By The school year is fully itself now. I have a student named Darius who is going to need more than I can give him this year without additional support, and I have been building the case for that support since the third week of school, documenting observations, consulting with the school psychologist, drafting the referral letter with the specific language that moves things through systems. This is part of teaching that does not show up in anyone's understanding of what teachers do. It is some of the most important work I do.
October weekends are for apple cider from the orchard and the particular ritual of the backyard at Steve and Patty's, where the apple tree has gone from blooming to fruiting and the light is golden in the way that October light is golden in the Midwest, which is the best gold there is. Ryan raked leaves on Saturday and Owen helped in the way that a twenty-month-old helps, which is mostly to jump into the pile immediately after the pile is made, which is also helping, just differently.
I visited Dziadek Wally on Wednesday. Just me, not the whole family. I brought the mushroom soup and the beet salad from the notebook. He ate both and said the mushroom soup was "very close." I said: I'm trying to get it right. He said: Rose would be pleased. That was the whole visit. I drove home and cried a little, the manageable kind, the kind that means something was received and held and absorbed.
Chili on Sunday: Aldi ground beef, two cans of kidney beans, diced tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, garlic. A pot of food for four dollars that fed us three times. This is October cooking, this is the cooking that belongs to the season, and I made it on a Sunday afternoon while the twins napped and Ryan watched football and the apartment smelled like autumn and I stood at the stove and stirred and thought: this is a good life. It is a hard life sometimes and a sad life sometimes and it is a good life.
When I got home from Dziadek Wally’s on Wednesday — after the mushroom soup and the beet salad and his quiet “Rose would be pleased” — I kept thinking about beets. The beet salad from the notebook had been one of two things I brought him, and it was the one that felt most like her to me: simple, earthy, not trying to be anything other than what it is. This Dutch Beets recipe is the version I’ve landed on for our regular table, a little sweet, a little tangy, the kind of thing that belongs to October the way apple cider and golden light belong to October.
Dutch Beets
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 lb fresh beets (about 4 medium), scrubbed and trimmed
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/2 cup water (reserved from cooking beets)
Instructions
- Cook the beets. Place beets in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer for 25–30 minutes until tender when pierced with a fork. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid, then drain and let beets cool slightly.
- Peel and slice. Once cool enough to handle, slip the skins off the beets (they should slide off easily). Slice into 1/4-inch rounds or cut into wedges.
- Make the sauce. In the same saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk together the reserved cooking liquid, vinegar, sugar, cornstarch, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, then pour into the pan with the butter. Stir constantly over medium heat until the sauce thickens and becomes glossy, about 2–3 minutes.
- Combine and warm through. Add the sliced beets to the sauce and stir gently to coat. Cook for another 2–3 minutes until the beets are heated through and well glazed.
- Serve. Transfer to a serving dish and serve warm as a side dish. These are especially good alongside roasted pork or simple weeknight meals.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 110 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 6g | Carbs: 14g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 340mg