Brussels Sprouts (Abandon all hope, ye who enter here)

For those of you who hate Brussels sprouts with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns, I am not going to try to sell you on them. I realize this is a loathing that is deep and instinctive and I thoroughly respect your right to eschew these small cabbages. Go in peace. (Wuss-bags)

Sorry. For those of you who love the Brussies, welcome. For those of you who are not crazy about them but suspect you could like them if prepared in some palatable way, I hope you'll stick around.

I have one surefire recipe for "Conversion Sprouts" that has won over many doubters but I'm not going to unveil that just yet. Instead let's talk about roasting sprouts. Brussels have a strong and bitter bite which I think is the reason most people are averse to them. Roasting, however, caramelizes them and gives a sweeter edge.

They are simple to prepare: slice the end off, halve the sprouts, toss with olive oil, kosher salt, and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet and roastez-vous.

Brussies cozy up nicely to other vegetables. Tonight I paired them up with small yellow potatoes and onions to go alongside the skirt steak.

I roasted them at 400 for about 25 minutes, shaking the tray a few times. All the little loose leaves that fell off the the sprouts got all crisped up like chips and they were great together with the roasted onions. A terrific addition to this dish would be red grapes. Roasting vegetables with red grapes is something Stacey turned me on to and I highly recommend trying it, click here for details.