In The Pink - Breast Cancer Awareness

Emily of La Dolce Vita had a wonderful idea to raise breast cancer awareness and created In The Pink. All you have to do is create a pink dish, take a photo and blog about it.

Like many of you, I’ve had my own personal scare and have two aunts who fortunately survived their bouts with breast cancer. This is a wonderful opportunity to remind everyone that early detection is so important because it DOES make a difference.

So I was very excited with the idea of creating a completely pink meal.

The first course was easy – beet borscht. (Although no one here really likes beet borscht, but honestly have you ever seen anything so pink and pretty!?!)

The recipe I didn’t make comes from Second Helpings Pleasebut the title “Lazy Lady’s Borscht” was too cute to resist at least telling you about. It’s basically canned beets, lemon juice, sugar, salt & pepper. I wanted to do something more challenging so I chose a recipe from Jewish Holiday Kitchenby Joan Nathan. It’s made with short ribs (I used them for the main course) and grated beets (my kitchen looked like I had murdered someone by the time I finished grating them all- and that was with my food processor, imagine what my grandmother's kitchen looked like when she grated them by hand) But I digress. Adding sour cream or yoghurt just before serving changes the color from brilliant red to a gorgeous pink. I’ll gladly post the recipe if anyone asks).

Naturally the short ribs weren’t pink but the mashed potatoes are and look closely to see the pink ribbons of beets decorating the meat. Normally when serving mashed potatoes with stewed beef I add a heaping tablespoon or two of horseradish. This time I chose a red beet horseradish that turned the potatoes pink as well.

On to dessert.....

When I was growing up, my mother would make baked apples in the fall and because we didn’t really like them, she’d add a maraschino cherry on top and pour some of the juice over the apples before baking them. Magically (or at least how I remember it), the apple flesh itself turned a bubble-gum pink. Somehow the pinkness and the cherry made the apples delicious. So I was disappointed that this time, the apples didn’t turn pink at all. However, if you scrunch your eyes tight and then look quickly – you’ll see the pink apples of my childhood - and some stars too!!

Thanks Emily for coming up with this idea. What a fun way to make breast cancer awareness non-threatening.