So you wanna eat more veggies? You keep saying you do. But I am starting to doubt your strength of commitment in this area.

Take my personal favorite veggie. The beet. Both beetroot and beet greens are very powerful cleansers and builders of the blood. Beets are loaded with vitamins A, B1, B2, B6 and C. The greens have a higher content of iron compared to spinach. They are also an excellent source of calcium, magnesium, copper, phosphorus, sodium and iron. So they are very very good for you. Yet you resist eating them.

I am not your mother however, and this is not a nutrition blog. It’s an “I am crazy in love with food and you should be too blog” But who says love can’t be good for you?

And because I have a healthy love/love relationship with beets I come here and push them on you whenever I can.

I have used them in a salad, an interesting, spicy salad that even included the beet greens. You looked the other way.

I tried to cajole you with the prettiest pasta you’ve ever seen. I even steeped beets in rum hoping to get you to enjoy them at cocktail hour. But still you beat back my beets!

Harrumph… is all I have to say.

It happened again. I ripped off KCRW’s Good Food. This time my victim was Jean Francois Meteigner the chef at La Cachette Bistro in Santa Monica.

When I left the house this morning for the Hollywood Farmers Market I had an open mind about what I would find for my weekly Market Matters post. I was determined to pick something this week that I was unfamiliar with– something new to me, something that would necessitate putting my brain in gear. Stretch myself. Grow a little. Try something new!

I saw English shelling peas in the pod, they super tempted me. Not that they are all that original. I cook with peas almost every week of my life. Still when they are fresh from the market, it’s easy to throw all your other plans out the window. But I decided that the peas were not really peaking yet, and I’d rather wait a few more weeks and be rewarded with perfect peas. Besides there was that promise I made: Stretch myself. Grow a little. Try something new!

I have got quite an OpenSky opportunity for you.

20 lucky people will be able to purchase a $15.00 Prepara Trio Three Blade Peeler for the amazing price of $1.99. Including shipping. That's right! Your total cost is $1.99! Many other people will get 15% off codes for any Prepara product from any of the other great OpenSky Shops.

This special deal is only good for me and my readers, so don't say I am not looking out for you. 'Cuz that's all I do... I work hard to bring you these great opportunities, and all you need to do to take advantage of my sweat and toil is go to the special SippitySup Promotion Page at OpenSky. CLICK here to be taken straight there. All the details you need are on that page.

But I am sure you'd like to know why I chose this product for this very special promotion. After all– $1.99 is $1.99! You may need a little proof in this here puddin'... Well, rest assured I chose this product because I use it in my own kitchen. I honestly do. CLICK here to watch me in my newest video using one in a special recipe I created just for this promotion!  Zucchini "Linguini" with Pistachios and Mint. But I have a secret about this recipe and you'll just have to check it out to see what it is!

It has been absolutely weeks since I have done a Market Matters post from the Hollywood Farmers Market. Travel, and sickness have kept me “up the hill” and unable to shop there most Sundays lately. I think my last Sunday post from the Market was in November. But don’t quote me on that!

Depending on where you live you might hate me for what I am about to say next, but it is 82 degrees F. (28 degrees C.) today in Los Angeles. Which leads me to the next little statement you may hate me for uttering. The Hollywood Farmers Market runs all year. That’s 12 months or 52 weeks (in a row)… la-dee-dah la-dee-dah!

So on this gorgeous sunny Sunday morning the only weather related issue in my life was whether to wear the new orange cargo shorts or my good old Sunday favorites­­– the camouflage cut-offs. I won’t tell you which I chose ‘cuz that would be too much like rubbing it in.

But just so you know my life is not all sunbeams and lollipops. Nope, I have some cloudy thoughts too. Like this morning, as me and my camouflage cut-offs (oops I let that slip– sorry) plopped ourselves down on the terrace to read the Sunday paper a couple of disturbing thoughts floated through my mind. First, did I remember to put on sunscreen this morning? I did not need another Sunday suntan. My poor skin needs a break. And second, I must admit, I felt a little performance anxiety. It’s been so long since I chose something from the Hollywood Farmers Market to bring to you, my virtual eaters. I was worried that maybe I had lost my groove.

As I was preparing to leave on my Panamanian adventure a cold shock of panic coursed through my veins. "How can I leave SippitySup dark for a week whilst I galavant around Central America with the beautiful people of Boquete Gourmet?" I mean I love this little blog, and won't it (and you) get lonely while I'm gone?

What to do... what to do? Well, whenever I am stuck chewing on the phrase "what to do?", I usually turn to Twitter! TWEET...

I immediately TWEETED an SOS:

• HELP!! FOOD BLOGGER IN NEED (stop)
• SIPPITYSUP IN DIRE STRAITS (stop)
• GUEST BLOGGER PLEASE APPLY (stop)
• ALL YOU NEED IS TALENT AND CHUTZSPAH (stop)
• AS WELL 500 WORDS WITH PICS AND RECIPE (stop)

Well my non-denominational prayers were answered (or rather tweeted) by Jennifer at Unplanned Cooking! Within moments she tweeted in and reassured me and put all my fears to rest. She would be my guest blogger. She would fill my shoes while I was out traipsing in my boots through the jungles of Panama. And she'd do it with a classic Scandinavian (non-Panamanian) dish called Lefse!

So welcome Madame Unplanned Cooking! Tah Dah...

You want to hear something funny. SippitySup has a rank of 4332 in Panama. It's my best rank per country in the world. Which means that SippitySup is a very popular site in Panama. It seems so random, but it’s true.

I start with that little fact because I have some exciting news; SippitySup has been invited to Panama to lead a cooking demonstration for a group called Boquete Gourmet. Somehow little tiny SippitySup has managed to catch the hearts of a group of food loving ex-pats living the high life near the border with Costa Rica. Boquete is a beautiful town adjacent to the mighty Volcan Barú, and I am very honored and excited to be invited.

Boquete is a peacful little mountain community that is often described as Paradise. In fact Forbes magazine recently rated Boquete as one of the top 10 places to retire in the world. Harper's Bazaar says, "Panama is the most beautiful retreat in the world and almost undiscovered."

Well Sup! is about to discover it in a big way!

Well, Diane Morgan has done it again. There are some cookbook authors that you just know can hit the ball good and solid every time. Diane Morgan is just such an author. She seems to have found a formula that just keeps working.

That’s because she is a sensible cook and a straightforward writer. Diane’s approach to food is practical. She seems to know just what her audience expects, and she delivers exactly that. Yet somehow, without ever straying too far from the tried and true she manages to bring something fresh and modern to her work as well.

When I first picked up her latest title from Chronicle Books, The New Thanksgiving Table, I was a little confused. After all, I considered her previous book The Thanksgiving Table to be the definitive guide to this particular holiday.

But I have to admit, I was taken with just how easy this new book is to read. Which to me translates into a cookbook that is easy to use as well. It is laid out with plenty of space between the text and recipes. The useful information is highlighted with simply shaded boxes. The ingredients are in bold type, which makes list making a breeze. So despite my pre-conceived notions of redundancy, I found myself already liking this book.