Brussels Sprout Evangelist

Ok, people, why do you hate Brussels Sprouts?

Here is the trick. Take off the sketchy leaves. Cut an X in the bottom. Saute the sprouts and some chopped shallots in a frying pan until the shallots are translucent and the sprouts have some brown spots. Pour in a can of chicken broth, cover and simmer until fork tender.

Yummy. yummy. yummy. My family can't get enough of them no matter how many we make. Well...we did actually have a few left over at Christmas, but we made a gallon bag full for heavens sake.

Food Glorious Food

I am a cookbook lover. I get ideas from them and find them comforting. I read them on snowy winter nights tucked into my flannel sheets, dreaming of exotic smells in far-flung locales. I browse them on summer weekends as the scent of charcoal and cooking meat wafts over the arborvitae hedge. I plan menus from them for summer parties that will go long into the night. I try new recipes on long-suffering friends, family and neighbors (luckily for me they are broad-minded and willing to try anything--mostly.)

I love to cook but I am also out there at the edge. In addition to reading about classic Euro-based cuisine, I read cookbooks from cultures other than my own. With a glint in their eyes and drool on their lips, my friends bring me cookbooks and spices from their world travels.

I am fond of throwing theme parties with food, music, and décor from one country or another. (I posted before about the Moroccan Kasbah party). All of these ideas come from idly browsing cookbooks.

I give you a partial list of some of my favorite cookbooks and encourage you to curl up with a cup of tea and a good book. Or put one on your Christmas list.

Tess Mallos. Cooking Moroccan.
Madhur Jaffrey. Indian Cooking
Lidia Bastianich. Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen
Jacqueline Clarke & Joanna Farrow. Mediterranean Cooking
Nancie McDermott. Quick & Easy Thai
Rick Bayles. Mexico, One Plate at a Time
Marcella Hazan. The Classic Italian Cookbook
Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. Hot Sour Salty Sweet.

Overheard

The neighbors and I were lying on blankets on my front lawn watching the Perseids meteor shower. On the mountain, we have no streetlights so it is pitch black. We were pointing out constellations to each other and we could even see the Milky Way. These are snippets of overheard conversation in the darkness.

“If you see a falling star, you have to make a wish.”

“The best way to cook corn is to use the microware. You do not husk it or anything. Just pop it in the mic for 7 minutes and voila. It is the best ever. You know the silk is the life blood of the kernel.”

“Look at that one!”

“Edamame is the Japanese word for soybean.”

“You used a snow shovel to move the snapping turtle from the road?.”

“Ohhh, long tail on that one. Crap, I was looking the other way.”

“No, no Katydids are green and look like grasshoppers. They are not the same as cicadas."

"Look, look it's a satellite."

“I almost got poked in the eye by an angry hummingbird when I went to close to the feeder to water my flowers.”

“Has anyone see the new baby recently?”

“There goes one.”

“Honey, you have to look up at the stars to see anything.”

"Are you cold? Want me to get another blanket?"

“The dew point must have been early. The grass is sopping.”

"The Big Dipper is called that because years ago they used to dip water from a barrel with a long handled cup called a dipper. Can you see the long handle and the cup on the end?"

“Are you going to the farmer’s market tomorrow?”

"I made up the recipe. I stuffed the poblano peppers with a picadillo and made a chipotle sauce to bake them in."

“I have been all over Flickr looking for that photo. What did you call it again?”

I heard that if you rub a Bounce dryer sheet on you the mosquitoes won’t bite. Hmmm, I heard it was a Downy sheet. Or maybe that was for ticks."”

“Will this be happening again tomorrow?”

Yes, same time, same place.