AND THE BEET GOES ON

Even if you loathe beets as much as I used to, keep reading because you might just learn to love these little root vegetables that the Romans considered both an important healthy treat and an aphrodisiac.  If my mother served beets when we were growing up I would pretend to eat them, sneak them into my napkin (usually staining a perfectly lovely cloth napkin) and dump them in the toilet for immediate flushing.  I hated them.  Actually, there isn't even a word strong enough to articulate how beets made me feel inside and out.  Then one fall day Joe decided to expand my pallet a bit.  Because I will try anything once, I decided to hold my nose, take a deep breath and throw it down.  Shock of all shocks, I actually liked it!  Here's what he did to take something on my list of "most gross" to "most requested."
FEEL THE BEET:
I'm actually going to prepare this tonight for Joe right after I give these directions, so join me in a healthy treat your body and soulmate will enjoy.  We take a cookie sheet, pour a bit of olive oil on it and turn the oven on to 350.  While that heats up we remove the stems from the beets and chop the rest into little chunks (about the size you'd do for watermelon or cantalope pieces).  We then drop those onto the cookie sheet and add salt and pepper, rolling the beets around in the oil to get them nice and wet.  Pop them in the oven for about an hour (watch for them to shrivel up and boil a bit).  Remove them and immediately place in a bowl, add crumbled blue cheese and stir.  We love to eat this alone (with steak usually) or throw it on a salad the next day after it's chilled a bit.  Trust me..this is the LAST thing I'd ever eat until I tried it with the blue cheese combo..yum yum in my tum tum!