Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Lordy lordy, how I love Brussels Sprouts! Roasting them is my new favorite way to eat them. If you can live with the stench in your house, trust me....these are fabulous!

I like my sprouts pretty tender, probably due to a childhood during which Mom cooked the little cabbages damn near to death, but that's another story. I bought a nice sized bag of already cleaned and trimmed sprouts and dropped the entire contents in the steamer to cook them just to tender-crisp.
Meanwhile, pre-heat your oven to something in the neighborhood of 400 degrees.

Then I dragged out my heavy-duty baking sheet (it was rescued from a restaurant and has loved me ever since). A little smear of olive oil on the pan, then the sprouts, another drizzle of olive oil over the top and a healthy sprinkle of kosher salt. I will confess that I have used bacon grease at this step it was just heavenly.

Pop this deliciousness into the oven. Meanwhile, open all the doors and windows because if you think steaming Brussels Sprouts is a smelly business, just wait!

When the side of your baby cabbages that touches the pan is well-browned and yummy, give the pan a healthy shaking to roll them around so a new side touches. Or, if you are the patient, perfectionist type, turn them over, one by one. When they have plenty of flavorful brown crispy spots, take them out (I sprinkle a bit more salt here, since I lost some in the shaking step) and serve. You don't need any butter or anything else on top, in my humble opinion, although I have seen them shown with parmesan or bacon crumbles. Well. OK. Parmesan and/or bacon crumbles might be amazing, too.

Run right out and roast you some sprouts today!