“A Working Woman Makes Sides”
This is the story of a working woman who also has a slowly budding social life in a new city. Said woman has been invited with her husband to dinner at a friend's house. She was asked to bring one side dish, so naturally she opted to bring two of them. She chose Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Hot Honey Butter and Beets with Buttermilk and Walnuts by Alison Roman.
Of course, this presents complications. With the dinner on a Friday in the city and her work out in the suburbs, she knew she’d have but 20 minutes to assemble the sides when she got home before travelling to dinner. The commute would take its toll once again. So she had to get creative.
She chose to roast her beets in vinegar the night before. She let the little guys ooze their juices and soften while spending an hour in the oven. This, she thought, would put her in a good position for the next evening.
The next evening arrived in the blink of an eye. Earlier that day, she asked her husband to put the sweet potatoes in the oven so they would be piping hot when she got home. He did this, kind man, but just as the working woman suspected, the oven turned into a big hot mess. This is no fault of the husband. He followed instructions to a tee. The issue stems from the woman not trusting her instincts. You see, the woman read a recipe that told her to put the sweet potatoes, poked by a fork all over, directly on the oven rack to roast. But in her heart she knew that the sugars from the potatoes would ooze out and burn, sticking to the oven with gusto. And she was right, and the oven became one hot mess, and it created many smoky problems for her the next day… but that’s another story for another time.
The clock was now ticking to get things ready and whisked off to her friend's house. In a matter of minutes, she frantically completed the following tasks (though she’d like you to think she did this calmly and coolly with an heir of sophistication):
Toast walnuts on a baking sheet for ten minutes
Peel and slice the beets
Measure buttermilk, yogurt and lemon juice in a bowl, stir and add salt and pepper
Thinly slice a red onion and lightly pickle the slices in lemon juice and sumac
Melt butter and spices, adding vinegar and honey too
Scrape out the meats of very hot sweet potatoes into a bowl, practically burning her fingertips in the process
Place the beets in the bowl with buttermilk and sprinkle the onions over them
Chop the toasted walnuts and sprinkle them over the beets too
Drizzle the butter mixture over the sweet potatoes and give them a good stir
Add cumin seeds to the top of the bowl of beets and cover with saran wrap
Cover the bowl of potatoes with foil and pack a half a lemon in a bag, along with flaky salt
Decide she’ll worry about cleaning the oven later
Tell husband it’s time to go
All these things she did in mere minutes. She feels some loss at the fact that these tasks bring her real joy and life, but she couldn’t find that joy because of the need to rush. She needed to rush because she works far away. And she wonders how to balance that work and that joy. Can the two meet, coexist? All this, she knew, would be figured out over time. For now, she chose to focus on the six friends in front of her and enjoy those slightly spicy, salty, sweet potatoes. She savored the night she had left.
168 and 169 recipes cooked, 56 to go.
