Cookin' With Chris: Fried Beet Stems & More Yummy Food!

What is greasy, red, and was made on a whim?

You guessed it... fried beet stems!

Beets are the yummiest thing ever! Australians have known this forever. They put beets on everything (or it seemed that way whenever I would visit).

I have just developed a love for beets over the last couple of years. It has been a fast and furious love. I was buying them from the farmer down the street like they were going out of style.

I bought some recently and my resident chef (Cookin' With Chris, himself) cooked them up. We like them sliced, olive oil-ed, salted and then thrown in the oven for a while. Yummmmmmmmmmmmm!

Isn't this photo itself beautiful? Beets are the best!

Usually, we chop up the beet stems and thrown them on a pan on the stove with some olive oil. But Scott decided to go wild today and try something he'd never even heard of before... FRIED BEET STEMS.

The ingredients for the frying:

• Beet stems
• Half a cup or so of corn meal
• 2 eggs
• Some vegetable oil

He washed the beets; then cut them into around 4 inch lengths.

You're welcome for the awesome photography.

Next, he dipped them in the eggs.

Then he dropped them in the flour for a second.

Now, it was time to throw them in the ol' fryin' machine. Then he added a little salt while they were cooling off.

Scott made a dipping sauce out of yogurt, honey, and peanut butter.

I stirred it up while I stared at my cute sleeping little baby.

The dip made a wonderful breakfast the next day, but a TERRIBLE fried beet dipping sauce.

So, Scott moved on to option number two: ranch dressing. It was perfect!

This isn't over yet! There was one more part to the beet that hadn't been used yet. Scott wasn't interested in playing another second of the anti-waster game. So, I washed the beet greens, trimmed them up a little, and steamed up on a pan on the stove. When they were done I chopped them up and ate them with rice.

Woo hoo! We did it! We used every bit of that beet.

Would you like to know what else Chef Cookin' With Chris made for dinner?

He made some delicious kale chips. 

Once again, sorry for the terrible photography.

He also made a smoothie made of frozen berries, yogurt, almond milk, bran, a banana, and pineapple juice.

There you have it- another episode of Cookin' With Chris!

FYI- I am not claiming this to be a healthy meal just because it involves beets. It was a big frying fest- not healthy at all. Probably slightly better than fast food french fries, though.

Another DIY Food Gift. Cookin' With Chris: Hot Nuts

Earlier today we looked at some DIY Food Gifts. Now, this afternoon a little something called Cookin' With Chris is coming back on the scene!

Recently, Scott made some delicious spiced nuts. They were fantastic straight off the stove top. And they were still pretty tasty when they chilled out a bit. So, I asked him to make them again so I could take photos and do my best to capture the recipe.

In case you hadn't guessed, the recipe I am about to show you is my attempt at a DIY Food Gift. You could package it up in something pretty like the box below. And add a homemade tag like I showed you this morning.

Del's Food

Hot Nuts Recipe (or, as Scott called it later, "How To Make Nuts Taste Worse." He is wrong- he never says good things about his cooking. I think the nuts are delicious!)

He put a teaspoon or less of canola oil on a Skillet and swooshed it around. I would picked olive oil. But I don't know what I'm doing- Scott said to use a bland oil like canola so it tastes more like nuts.

For a small batch, throw in about a half handful of walnuts, another of pecans and another of almonds. Or use whatever nuts you want.

Do a little nut toss and shake your pan around.

Then he added a smidge or cinammon and a smidge of 5 spice.

Did you notice that the spice jar he's holding says Nutmeg? That's how we make our lives easier- we keep cinnamon in the nutmeg jar.

Time for a little more tossing.

Then he added a smidge of brown sugar

Another toss. You have to keep those nuts moving so they don't burn. The whole process probably took 3 minutes. 

And that was it! The hot nuts were done. 

Tricked you- we could have stopped there but we decided to keep going!

I tried them and said I thought a little salt might be good. 

It was!

Then Scott added a little hand squeeze orange juice. Yummy!

A steam party happened. I'm not quite sure how.

Scott said that you can add whatever you want- raisins or rose water to make them rosey nuts. I wouldn't suggest the rose water though. Scott bought some a few years ago because he loves the smell of rose and rose water has done NOTHING to enhance any of our food thus far.

Scott also added a little honey and some sesame seeds. 

I liked better without sesame seeds. With or without honey was fine with me.

And here they are, in all of their hot nut glory!

Check out that fantastic festive Aussie napkin in the background! Animals with santa hats = the best!

Entertaining A 14 Month Old Baby With... Leaves? Part 2

Last week, we stuck our feet in the leaves and jumped right into Fall. Let's continue the excitement with a nature centerpiece- full of fun Fall finds!

Then we will move on to a family dinner of acorn squash, brussels sprouts, green beans, and a pumpkin-apple tart! That's the way we get into Fall around here!

Disclaimer: This is another Cora overload post.

Another one of the suggestions in my 365 Games Smart Babies Play book was a nature centerpiece.

The idea is to take a walk in nature and collect different things that you see. So, we went to the park.

Cora found some sticks to put in the bag.

She managed to find a few leaves.

She hid in the leaves.

She ate some leaves. 

She found a couple huge sticks for the bag. 

She went down the slide. 

She went down the slide again. 

Then she held on tightly to the slide in case we tried to make her leave it. 

Spoiler alert: We did make her leave it.

We headed home and made our glorious nature centerpiece.

I tied a little ribbon to that bad boy because that is how you make something festive.

And that is how we entertained our baby with leaves!


If you are looking for other ways to entertain your baby or your babytoddler check out this post.

Scott made us some delicious Fall food which consisted of acorn squash, green beans, brussels sprouts, and an apple-pumpkin tart. (Some of these things may not be considered Fall foods but just go with it).

Now, I would like to introduce you to a new segment called: Cookin' With Chris!
Scott's real name is Christopher Scott, but he goes by Scott. In college, he and a couple of friends recorded Scott cooking and called it Cookin' With Chris. Scott, did I get that right?

Cookin' With Chris!

I had Scott write down the recipes for the food he made. I didn't have much to work with. So, here it is.


Green Beans

They were frozen. So, Scott just added a little salt and olive oil and stuck them in the oven for about 15 minutes.


Acorn Squash

It was delicious!!! Mmmmmm sooo good! I think Scott cut them in half and microwaved them for a while. Then, he added the ingredients and put them in the oven. 

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• parmesan cheese

I guess you are going to have to figure out how much of each and what to do with them.

Brussels Sprouts (ps who knew that is was Brussels not Brussel?)

He just threw some Brussels Sprouts Steamers into the microwave, threw some parmesan cheese on them, and ta-da! They were done.

Apple-Pumpkin Tart

Tart Dough:

• 1 egg
• water
• butter
• flour
• baking powder

Cut up some apples and heat them on a pan with a little butter.
Add:

• cinnamon
• 5 spice
• honey
• pumpkin
• walnuts

Put some granola on top. Then serve with pumpkin yogurt.

Hopefully, if Cookin' With Chris partners up with Never Listless again the recipes will be a bit more detailed and the writing will be a bit more Scott-like.


And the answer to The Grocery Guessing Game from the other day is...

$27.29

The big winner is... Dr. Becca Price with $37.50 (even though Louise tried to pike her answer by making it just a dollar more).

Congratulations, Becca! It must have been the birthday week magic that won it for you!

And now... The Would You Rather Question of the day!

WYR... spend the rest of your life living in the White House as the president's personal chef. (Your immediate family can live there too. You get paid 3/4 of your current salary and get average benefits).
or
continue working the job you work now and living in your current house but you get a 15% increase?

I hope I get some answers on this WYR. I know it is a random one, but I'm curious what people think.