Brussels Sprouts, Brussels Sprouts, Brussels Sprouts!

As I have been looking through my deluge of cooking magazines this month, it appears that if the beloved Brussels sprouts are making a comeback! They're everywhere!  Regular, grated, as a side dish, as a salad.....everywhere!  So I thought, being that it's a winter vegetable why not give them a go!

So off to the Dekalb Farmer's Market I went ---- man do I love that place.  It's  pain to get to, but oh so worth it:)  Beyond the selection, I also walk away absolutely amazed at what I've saved.  If you haven't been.....GO!

OK - so unlike most people.....brace yourself.....I've always like Brussels Sprouts.  Call me a freak...(shocker)...but they've never been on the turn up nose list even if prepared with salt/pepper and butter.  However for this version I did a little searching and decided to spruce them up a bit.

I started by cleaning and prepping my Brussels sprouts.  For this dish, I pulled off the few outside leaves to clean them up and then cut off the bottom, then cut them in half.  (I stayed with pretty small Brussels sprouts as they're generally sweeter.) Next, I fried up 3-4 slices of bacon (pretty crispy) and then set them aside.  I poured most of the bacon grease out of the pan and added a tablespoon of butter (why not?? :)  Dice up a few shallots and some garlic, add s/p and saute just about a minute or two on medium heat.  Throw in the Brussels sprouts and a few red pepper flakes (optional) - cook them on medium heat until you can stick a fork in them fairly easily.  (I needed to add a little liquid a couple times for them to cook properly --- so I used chicken stock. )While the sprouts are cooking I diced up about a 1/2 of red pear....when the sprouts where about done I threw in the pears for about a minute to let everyone get to know each other for a minute and onto my plate it went!

Not to shabby!  Granted it's not a big heaping pile of mashed potatoes (but then again NOTHING beats that) but if you're open to trying something new....it was a nice welcomed change.  I can see them going with a great pork tenderloin or pork chop maybe?

So there ya go - Brussels sprouts ala why-the-heck-not:)          

PS:  After 41, oops I mean 28 years of life I had no clue it was "Brussels" sprouts....not "Brussel" (singular) sprouts.  Who knew???