81 days

i look like rosy-fingered dawn of greek mythology right now, after a breathtakingly lady macbeth moment with some beetroot. what do you think about the pronounciation: beet_root or bee_troot?

as always i have had some beautiful meals recently, but instead of taking notes i have fully indulged in enjoying the moment and forgotten the detail. those that do have notes are sitting quietly in my notebook for an evening when i have time to write up.

81 days since i last kissed someone and though i am master of the dry spell, for some reason the loneliness weighs heavily today. carbs and busy baking are today's prescription. jo and i filled the kitchen with the heavenly smells of two bubbling dishes of potato dauphinoise, the top layer crisp, and curling up like a cherub's kiss curls. then i made chocolate and beetroot loaf cake, turning the kitchen and myself into a bloody murder scene as a result of grating beets. very satisfying.

i found several recipes on the internet (having been told by my two librarian-cake-friends that they definitely didn't have a recipe for it, let alone a conversation about it with me..). one was rather too glamorous - all cream cheese filling and ganache topping*. the second i looked on with optimism, however it used cooked beetroot and also looked like a straight borrow from a carrot cake, replacing the orange root with the magenta**. the third, as in all fairytales, was the best: the national trust beetroot and chocolate loaf. a 'tip' suggested that raw beet was better than cooked for this recipe, which confirmed it as the winner for me. see the link at the side for the recipe.

the mix worried me as it was ever so dry, so i added in a few spoons of milk until it eased up into a stiff batter. it took nearly the full hour to cook and turned out perfectly... will have to make a note of how it tastes when it has cooled enough.

tomorrow we will have packed lunch of potato dauphinoise, grated beet salad, and chocolate beet loaf, as well as pears from our veg box. what a feast! a little love packed in a plastic box, for when real love is thin on the ground.

* nell nelson, uktv food website. (also - i now can't help thinking of ganesh when i see ganache - a la damien!)

** times online