 or 4 early Loyal Readers-- who may remember my failed experimentation with beets detailed in one of last summer's posts.  For those of you who don't want to interrupt reading this entry to start all over with a different entry, suffice it to say I am not a fan of beets. Other than an amazing dish at Taxim in Chicago- and trust me, I've tried to find the recipe or at least a description-- I've never met a beet that I liked.

So, the more observant of you may have noticed that we've gotten beets in almost all of our boxes and are probably wondering how we've used them. As the BF is a big fan, they've gone with my best blessings to his fridge.

But they've sat there, neglected and unused. As we tend to cook most of our meals together, he hasn't really had a chance to use them on his own. Eventually, once the oldest batch was in danger of needing to be pitched, he proposed a solution that was both quick and shareable: Beet chips.

We've gotten good at making regular chips. I mean, really, who doesn't like potato chips in at least one form or another? With the abundance of potatoes that show up in the farm box, chips are both a non-labor intensive preparation as well as saveable future snack. Not that we've ever actually saved them. They're almost immediately consumed whenever we bake up a batch.

Beet chips are similar in may ways: easy to prepare, easy to store, easy to consume. And the best part of all? I ACTUALLY LIKE THEM.

So there you go! I'm sure the BF would like some variety in his beet preparation, but I'm happy if I only ever ate them in this form forever. And for those of you who are as beet-averse as me, go for the crispier, more carbon-covered ones. Normally I don't like burned chips, but for these, the crispier, the better.

As always, a few other notes before I grace you with the recipe. When it comes to any chips, but especially these, the thinner they are sliced the more solid and crispy they will be when out of the oven. If you have access to a mandolin, as we do, now is an excellent time to use it. Either the narrowest or second narrowest setting will do. If using a knife.... well, be careful.

Also, cooking times are approximate and should be adjusted based on your oven and how thin your slices are. We perfected the technique in my oven at 26 minutes. However, when making a batch in a different oven while on vacation, 26 minutes scorched them. We used a thinner slicer setting, but the oven callibration may have been different, too, and found that 15 minutes was perfect. Moral of the story: keep your eyes on the chips.

Enjoy! And if you are a new reader who likes beets, perhaps you'll like the cold beet soup earlier reviewed in this post. (See how I did that?)

Beet Chips

(serves 2-4, depending on your serving size)

Ingredients:
3 beets, de-stemmed

1 tbs olive oil or olive oil spray

Sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 375. Prick beets with fork and place into glass baking dish with 1 inch of water; cover with foil. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until easily punctured with a fork. Remove from oven, allow to cool. When cool enough to handle, peel the beets.

2. Turn oven down to 350.

3. Adjust mandolin to the 1.5mm or 3mm setting. Slice beets onto plate or in bowl.

4. Line a baking sheet with foil; brush or drizzle olive oil lightly onto foil. Place as many beet slices as possible onto baking sheet without overlapping. (You may have too many slices to fit on one baking sheet, so you may need to repeat the process again a few times.) One by one, flip each beet slice over so they are coated on both sides with the oil.

5. Lightly shake sea salt on top of beet slices. It is not necessary to flip and salt the other side of the beets.

6. Bake beets for 15-26 minutes, depending on your oven setting. When chips begin to brown and curl up, they are ready. It is okay if some beets are not quite super crispy when you pull them out, as they will continue to bake a few minutes more out of the oven.

7. Enjoy!

A quick note- do not leave un-eaten beets out in the open for too long, especially in humid weather. They absorb water quite quickly and will turn limp and mushy. Store all uneaten beets in an airproof container for later.