Beets and tree leaves

I enjoy finding new blogs to read because I often learn new things when I do. Thanks to reading the Parrot Musings blog I have learned about a new cook book titled How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.
The first thing I tried were the beet crisps I had read about on Parrot Musings blog. The beets turned out very good... just not crispy enough. I think next time I will make thinner slices in spite of Mr. Bittman's advice to keep them at 1/8 inch thickness.

Here they are very lightly coated in corn oil and spread out on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.
12 minutes later they are out and ready to be turned over. I let them go 12 more minutes and then turned them again... still not enough crunchiness going on. I think a wire mesh cooking sheet might also be a good idea, but I'll start with a thinner slice on the beets next time.
While the beets were baking the sun was lighting up the tops of the trees and I ran out to take a few pictures. We had some passing showers this afternoon and I thought the bright green of the leaves were so pretty against the dark sky. Unfortunately the contrast between sky and trees isn't very clear in these shots. You'll have to take my word for it :)