thyme for a picnic

a lot of time was spent de-stemming thyme, but well worth the effort for this picnic meal. 

for the carrot: i used sweet organic carrots for this recipe, sliced at an angle to get longer half inch thick slices. dress liberally with olive oil, salt and pepper, and a couple table spoons of fresh de-stemmed thyme leaves. roast in the oven at 425 for about 20 minutes. then, remove the carrots from the oven to drizzle balsamic vinegar over your carrots. enough to coat. return to oven and turn on your ovens broiler for about 5-10 minutes. stirring frequently until your carrots are lightly charred. once out of the oven, you can toss on more fresh thyme. these are wonderful warm, but i think i prefer them chilled. 

welcome to drum beets

cooking is a passion for me and perhaps my favored form of procrastination as a student. but it wasn't until recently, while gushing about all my favorite food blogs, that a friend suggested i start my own blog. thank you, brilliant friend, for providing me with even more reason to procrastinate from studying. now there are posts to writes, recipes to share and photographs to take for your continued enjoyment. 

my name is aubrey. i love beets and drums. but also all other vegetables and all forms of percussion. i have been beating on drums since the age of five and eating vegetables since day one of baby food. i owe thanks to my parents, who took the approach of pureeing whatever they were having for dinner and spooning a wide range of flavors into my baby mouth. my folks successfully raised a very adventurous eater. i can thank my dad in particular for teaching me to cook intuitively - a skill that can only be acquired by cooking alongside another intuitive cook. 

i hope to inspire home chefs to cook intuitively and eat mindfully. but recipes are helpful too. for me, i enjoy reading recipes for the sole purpose of gaining inspiration, taking note of flavor combinations i'd like to experiment with, or to learn useful skills that can be applied in your own cooking. drum beets is my small piece in a giant landscape of food blogs from around the globe. i hope you enjoy and share my recipes with others.