brussel sprout love

Hi friends! Hope you had a fun weekend doing something festive.  I basically spent the entire weekend in bed trying to recover from a sinus infection, barking cough, high fever, blah, blah, blah.  My sweet husband was kind enough to take the kids to church on his own yesterday, so after a terrible night I got to spend almost all of Sunday in bed.  Hallelujah.  While that was good for me, it means I really don't have a post prepared for you this morning.  So even though I don't have a photo, I thought I'd share one of my new favorite recipes with you really quick. 

Do you like brussel sprouts?  Do your kids?  They will now.  This recipe was inspired by the incredible starter brussel sprouts on the menu at my new favorite restaurant Tazza Kitchen.  They're perfectly cooked and topped with bacon (!), maple syrup (!!), and crumbled hard-boiled egg (!!!).  Amazing.  So I bought some brussel sprouts at the store which I absolutely never do 'cause seriously, who eats brussel sprouts?!  The answer is EVERYONE, when they're topped with bacon and syrup.  Here's how I made them at home:

1 bag brussel sprouts
5-6 slices of bacon
maple syrup to taste
salt and pepper
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375.  Put the bacon on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, cut the ends off the sprouts, pull off a few of the outer leaves, and then cut them in half.  Over medium heat, cook the sprouts in olive oil and add a little salt and pepper.  When they're tender and starting to brown take them off the heat and pour them into a serving bowl.  Chop up the bacon and mix it in with the sprouts. Pour some maple syrup over all of it and watch as your family devours them.  

Tommy and Will both ate seconds.  These are so easy and delicious that I think I'll add them to the menu this Christmas (and, well, all year). 

Hope you have an easy week ahead.  I have a million things to catch up on - wrapping, cards, knitting - since I was out of commission all weekend and on top of that, Annabel's getting tubes in her ears on Tuesday, Tommy has three practices this week, and Will and I have his company's Christmas dinner to attend.  Sheesh.  Here's to getting everything done and still having time to be quiet.  Ready, set, GO!

This makes me happy.  Magic.