Try Something New Tuesday- Borscht

When I started my maternity leave in the last month of my pregnancy I tried to do a lot of fun things  that I might not have the chance to do after the baby was born. I hung out with my parents a lot and went shopping and to my favorite restaurants. We were having such fun that we started nick-naming the days. Fun Friday, Magical Monday, Thrilling Thursday and so and so on. Well it's something I got in the habit of and now I always try to come up with descriptive names for each of the days of the week.

Today I felt like trying something new so I dubbed this Tuesday "Try something new Tuesday"! You see I had these beets to use up and was trying to figure out what to do with them and my brother suggested I make Borscht, a traditional Russian stew he had enjoyed back when he studied Russian in his undergrad. Why did I have beets you ask? Well I had been toying with the idea of joining a CSA as a way to support local farms and eat more fresh vegetables  However after looking in to the programs that were available I decided to just hit the farmers market every week and spend my $20 (which is slightly less than I would have spent on a CSA) there. This way I can still support local farms but I get to pick and choose what I want. I still want to challenge myself to try new things though so i picked up some beets this weekend.

Yummy fresh beets

I found a great looking recipe on Natasha's Cooking, a blog specializing in Russian and Ukrainian cooking and away I went.

Such a beautiful color!

 Poor beets, they are up there among the worlds most hated vegetables along with brussel sprouts and lima beans (I like both of those too for the record). I found that the borscht had a wonderful sweet and earthy flavor. Of course I had to throw in a touch of cayenne pepper because I feel that no meal is complete without a little heat. Eric seemed skeptical when I told him I was making borscht so we'll have to see what he thinks but I declare it a success! Maybe I will have to try new things on Tuesdays more often.