The day I became a BABA

So there was one day in August where I apparently decided that since my ass and thighs make me appear as though I may be an old-fashioned baba (sans babooshka), I may as well act like one.

So,one Friday AM in the dead of summer, I got up and picked beans and beets and peas and carrots and some potatoes for good measure in mom's garden. I then beetled home and began processing my creations for - what I thought would be a winter supply of veggies. HA! At about 8 pm I was heavy into chopping and blanching beans and realized that after 1 hour of planting, some hoeing, 75 days of waiting, 2 hours picking, 1 hour cutting, 30 minutes blanching (that would be 10 batches of 3 minutes each) and 15 minutes of stuffing beans into bags, I ended up with FOUR MEDIUM freezer bags of beans. Honestly, it makes one wonder how those on the farms managed without an 8th of the conveniences that we currently have. Our ancestors must spin in their graves knowing that we complain of how difficult it is to make supper when, in fact, supper nowadays means dethawing some pre-made stuff...but I digress...

Anyway despite the small amount of vegetables I managed to freeze, I actually made myself proud by not only completing that but also by making beet top rolls (can't let them go to waste) and making mom's borscht.

Like Sandy's, the borscht was awesome but seemed to miss something even after a review of the recipe with mom (and some quick corrections/additions) - it must be the mom-love because it was good but....

The beet rolls were a hit and I wished I had a picture as I am sure that no one out there believes that I actually made them. The trick is to let the beet leaves wilt before you try to roll in the rice filling. Leaving them out in the sun for an hour does the trick. I was excted to make another version from my friend's in-laws' family that involves rolling bread dough within beet leaves and cooking the whole thing in cream (very heart healthy, I know) but the deer at my parent's place managed to eat the remaining beet tops -likely saving me from yet another 5 pounds of BABA-ass that I did not need.