Going Walnuts (You Can't Beet That)

In November of 2009 I purchased some puff pastry. It was for something specific but I can't remember exactly what. Now, in February of 2011 it's still in the freezer. In my continued effort to clear out our immense freezer and pantry inventory I made it my mission to use it up tonight.



Before utilizing my puff pastry I made a salad with Boston lettuce, kale, meyer lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, honey, shallots, and toasted walnuts.



On Monday I purchased and prepared some boiled yellow and red beets and set them aside. Tonight I rolled out the puff pastry, spread some goat cheese over it, then sliced and layered the beets on the puff pastry before baking it in the oven at 425 degrees. I topped it with fresh rosemary, toasted walnuts, and a drizzle of balsamic glaze.



Before dinner I enjoyed this Beer Lao dark from Laos. Sometimes when I have a dinner that is not well suited to beer I have a beer whilst preparing it and before moving to wine. The leftover Côtes du Rhône from last night was an adequate accompaniment to the beet tart.

I purchased this beer only because I don't think I'd ever had a beer from Laos before. It was pretty good and tasted strongly of molasses. I wasn't sure if there was a lot of molasses in Laos but this Google search shows that apparently there are bunnies that love Laos and they may (or may not) be named "Molasses."



I'm an expert researcher.



For dessert I made some ice cream with bourbon caramel sauce and the leftover toasted walnuts. I had used toasted walnuts in the previous two courses so I figured I'd make it a walnut hat trick and top off the evening with a dessert. I rarely use walnuts in cooking but I've had a bag in the cupboard for a while now that oppresses me with its presence. Therefore I decided to take some action and start using the darned things up.

Now only if I had some walnut liqueur for an after dinner drink, the evening would be complete.