Beet Salad

This recipe comes from Thomas Keller's "Bouchon"

Ingredients:
3-4 large red beets
extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper
red wine vinegar
orange juice
red onion
tarragon
chives

First chop the stems off the beets, wrap in aluminum foil packet and cook in a 375 degree oven until tender (1.5 to 2 hours). Remove the beets, let them cool.  The rub the beets under cold water and remove their skins.  Cube the beets and put in a bowl. Add a tablespoon red wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons of orange juice, a tablespoon olive oil, salt and pepper.  Marinate the beets for at least an hour.

Add slices of red onion, chopped tarragon, and chopped chives to the beet salad and toss. Serve.

BUFFY!

Mark here...Laurel and I are switching gears again and watching Season 1 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  I've made us Steak with Bernaise, French Fries and a Beet Salad, to keep with a "blood" theme.  This first episode is called, "Welcome to the Hellmouth" and I was surprised at how entertaining this show is right out of the gate.  We're introduced to Buffy who has just moved to town after being involved with burning the school gym down at her previous school.  She's also a Slayer, the one girl in all the world who is given extra abilities to slay vampires and demons.  She also has to attend high school.  We're also introduced to her supporting cast...bitchy Cordelia, nerdy Willow, and outcast Xander...and mysterious Angel.  Also, we meet the school librarian, Giles, who coincidentally is her Watcher.  Each Slayer is given a Watcher who trains and guides her. 

This episode deals with a coming disaster called the Harvest, but more importantly shows the wit of the show.  There's a whole lot of 90s going on here, but its not as annoying as Dawson's Creek was and holds up in a more fun, nostalgic way.

Hi Laurel here...I agree with Mark, this show is super 90s in a fun way, not in an annoying existential teenage Dawson's way.  I have only watched Buffy sporadically before.  It's interesting to see how some of the different characters are introduced and what roles they play in the very beginning compared to how things pan out later.  I like in this episode how Buffy wants to move on and be a normal kid but she is sort of reluctantly forced into being the slayer again.  I love a reluctant hero.  Also I like how perfectly nerdy Willow is, and Buffy still seeks her out as a new friend anyway.

Mark here...its also interesting to note how this show was sort of on a cusp of a teen renaissance in tv and movies, and making the WB the go-to station for a while.  It's easy to see why with the snappy writing.  But I remember how odd the pickup of this show was in the beginning, basically a spinoff of a B-movie on a station no one watched...but whoever made the decision, it was the right one.

Quotes of note this episode:  Cordilia to Buffy when she see's her talking to Willow and Xander:  "I don't mean to interrupt your downward mobility but..."

Also Buffy to Giles when he questions her ability to "sense" vampires when she ends up judging a book by it's cover, a supposed vampire who has clearly been underground for several years wearing a super dated cub outfit:  "I mean, deal with that outfit for a minute, it's like he's from El Debarge."