Brussels sprouts--practicing for T-Day

Every year for the past few years, I have participated in a Thanksgiving potluck with a surrogate family of New Yorkers who live too far from their real families to travel for the holiday. Well, I have my cousins, but the other two families that are involved are not blood relations, just close friends of my cousins. The first year we did this was such a success that we are now on our fourth year. It's great fun--we go upstate to my cousins' country house, have a gourmet brunch/lunch (I'm talking caviar), play outside, cook, eat some more then play games. This year, one of the other families is hosting at their country house and there will be two dogs to add to the fun.



For the first potluck, I made stuffing and brussels sprouts. Others contributed the turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potato and desserts. Because everything turned out so well that first year, we're now expected to bring the same dishes every year. Sometimes I want to experiment and try something else but the stuffing recipe I use and the brussels sprouts I usually make are, I'm not too modest to say, always delicious and therefore required dishes at Thanksgiving.

This year though, I thought I might try to at least vary the method for the brussels sprouts. But first, a little practice was needed.


The way I usually make brussels sprouts is:

• clean and trim
• drop them into boiling water for 5 minutes
• let cool or run under cold water until they can be handled
• cut in half
• saute in butter and olive oil with shallots and garlic, salt and pepper

Without fail, always delicious.

This year I thought I might try to roast them which I've eaten before but never made myself. I cleaned and trimmed as usual, sliced in half, also cut a slit in the root (to aid in cooking), tossed with some garlic olive oil and lots of salt and pepper. These went into a preheated 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. I also gave them a toss about halfway through.
Okay, I actually left them in for a little over 35 minutes which is why some parts look a little bit beyond browned. But those parts were the best--crispy and salty and carmelized, yum. And the rest of the brussels sprouts were sufficiently soft, not mushy. Perfectly good to serve, but...

Ever since I tried Westville's honey dijon brussels sprouts, I wanted to try making them myself, although I really had no clue as to how. I once tried to saute the brussels sprouts per my usual method, adding a honey dijon mixture directly to the pan. Yuck, not good. It actually made me gag.

This time though, I decided to add the honey dijon (roughly equal parts honey and dijon with a splash of lemon juice) after the brussels sprouts were finished cooking. I tried it to just a few for a taste...


...success! I guess honey dijon does not like to be heated so a little coating after cooking was the perfect glaze. I like how the honey added sweetness and the dijon a little kick.


These brussels sprouts were perfectly fine just roasted out of the oven but I went ahead and dumped the honey dijon over them all and ate the entire batch.


I think there is something about the added sweetness that I really like. Next, I'm going to try a maple syrup glaze. Depending on how things go, I might make brussels sprouts three ways for Thanksgiving this year.


I want to eat brussels sprouts every day until I get sick of them. Which might be never.