Brussels Sprouts even a 3 year old will eat (and will impress your significant other)

Since knee surgery, almost six weeks ago, I have trouble sleeping past 3:30 am.  The pain meds, ice packs and knee brace (when it was on) helped but I keep waking up.  This early morning I planned on blogging about sauteed radishes.  I transferred the photos out of iPhoto into the blog and discovered I selected the brussels sprouts instead.  Maybe it's time for another cup of coffee.

Growing up overseas exposed me to lots of different foods.  While a kid living in the middle east our live in maid was Indian and made some of the most wonderful curries.  While out with my parents I remember eating fresh shawarma of the spit, fresh roasted nuts, skewers of lamb and veggies from the small sidewalk cafes.  Traveling back to the US always resulted in a lay over somewhere in Europe.  I still remember at 11 eating real carbonara fettucini with the raw egg on top in Rome.  Oh ya, some of the most incredible pizzas too from the little food trailers.

Then my teenage years were spent in Melbourne Australia (go Collingwood Magpies!)  How ironic, my favorite footy team's colors are black and white.  Australia is a melting pot of culinary delights.  My neighbors were Italian, Greek, Chinese, Czechoslovakian and Ozzy.  There was cream in the milk, the meat was grass fed, great public transportation (which was great when you couldn't legally drive till 18) and walkability.  The local shopping center had a supermarket for basic, I'll call it canned/carb sundries.  You then made the rounds to  the  produce store, a meat butcher, a bakery, a desert shop, a flower stand...all individual businesses that focused within their specific niche to finish off the shopping trip.  And the first few years we lived there weekend shopping was limited to 1pm on Saturdays and no commercial shopping on Sundays.

For six years I wore a shirt, tie, slacks and blazer to school.   90210 was the show I'd watch, on one of three commercial TV channels, to see what life was like in the US. I learned to drive on the left side of the road, ate fish and chips with lots of vinegar and wrote/spoke the Queen's English.  I also ate some of the traditional Queens food-banger and mash, scones with cream, marmite (or even worst Vegemite - sorry my ozzy friends), real mint jelly and brussels sprouts.  Brussels sprouts  were served gooey, overcooked and covered in butter.  The butter was the best part.

So fast forward to ten years later; I'm in my late 20's dating my wife and deciding to try a new vegetable in the kitchen, good old brussels sprouts.  After all it's part of the cabbage family and should be good for us.  But I don't want them to be soft, gooey, stinky mess.  So lots of butter later (I didn't understand the positive health benefits at the time), a little sea salt and moderate heat I discovered sauteed brussels sprouts.  It has taken a few more attempts to master and now it is a weekly staple in our house.


I prefer fresh brussels sprouts however Trader Joe's use to carry a frozen bag that would work in an emergency pinch.  In this recipe I cheated and used jarred garlic.  Somehow I forgot to buy fresh and the Trader Joe's jar is a good backup.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb to 1 lb brussel sprouts (I get mine at Fresh and Easy)
Chunk (2 Tbsp) Good butter
1-2 cloves minced/squashed Garlic
Water
Twist of sea salt

1.  Cut the hard bottoms off the brussels sprouts and remove the outer leaves (I do because it is the most exposed side of the veggie and if I don't I get the germ hebe jebes).  Rinse under cold water.  If the brussels sprout is large you can cut it in half.  The goal is to have a uniformed size for cooking.

2.  Put on a high heat.  I love this fry pan.  It is almost shot and the other night the handle started falling off.  But it has cooked hundreds of happy meals on multiple stoves, in multiple cities, over multiple grills, served to multiples of friends and family.

 3.  Add enough water to immerse the veggie about 1/4 to 1/3.  Let the water boil rapidly.

 4. Monitor the veggie.  As soon as the water boils off angle the pan over the heat and push the veggies to the side.

 5. Drop a big chunk of butter on the open side of the pan and let the butter melt into the veggies.  Be careful not to burn yourself.  And don't angle the pan too much otherwise the chunk of butter will slide into the veggies unmelted.  Add the garlic and twist or two of sea salt.

 6.  Place back on high heat, toss a couple of times with a flick of the wrist and grub up.

Comments, feedback, thoughts-Please.

Slow Grocery Shopping + 3 Year Old = Smile

The knee brace is off and the crutches are thrown into a corner of the garage!  My knee is slowly recovering its range of motion, or at least in my opinion slowly recovering, and I can almost walk up stairs like a normal person.  Coming down I still have to support my weight or take one stair at a time.

The physical therapist continues to praise me on my speed of recovery, my pre surgery leg strength and my attitude.  Now positive motivation is part of his job and I really believe he isn't saying it just to waste air. The problem is I am an over achiever, always have been.  It's ingrained into my system.  So I feel like I should be further ahead in my recovery, taking two stairs at a time in a kangaroo bouncing motion, not struggling by step five.  I want to run the local 1/2 marathon at the end of October (therapist and Doc both said a big NO), do burpees and ride my mountain bike...all things the therapist tells me will have to wait.  Today I'll get 15 minutes on the stationary bike which is huge considering my last run was March 22nd and I got injured the next day.

This week I got to drive for the first time in almost five weeks.  I felt 16 again, or actually in my case 17 (my teenage years were spent in Australia where driving is at 18 and came back to the US at 17) with the regained freedom of a key in the ignition.  So where did I go?  The local grocery store.  In my dirty truck.  Living by the beach in Southern Cal has it's perks...one is not the morning dew and the grim that covers your car within three days of washing it.

I would have preferred the farmers market but I cannot physically walk far, carry the produce or tow a three year old in a wagon.  In essence I need a cart for support as I limp around.  My little girl, J, was awesome.  Normally she will push the cart or walk...usually refusing to sit in the cart's seat.  This time she sat and sat and sat patiently as we cruised through the store.  Cruised is an overstatement - My speed was that of a snail.  My gait similar to a piston.  Push cart, step forward with good leg, followed by upward twisting downward bad leg.  Repeat.

Anyway moving on, Vons recently rebuilt their downtown store in our city and it Rocks!  Huge produce, meat and bakery (bummer) areas.  Great, helpful employees.  Starbucks of course.

J and I spent a good twenty minutes in the produce area.  We picked out, smelled, squeezed, manipulated the avocados, onions, red peppers, broccoli, radish, celery, strawberries and apples together until we found ones we were both satisfied with.  She tasted the cilantro, parsley and basil.  Unfortunately she didn't like the basil and told me we couldn't buy it.  She listened attentively while I told her about the produce, how it grows, the way we normally cook and eat it.

Most shopping trips are rushed.  Deadlines, work, dinner time fast approaching.  The injured knee forced this trip to slow down and what a great time it was stopping to smell the limes, and lemons, and leeks, and onions...

Yummy steak drippings cream cabbage - simple enough to cook on one leg and only one pan to wash up

The knee is improving however I'm still hobbling around on crutches.  I had an afternoon where I had to get back into the kitchen and digging around the fridge I found some sirloin steaks and half a head of cabbage.  The grill is not a crutch friendly endeavor so out came the trusty cast iron pan.

I coated the steaks with Fresh n Easy's steak seasoning, cooked to a medium/well finish and got ready to deglaze the pan with cream.  I normally saute shredded cabbage in butter and but decided to try making a cabbage dish using the steak pan drippings.  The pictures don't do justice for how good it was.  About five minutes into making the cabbage my wife yells into the kitchen "something smells good" - remember I'm cooking cabbage, a vegetable usually associated with lots of mayo or corn beef.

I know the steaks are a little crowded in the pan.  When you only have one good leg to stand on you don't have time to be totally sensitive to the meat's needs.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 onion diced
3 carrots diced
1/2 head of cabbage sliced
1/2 cup of water
1 1/2 cups of heavy cream


1. Add butter, onions and carrots to pan.  Cook over medium heat until the onions start to brown.

2. Add cabbage to the pan (forgot to take a picture).  Stir vegetables around and add 1/2 cup of water.  Cook for five minutes - I usually don't specify cooking time and I know for sure it is five minutes because my three year old got a time out at the very moment I added the cabbage (and she was unable to help cook).

3. Now comes the best part.  Turn up the heat and add the cream.  The cream will start to rapidly boil and thicken up.  Don't be afraid of using heat - cream can handle it.  While you are stirring scrape the meat off the bottom of the pan to capture all that great flavor.

4. Plate the steak and cabbage.  I added a sharp, freshly grated parmesan cheese on the cabbage.

5. After woofing down the cabbage, use the steak to scrap up the cream on your plate.

And only one pan to clean up!