Brussels

Let's talk about Brussels. No, not the beautiful city in Belgium. Although, have you seen this flower carpet they have there? Wow! Anyway, I wanted to talk about the lowly vegetable; oft' hated. I'm here to say maybe we judged this cabbage relative too soon. I hardly remember having these as a kid but I remember not liking them. This spring my aunt came to visit and showed us how to roast brussels sprouts. My kids LOVED them. What?! We had to actually stop them from eating too many and getting sick. I was reminded of the cooking truth: anything roasted with butter and salt is good. 

These are easy to make and a great change of pace in veggie department. After preparing them once as Aunt D directed (just cut the ends off and slice each in half, roasting face-down), we thought we would like to separate the "petals" and roast them kind of like kale chips. We kept the "hearts" intact and roasted them separately as well. This way the petals get crispy and the hearts are tender. 

However you slice them, just toss with melted butter and sprinkle with kosher or sea salt. Bake at 375º for 20 minutes or until edges are crispy.  

We also tried some sprinkled with some lemon pepper. This was also delish!

If you're feeling lazy, or you're out of butter, you can raid your fridge for leftover garlic butter dip and just toss the brussels in that! How easy is that?

We are hoping to catch our first farmer's market of the season tomorrow, and we might bite the bullet and plant our starter plants outside (since the green beans are actually growing beans inside!).  Maybe we should grow some brussels sprouts. Fingers crossed for no more frost! Have a great weekend!