I was home visiting the family in Cleveland this weekend when I Gillian McKeith’ed the hell out of my parents refrigerator and pantry, hurling crap in the air, hoping the crap would land safely in one of several large trash bags I set up.

Think Yoda with his little green butt facing the camera as he rummaged through Luke Skywalker’s bag in The Empire Strikes Back.

“Clean out your fridge, I will!”

Admittedly, I was on a ‘fresh’ rampage and my mother’s grocery shopping needs some work. Not to disparage as I love my birther–quite a bit–but she is The Demographic ‘food’ companies prey upon with buzz words slapped to their packages: “High Fiber!” “Now with Omega 3!” “Fat Free!”

For the most part, I am Pollan-y when it comes to food: Eat what your great grandmother would consider food. This gets tricky for people like my mother.  Take for instance a pre-packaged loaf of bread. Well, it’s shaped like bread. Smells like bread. But it’s not bread. Often, it will have way too many ingredients, some so difficult to pronounce. Bread, really, is 5-6 ingredients. Done.

My mother is confused and now remains uncertain what to eat. Like many Americans, she thought her diet was healthy, consuming ‘foods’ that are labeled “low-fat,” “high fiber…” I told her to consider just shopping the perimeter of a supermarket and if she felt the need to buy pre-packaged food, ignore the FDA label and look at the ingredients. If it has more than 5 or 6, carry on.

So, I wanted to prepare something for my parents that was, well, fresh. And easy. I found inspiration at the North Union Farmers Market in Shaker Square, Ohio. One vendor had some beautiful beets and I immediately thought of a very simple raw beet salad I often make, courtesy of the always-clipped, Mark Bittman.  Some great-looking flat-leaf parsley and fresh shallots were discovered and I was on my way back home.

My father watched carefully as I prepared the salad. Oh. Yeah. Do wear some rubber gloves when cleaning the beets less you want to walk around for days looking like Dexter. Plus, it’s always a delight to see the reaction from your guests when you snap these babies on during a dinner party for some last-minute prep.

“Joe? Is this the part where we bend over?”

Uh, gloves, bending over…oh, right. Dad.

Pop is very intrigued by food and he’s a good cook. We took Patrica Wells’ cooking class a few years ago and the whole experience was just grand. I had him measure out the vinegar, mustard and olive oil. We mixed the salad and both tried it. I thought it needed a little more salt and an additional dash of vinegar and olive oil–it was just a bit too heavy on mustard. He agreed.  I told him don’t worry about measuring, just pour enough to taste. You will know when it is properly seasoned. A simple adjustment, an additional sampling and the salad was perfect.

My mother came into the kitchen and the three of us began voraciously diving our spoons into the dish. Raw beets are wonderful and yield a fantastic crunch, similar to carrots. My father asked how would you serve something like this. I typically present it as is. My father suggested using it as a ‘dressing’ and tossing it with some fresh Romaine. I liked this idea and liked the way my father was thinking about the possibilities. I then recalled a recipe I once made from Patricia Wells for a beet tartare with the tartare filling piled into strips of endive. It made a great canape and would work nicely with this salad, too. I would also consider serving it with a chunk of fresh burrata to round out the tanginess of the dish.

I cut up and toasted some slices from a baguette I purchased and smeared them with some tasty Black Truffle Chèvre from Mackenzie Creamery in Ohio. Bittman is tired of the marriage between beets and goat cheese. It’s abused, certainly, but it does work so well.

So, my parents were talking about food and replicating the salad we just made. I loved it and that we could be brought together, closer, over a simple little salad. That’s what good food is suppose to do. Especially with those you love.

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