Vegetable Goodness and a Handy Kitchen Gadget

Last night for dinner we had a cranberry pork loin cooked in the slow cooker, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and homemade applesauce. Our garden is all tilled under now except for the brussel sprout plants which are going strong. The brussel sprouts actually seem to be getting sweeter with the colder weather. It is lovely to still be able to go out and pick something fresh for dinner. Brussel sprouts are packed with vitamins and to eat them when they are just moments from the garden makes me feel healthy.
When we were first married and I served brussel sprouts, Brent turned up his nose a little-- which I could understand because brussel sprouts do not have a good reputation. But he changed his mind once he tasted them. They are delicious when when boiled until just tender, then a couple of dollops of butter and a splash of lemon juice into the water. Even Katya likes them; she seems fascinated by the idea of eating the little leaves I've chopped up for her.
So when Brent planted the garden last spring, he wanted to experiment with growing brussel sprouts. It's really interesting how they grow on the plant. They actually grow on the stalk. You cut off individual sprouts until you have enough for dinner. Here are a couple of pictures--the first shows what the whole plant looks like and the second is a close up of the sprouts.


While we're on the subject of kitchen happiness, I just have to say that I love my little kitchen scale. Awhile ago as I was trying to figure out how many of our jillion tomatoes I would need to make 15 oz of diced tomatoes for some spaghetti sauce I was attempting, I exclaimed to Brent how nice it would be to have a kitchen scale. It is something I have wished for for a long time. Lots of recipes I've used call for ounces of things or call for a package of something that apparently is no longer sold in that quantity.
A few days later the sweet man hands me a box. It was a kitchen scale! It is so handy and fun to use. I've found that I can even use it to see if a letter needs an extra stamp. I also like my scale because it is flat and when I'm done using it, I just pop it back into its box and it takes up very little space in the cupboard.