Turns out beets are easy to prepare and the salad was great.  In this recipe the beets are roasted in the oven, wrapped in foil, for about an hour.  After cooling the skins easily slip off and you are left with ready to eat beets.  We had both red and golden beets.  I tasted each before putting them in the salad and only found small differences.  Husband describes the flavor of beets as tasting like "Dirt" which he apparently ate a fair amount of as a child!  I'm not sure I'd describe the flavor as dirt, but either way they tasted great.  As for the salad, the mixture of red wine vinegar, oranges and beets was wonderful with both sweet and tangy flavors. If beets are in season where you are I'd recommend give them and the salad a try - it's a nice, tasty change from the plain old garden variety green salad....