WILD HARE WEEKLY SPRING 5/12
Hi. My name is Katie Green, and I eat beets for breakfast. Oh, I know. It catches the ear all kinds of wrong at first. Wait, what did she just say? Beets? Not only does this woman expect me to actually EAT BEETS, she wants me to eat them for BREAKFAST?! Has this woman lost her ever-loving mind?
Maybe a little, but I would blame running the farm as a whole for that—not just the beets. You see, over the winter I hit a wall, and I realized that I needed to make a much more intentional effort to take better care of myself than I had for the prior four years of keeping this place going strong. This took the form of me “reconnecting with my why,” which a good portion of the time looks like me surrounding myself with a bunker of books, Matilda style. I’m not sure why exactly, but one of the cookbooks that I added to my fortress late last year shook something up for me in a way that I really needed. The book? Dining In by Alison Roman. The saturated photos, super chic flat lighting yet straightforward way in which she presents recipes had me hooked. It isn’t a health food book by any means, but it has done wonders for my heart and our kitchen. It is just my kind of book. The recipes in particular? A simple batch of Vinegar Roasted Beets and another for a savory Granola that has all of the elements of the perfect Everything Bagel minus the bagel. But here’s the kicker, for all of my enthusiasm and inspiration, the people with whom I live do not get excited about eating beets. So, I did what made sense to me at the time—I made it for breakfast, the meal that everyone in the house tends to do their own thing for anyway. And then I roasted up another batch and had it again and again. Since then, I’ve sprinkled Alison Roman’s “Decidedly Not Sweet Granola” on everything from roasted Rutabagas, to Broccoli, to Avocados and Cucumbers. And as a result, I’m starting my day with a batch-cooked (but somehow still indulgent) dish of dietary fiber, iron and all kinds of other nutrients that I don’t have to share with ANYONE else in my house. It is mom/wife/me time heaven, and a meal like this leaves me feeling remarkably good and ready to face whatever shenanigans the farm tosses my way. So that’s my advice. In a funk? Hit the library—and don’t just settle for having breakfast for dinner—eat those veggies for breakfast people—especially the ones your family members don’t love as much as you do. And when you’re ready to please a crowd again, take that Purple Sprouting Broccoli and make them some Smitten Kitchen Broccoli Pizza. Of course, the life-affirming, game-changing, serotonin-inducing recipes I’ve described are linked at the end of this week’s newsletter.
Have a great week!
Katie