Los Angeles is shedding its winter coat, the birds are singing; Spring has boinged in like Zebedee. The farmers markets are jam-packed with citrus, strawberries, golden beets and asparagus. I got four bunches of gorgeous, small, round radishes for $2, two bunches of sweet peas for $4 and tiny beets in every shade of pink and gold.
Fifteen old friends came to supper last night, a Clein + Feldman reunion. It was, of course, just as if twenty years hadn't gone by: everyone looked the same, sounded the same, but maybe wiser, greeted each other as if we'd been in the office together just yesterday.
Here is my favorite, simple recipe for beets:
Baby Beets with Walnuts, Feta and Dill
Wash beets, cut off the leaves and the tail.
Wrap each one separately in aluminum (tin) foil, throw onto a baking tray and bake for about 30 minutes at 350°F (maybe longer, depending on size). You will smell when they're cooked.
Let them cool a little and then peel each one with your fingers. The skin will fall off easily.
Cut each beat into four, vertically, like an apple. Toss with some good olive oil and a little salt. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts, some crumbled feta and some chopped dill.
Toss and serve.
Bumble Ward is a blogger and writer living in Los Angeles. She grew up with a Norwegian mother and an English father and spent every summer on an island in the Oslo fjord. www.misswhistle.com