Holiday baking has officially arrived, which, of course, includes typical flavours such as ginger. Whether it's in the form of gingerbread cookies or a moist gingerbread loaf, ginger is just one of those things that is associated with the holiday season. It just seems out of place to be eating gingerbread in the summer months, although I am certainly not opposed to it. I am especially not opposed to making these ginger cookies all year round either.
The recipe is yes, another Ina Garten recipe. I made tiny little bite-sized cookies, so they baked in no time. I think I slightly overbaked them, and I should've taken them out earlier. They weren't as nice and soft as I would've liked. Nevertheless, they were tasty little morsels, and were eaten up pretty quickly. I love having friends who'll eat my baking! That just means more recipes to try and more opportunitites to bake!
These cookies are quite sweet (due to the coating of sugar), but they are oh so addicting.
My first time trying beets was fairly recent; last year, to be exact, during my first year of university. The residence dining hall had a pretty generous salad bar, and among one of the many choices offered were beets. Obviously, they were of the jarred or tinned variety, but I wasn't picky. I tried it and it was okay, although I don't recall getting beets again (they're heavy little buggers, and the residence charges you by weight!).
This year, I tried fresh beets. It's the root vegetable time of year, so I split a bag of beets with N. I didn't really know how to cook them, so I found a recipe for orange-glazed beets, and went to work. I chopped them into quarters and boiled them. The water turned a deep blood red shade, whose intensity was unexpected. And I think I slightly overfilled the pot, because beet juice water kept splashing out onto the stove, so by the end of the 30 minute boiling period, it looked like a massacre had occured on the stovetop. Nevertheless, I then glazed them in an orange-honey glaze, and dug in.
These beets were definitely a lot better than the ones I had last year. I think I slightly undercooked them, because the skins did not "slip off," as they were supposed to. So I happily noshed down on the skins too. You can't really taste the skin, and a little extra fibre never hurt anybody. If I didn't make this myself, i would not have even known there was a glaze, because the flavour did not come through at all. But then again, that may be because I cooked way too many beets. The beets tasted equally good cold, the next day, and the day after, and the day after that...
I know, I know, I should be studying. But I have to nourish myself too, right? 
