For the love of Brussels sprouts!

Growing up I ate a LOT of veggies - more than most kids I'm sure. And I liked all of them for the most part. Except for mushrooms...which I grew to love, eggplant...which I still don't like, and Brussels sprouts...which I have finally learned how to cook - thanks to Toni.

I realize that I'm going to have to start taking pictures of the whole process of cooking so that people can see what things look like during the process. As a reader - that's my favorite part about recipes. I like to see what it looks like so that I can see if mine is turning out correctly! As a blogger now...I have new respect for the bloggers that came before me and have painstakingly taken photos of every step in the process.

I took one:

So. Dang. Delicious! I think we always just had them boiled growing up and they tasted like nasty little boiled cabbages...which they were. But now...they are one of my favorite vegetables EVER! (boiled cabbage is still low on the list) Toni found a recipe somewhere a few years ago that suggested par-boiling the Brussels sprouts so that they get tender and then pan frying or roasting them in the oven with olive oil, salt & pepper. Delish! I like them better oven roasted but sometimes it's just more convenient to do them on the stovetop. I put some garlic in too...yummo!

Now for the main dish - Home Grown Chicken!!! I took two pictures of this!

Before...

And After...

I wish I had taken a picture of the TRUE "before" picture while Honeybear was rinsing off Mr. Chicken. He had a little grass stuck to his...rump. Hehe. That's a sure sign that he was an outdoor chicken for at least part of his life! Mom grew chickens this year for fun. I'm not sure how much fun it was - I think it was a rather large source of stress for them in fact - but the outcome was nice. And delicious. I can't take credit for the chicken. That was all Honeybear. He stuffed Mr. Chicken with onions & apples and then covered him with some olive oil, rosemary, salt, pepper & garlic. Yum! He was very moist & tender & full of flavor! Thanks Mom & Toni for the ingredients & inspiration for a yummy meal!

This was last night's dinner. Wait til you see what we had for dinner tonight!

Stay tuned...