Redemtion

lj-tags: iron nani, brussels sprouts, green beans, bacon, squash

Saturday, when we stopped at Sultan's Produce Stand and Diana grabbed me
green beans & brussels sprouts, I bagged it up & figured that despite my
previous horrifying experiences with brussels sprouts I should at least give
it a second chance.

My first encounter with brussels sprouts was one winter when my grandmother
came to stay. I'd seen them mentioned on Sesame Street, and had seen kids
complaining about how yucky they were because they were <i>vegetables</i>
(ew!) so I wanted to at least give them a try. Because even at that age I
believed that there was no such thing as bad food, just good food badly
prepared. Grandma Jeanie picked some up at the grocery store and cooked
them, and they were awful. Bitter, very bitter. I think she simply boiled
them or something, & served them with butter, which is a great way to
present chard & spinach & peas & broccoli & a million other green things,
but not brussels sprouts! I was sorely disappointed. So from that point on
they weren't included in my vegetable repertoire.

But! I approached them from the standpoint that everything is good when
drowning in butter and/or bacon. Washed out the Wok, put in a couple slices
off my brick of bacon endsn'pieces along with a good blop of butter, sliced
the green beans, quartered the measly handful of brussels sprouts, & threw
them all into the hot fat. Added some water throughout to keep it from
burning & to encourage them to cook through. At the end? Fantastic. Nutty,
green, and not bitter at all. Presented it to Freak & he told me it tasted
asparagus-y, and good, and he ate the entirety of what i'd given him. (I
didn't tell him what it was - which is his standing request when it comes to
food. There's a lot of stuff he "doesn't like" if he knows what it is, & if
I refrain from telling him he'll eat it & love it.) Brussels sprouts were
completely redeemed in my eyes - which is great, because I get tired of
nothing but the eternal carrots/broccoli/greenbeans vegetable parade. So
when I do the garden thing at Aimee's house next spring, I think i'll plant
a couple for fun & see if the glory continues.

The other thing I cooked up was this Confetti Squash Diana had given me 2
of - and it was also very nice. I saved all the seeds, which are currently
drying on a plate in the kitchen - and will save the seeds from the 2nd one
as well. I'm going to try & plant them up north also & see what happens.
(It was a rather tasty squash.)