A week or so ago, B and I picked up our CSA for the week and I was delighted to find fresh beets! I LOVE beets and find them so delicious in so many things  – in a salad with goat cheese, roasted, on top of a pizza, just alone as a snack, or even in smoothies or juices (ok confession I’ve never had a juice with beets but I’ve seen them at the West Side Market at the stand where B gets his frozen strawberry lemonade and I’ve thought about getting it). B, however, doesn’t really like beets. Still, he said that whatever I did with them he’d try the recipe.

So, what did I do? I called my mom. I asked her what she does because she roasts beets quite often. She told me how she roasted them (in the oven, in foil, and then tosses them in a mustard vinaigrette) and to be careful because beet juice stains everything(the counter, your hands, etc. ) so not to be careless/quick (which I often am when cooking). That is foreboding – make note. And here’s the recipe:

Roasted Beets with a Mustard Vinaigrette

Here’s what you need:

• 3-4 medium beets, cleaned and prepared (chop the top, bottom and greens off- but save the greens! You can saute them like spinach)
• salt/pepper
• dash garlic powder
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil, separated (1 Tb plus 2 Tb)
• 2 Tablespoons of red wine vinegar
• 1 glove of garlic, pressed
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Here’s what you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Using a brush, coat the beets with approximately 1 Tablespoon of olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder.
3. Create an aluminum foil pocket for the beets. Put the beets in the foil, wrap the foil around them, and put in the oven.
4. Bake for approximately 45-55 minutes or until a fork can easily pierce through the beets.
5. While beets are roasting, make the vinaigrette. In a small bowl, whisk together 2 Tbs olive oil, red wine vinegar, pressed garlic and dijon mustard.
6. After beets are done roasting, wait until they are room temperature and then remove from their foil pouch and peel the beets. The skin should come off very easily. Pour dressing over peeled beets.
7. Enjoy!

So I made the recipe, as she shared with me, and the beets came out great! They were delicious, juicy  and even B didn’t hate them. Which is a good thing – he generally hates beets and think they taste like dirt. AND I didn’t get juice ANYWHERE. I was feeling kinda cocky actually, thinking wow I am such a good beet roaster. I didn’t get beets on the counter, or on me.

The next day I brought some into work as a snack. I ate them super carefully, as I was wearing a white dress and didn’t need any beet juice on my dress. I finished eating them and couldn’t believe my luck – I was clean! As I was bringing my bowl into the kitchen, I noticed I had dropped a beet. I picked it up from the floor – and BAM. It slipped out of my hand. Onto my dress. It literally ROLLED DOWN MY DRESS. I had a DARK RED line of stains down the front of my dress! I ran to borrow a stain stick from a coworker. The little Tide To Go stick just didn’t do it – it wasn’t big enough to handle the entire dress.

Luckily I had been in meetings from 8 a.m. through 2 p.m. that day and had about an hour free until my next meeting  – so I ran home. Well sorta – I power walked back to my apartment, called my mom, and asked her what to do. She suggested soaking it in a stain remover solution and then washing it on cold water. She also suggested I treat it with seltzer water, but I had literally just finished our seltzer earlier that week. So soaking then washing was what I was going to do.

Here’s what I did:

• I sprayed the dress liberally with my Shout Stain Remover Spray and let it sit for about 10 minutes while I found something new to wear and checked my email.
• I tossed the dress in the wash, on cold. In addition to detergent, I also added two Tide Stain Release Boost packs to the laundry machine.

And here’s what happened:

THE DRESS IS AS GOOD AS NEW!

Yup. Sorry, no before/after pictures – I didn’t take a picture of the dress with the beet juice all over it. But I promise, it was ugly. I’m not sure if I’ll have the courage to roast beets anytime again soon …and if I eat them, I may have to wear a garbage bag!