Brussels tree

When I was a kid, the vegetable I disliked the most was Brussels sprouts. It was probably because my mom only bought BirdsEye frozen vegetables in the little boxes and I think she overcooked them. I thought they were the most horrible tasting thing ever, next to canned spinach that was occasionally served in the school cafeteria. My brother made such a stink about eating them that my mom would give him only one sprout and he would cut it up into tiny pieces and then smother the pieces with ketchup. Over the years, anyone I ever talked to about Brussels sprouts had the same opinion of them--that they have a most unpleasant taste, to put it mildly.

Then I met Jerry, now my husband, and to my shock and amazement, I discovered that Brussels sprouts were his favorite vegetable. He requested them often, and when we shopped together for the first time, I realized that he picked out fresh Brussels sprouts, not the frozen ones. The first time I ever ate fresh cooked ones, I realized what I had been missing in my gustatory experience with B-sprouts--freshness! Cooked fresh ones taste absolutely delicious with a little butter or mayonnaise on them. I learned that Jerry puts mayonnaise on lots of different vegetables. And now, I too have become a Brussels sprouts-and-mayo kind of person.

Our local grocery store sometimes sells these Brussels Trees. I had never seen how B-sprouts grow, so this tree thing was a learning experience for me. The great (nutritionally and gustatorily--sp?) thing about buying the tree is...
...the sprouts stay fresh for a long time (in a plastic bag in the refrigerator) and you simply cut off the number you want to cook.
In order to cook them evenly so that they're not soft on the outside and still hard on the inside, I cut them in half and place them cut-side down in a microwaveable dish with a half cup of water, cover the dish with a dinner plate and nuke them on high for 10 minutes.

Try it--you'll like it!