Beets, you say?

So every weekend at the farmers market I ogle fresh beets, but I have no clue what to do with them. They look so beautiful, but so tough, like maroon rocks with stalks. How can you possibly soften those babies up?

Well, ye of little faith. I finally bought a bundle of seven healthy beets this weekend, forcing myself to learn what to do with them. I love pickled beets, but I didn't know what else to do with them, and pickling can be tricky. Right? Not sure I'm there yet...

Thanks to some simple Googling, beets aren't as intimidating as they look. Here's what I did with them.

• Preheated the oven to 400 degrees
• Wrapped each beat in aluminum foil and lay all beets on a baking sheet
• Baked for 45-60 minutes or until soft enough to stab easily with a fork
• Gently peeled off the stem and cut off the stalks
• Sliced each beet lay slices out on a plate
• Thinly sliced 2 fresh peaches and lay directly on top of beets
• Lightly drizzled honey over beets and peaches

Voila! I also made wax beans tossed with fresh tomatoes, onions, peeled green peppers, dijon mustard and crumbled feta cheese. I couldn't resist these beautiful purple, green and white beans. I'm such a sucker for colorful produce!

Joe made caprese with a homemade mint/jalapeno drizzle. Again, everything we ate was bought from local vendors at the farmers market. It's the only way to go.