Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Lavender and Asiago

 brussels sprouts by glutenfreegirl

So, I really, really love Brussels sprouts.  Last year I tried my hand at cooking them in all sorts of fancy and complicated ways- and while many of them were good- they were quite often more elaborate, time consuming, or expensive than I would have preferred.

Last week I picked up a lovely little bag at my favorite grocery store, as well as a bag of pre-grated asiago (they do it in store, and it's so wonderful and convenient!)  Once home I raided my spice cabinet for my ridiculous supply of dried lavender buds.  What I came up with is simple, easy, and absolutely delicous.  Perfection.


Ingredients:

- 1 lb fresh Brussels sprouts, trimmed, and cut in half
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbps fresh or dried lavender buds
- 1/8 to 1/4 cup of freshly grated asiago, Parmesan, or other hard/strong cheese- to taste
- Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:

While preparing your ingredients- preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

1. Toss Brussels sprouts in a bowl with olive oil, lavender, salt and pepper.
2. Dump into an 8"x8" glass baking dish, or whatever you have available.
3.  Roast in pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on how toasty you like them.
4. When the sprouts have about 5 minutes left- sprinkle cheese over the tops, and put back in the oven to get all melty, and crispy, and lovely.
5. Let cool for a minute or two- and enjoy!

For a vegan version- simply omit the cheese.  They're still so lovely with just the lavender!




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Do you love or hate Brussels sprouts?  What's your favorite way to prepare them?

Mushroom Hunting Field Trip With the Puget Sound Mycological Society

I already posted a few pictures from our mushroom hunting adventure on Saturday, but I promised that there would be more!

My good friend Shana recently joined the Puget Sound Mycological Society and invited Amy and I along on their last field trip of the season, this past Saturday.  We drove an hour and a half to a small state park, where we met up with a large group of mushroom hunters.  Some people had years and years of experience, while others (like us) were brand new.  A handful of people made out with baskets full of gorgeous chantarelles and other edibles- but as such newbies we stuck to finding as many different species as we could- mostly poisonous.  We spent nearly four very wet hours working our way around a 2 mile loop trail, stopping whenever we'd spot something new. 

As much as I love the idea of hunting solely for edibles- we had an absolute blast poking, smelling, picking, and photographing everything that we could.  I truly had never noticed that there is such diversity between species, and we learned some really neat mushroomy facts.

Have you ever gone mushroom hunting?  What did you find?

Mushroom Hunting Sneak Peak!

I'm running my first 10k and going pumpkin picking tomorrow, finishing homework tonight, and still need to eat dinner, shower, and do laundry- BUT.  I have have have to share with you a few photos from our crazy awesome field trip with the Puget Sound Mycological Society today!  I will have a larger post with lots of pictures up later this week when things settle down a bit- but for now here are a few of my favorites:

Check back soon for the rest, and have a great rest of your weekend!

Brunch at Nettletown

I have mentioned Nettletown many, many times in the past.  The food is insanely fresh and imaginative, the restaurant is beautiful, and I adore Christina.  Yes, I talk about it plenty.  But- I've never shown you.  The horror!

We had a sleepy brunch there this morning and I finally thought to take a couple of photos.

My brunch.  Two poached eggs, elk meatballs, green salad, and chunky onion and potato cakes with a mug of cardamom black tea.

Matao's brunch.  Rain Shadow Meats bratwurst with pickled veggies, caramelized onions,  and organic greens on french bread with a big side salad.



Seriously- if you live in Seattle and haven't gone yet- you really, really must!

Creatures, Identified!

Last week I made a post with three pictures of "unidentified creatures".  Two of them were easy enough to figure out- but not one person guessed the first one!  So, in reverse order we have:

Creature #3:

Kombucha!

Creature #2:

Luna!  (One of my rescue kitties.)

And finally: Creature #1:

Hazelnuts!

Weird, huh?  I have this really odd habit of collecting plants and creatures (mostly plants, sometimes a snail) when I've had a glass of wine or two and am walking somewhere.  Most often I find sprigs of rosemary or lavender in my purse the next day, but sometimes it will be a weird seed pod or something like the hazelnuts that I'm not even sure of at first.  And now we know!

Oh, and Killary/Ghilly/Hilary was the winner!  I'll send you an email and get your mailing address, loverface.