Recipes Seven and Eight

 We tried two new recipes for dinner tonight. Recipe seven was Vegetarian Sweet and Sour Meatballs. The recipe called for Italian seasoned bread crumbs, but I only had regular bread crumbs, so I threw in some Italian seasoning. Also, the sweet and sour sauce had apricot jam in it. We don't have any apricot jam, but with a closet full of many flavors of homemade jam, I wasn't about to go buy some. So we used strawberry jam instead and that worked out great. The meatballs had good texture and flavor.

For recipe eight, I made Brussel Sprouts with Spiced Pecans, this was basically two recipes in one. I found it in a magazine that Visalia sends us occasionally about stuff that is happening in the area (and recipes, apparently).

Spiced Pecans

2 cups pecan halves

1 T brown sugar

1 T melted butter

1 T rosemary

1 T kosher salt 

1/4 t cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the pecans on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Season the pecans with sugar, butter, rosemary, salt, and cayenne pepper. Toss together until the pecans are coated. Return to the oven for 2 to 3 minutes more.

Brussel Sprouts (one pound feeds four)

4 slices thick cut bacon, applewood preferred

Pecans, spiced

Olive oil to toss

Salt and pepper to taste

Brussel sprouts

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Have an ice bath ready before you blanch the brussel sprouts. Take a medium bowl, fill half way with water and add ice. Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Trim end off brussel sprouts, add to water for 1 to 2 minutes, depending on the size. Remove and put in the ice bath immediately. Drain, let cool, and set aside.

Cut bacon into wide pieces; thick cut is much better. Brown the bacon in a small skillet. Drain on paper towels and set aside. 

Toss brussel sprouts with olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake in preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. Remove and place in a bowl. Toss with bacon and spiced pecans. Drizzle with olive oil.

First off, this recipe uses a ton of dishes for one side dish. We decided we prefer brussel sprouts cooked in a skillet instead of in the oven, but that would be easy to change because you cook everything separately. The other problem was that it was difficult to coat the pecans evenly. Some ended up strongly flavored and others were mostly just toasted pecans. That said, we both liked this recipe. The pecans had great flavor (minus the few that were really coated and too strong) and the brussel sprouts, bacon, and pecans went together well.