Brussels Sprouts!!!! YUM!

I have a new found, very deep love for Brussels Sprouts! Fresh ones showed up in the grocery store here and I decided to try them again. I had only tried them once before, in Latvia, and I hated them that time. I cleaned them (washed and then cut off ends and yucky outer leaves), cut them in half, smothered them in olive oil and salt and pepper and stuck them in the oven. Roast on high for as long as it takes for them to get pretty darn brown. Then take them out, and try not to eat the whole pan. Twice, I have eaten the whole pan. Even Joel has been eating them. Surprisingly, last weekend, our neighbors had us over for dinner, and they had also made Brussels Sprouts- except she had microwaved them I believe, and served them naked. I was very afraid that I would not like them with the olive oil and the roasting. Guess what? They were great! Tonight we had frozen ones with a little butter and salt. I ate my serving which was a normal sized one, and Joel didn't finish his. They were NOT good. Fresh=yum. Frozen=not so much. I find that corn, carrots and peas are ok frozen, sometimes broccoli...anything else, just not worth it. So, I don't know what season Brussels Sprouts usually come with, but, whenever they show up in your neck of the woods, I would highly recommend trying some- roasted if you need a safe way to go. So good! I will try to take a picture of some when I make them next time, to show you just how brown we like them. The only bad thing is, well, there are two bad things- one, I think me eating them gives Beni gas. So I feel bad for her on that front (obviously it's not bad enough for me to stop eating them). The other thing is that the people that built our apts were idiots in several ways and the kitchen has no fan in it, not even over the stove. The only thing it has is unscreened windows in the laundry room which is just off the kitchen. But hello... this is the land of malaria, which you get from mosquitoes! So I don't know anyone who is big on just flinging their windows open, especially not, let's say at dinner time, when it's getting dark out and the mozzies would be extra drawn toward your lit up kitchen. So, what I'm trying to say is, when we roast Brussels Sprouts, we smell them for days. And it's not that pleasant of a smell. But it is worth the mouth fun.

I think it's funny that pretty much every stereotypically child-hated vegetable is on my top ten list now. :)