Brussels sprouts

While I have been spending a lot of my spare time whacking the underbrush (and in my case, the over-the-head brush), there's also been plenty of time for cooking and enjoying the winter vegetables. Take the beautiful Brussels sprout, for example. I don't have a good history with this wee cabbage. I have vivid childhood memories of sitting at the dinner table long after everyone else had left, facing a few sprouts on an otherwise bare plate, and refusing to eat them. If we'd had a dog, I wouldn't have been in vegetable trouble... but our cat was very uncooperative. And my parents figured out pretty quickly that any request to go to the bathroom during dinner also involved flushing vegetables.

It wasn't until I was an adult, eating at my sister's table for the holidays, that I learned to love the Brussels sprout. Bob, my brother-in-law, has a masters touch with this vegetable. He steams them until they're tender but still a bit crunchy, then cuts them in half and sautes them in browned butter, which brings out the nutty flavor. I copy his method with no guilt whatsoever, and have shared it with friends. They all say they're the best Brussels sprouts they've ever eaten.

Thanks, Bob! (p.s., Dave thanks you too)