Borscht

I am a bad food blogger. I admit this. I never, ever, remember to pull out my camera when I'm cooking. If I'm good, I might remember to take a picture of the finished product, but any of the steps - no pictures. Which leads me to this morning. We'd gotten beets in our CSA a week or two ago, and I picked up a small head of cabbage at the store this week, and with the weather finally cooling off, I decided it was time to try borscht. So I just finished almost an hour of cutting and frying and stirring and now there's a big pot of red veggies on my stove and I came to the living room to type down what I just did so I could remember it and my husband goes - "so...you're not taking any pictures, then?" D'oh!

Borscht

3 or so medium beets (grated)
1 small head cabbage (sliced thinly)
4 medium potatoes (cut into chunks)
2 carrots (grated)
1 onion (chopped)
1 can tomato sauce (or tomato paste)
beef broth
garlic
parsley
lemon juice
salt
sour cream

I grated the beets and carrots, and chopped the onion, then sauteed them in a little bit of olive oil (and a bit of sausage grease I had left over from breakfast). One of the recipes I saw said to add about a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to preserve color, so I did. Then I put the potatoes in the broth (four cups worth of it, about, made from bouillon cubes) and brought it to a boil. Tossed in the sliced cabbage after a few minutes, let it cook down just a touch, then added the beet mixture, as well as the garlic and parsley and tomato sauce. I tossed in a little bit extra water, pretty much just enough to kind of swish out the saute pan and can of tomato sauce. Another recipe said to let it come to a boil, then let it sit and cook in its own heat for a few hours. We'll try that and update you later with the results...

Update: The verdict is - this was good! I ended up letting it simmer for a bit, then just sitting most of the day until we got home from church, and then heating it back up for dinner. It made a lot. A lot. We had three friends over, set aside leftovers for our lunches and still had some to send home with them. Served it with sour cream. And yes, I forgot to take a picture. Even after reminding myself to take a picture, I still forgot. Oh, and let me know if there are any steps I forgot to write down - it seems to me I left something out.

Thyme