The Orange Strainer: Brussels Sprouts Are...Delicious?

Recipe: Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic and Cranberries
Source: Pioneer Woman
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/12/brussels-sprouts-with-balsamic-and-cranberries/
Time: 40 minutes total
Ease: 3
Taste: 8
Leftover Value: 8
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

My vegetable education growing up was very basic. In the world of my brothers and me, the only vegetables that existed were corn, carrots, peas, broccoli, and string beans. If we could have had our choice, none of them would have existed. We were the cliche children whose mother had to say, "Eat your peas!" and "If you don't eat your vegetables you aren't leaving this table!".

I think that might be why I struggle today to find satisfaction in snacking on veggies.

And also a reason my thighs are the size that they are.

But I'm going to keep telling myself that the last one is hereditary.

Regardless of these woes, I try. I try to resist the urge to be the person at the dinner table who ignores the vegetables completely. I try to serve at least one veggie with each meal, and I try to explore new realms.

Hello Brussels Sprouts.

These guys tend to get a bad rap. I guess they were the peas of the generation before mine. In fact, the only time I had ever seen a Brussels sprout was when someone my father's age used it as a visual for an example of something they disliked.

Hubby and I agreed that Brussels sprouts was a veggie we wanted to try, regardless the outcome.

The night I decided to make these bad boys I was in the middle of a spastic phone conversation with my older brother and sister-in-law and it was storming outside.

Then, the power went out.

It seems that them's is always the breaks.

Somewhere in my mass of craziness and confusion, I thought that the sprouts needed to roast, then go back into the oven with balsamic glaze and cranberries.

Silly me.

I ended up rushing the prep portion in order to end up with extra time on my hands with my sprouts in the dark (sorry about all the prepositional phrases...in that sentence; sorry I just couldn't help myself).

In the end, the only complaint I had was my own fault. My balsamic mixture didn't end up as thick as I know it should have been and that was due to the phone call, the lights out, and the inability to read directions.