Maple Bacon Brussels Sprouts

Nailed it! OK I cheated, maple bacon anything is good. I have tried many brussels sprouts recipes and they have all been mediocre until now.

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh brussels sprouts

5 strips of bacon

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons maple syrup

Directions:

Put a pan on med-high heat and place bacon in. Once bacon is nice and crispy remove and set aside. Place butter in pan with bacon juice to melt. Chop Brussels sprouts in half (this is very important in order to get the flavors into the sprouts) and place in pan. Stir occasionally until golden brown. Chop bacon into strips just less than an inch long. Place bacon back in pan and add maple syrup. Cook until nice and caramelized. 

Warning! Do not bring to family parties, it will make everyone hate all the other food there.

 

Roasted Broccoli with Lemon

This one was given to me by my friend Dan. It's pretty simple but always pleases.

What you'll need:

A couple heads of fresh broccoli

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Lemon Juice

How to:

Preheat oven to 400F

Cut broccoli into bite size pieces. Place on a cookie sheet or whatever you will use drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix with hands and place in the oven for about 15 min or whenever they look done. Once finished give them a splash of lemon juice, but be careful a little goes a long way. Also, get creative, I threw some chopped onions in mine today.

Shown here with leftover sausage and potatoes.

Baked Rotisserie Chicken with Rosemary-Garlic Roasted Potatoes

I have been perfecting this one and now I got it just the way I like it. This recipe requires the following materials:

1 7lb rotisserie chicken

4 potatoes

3 cloves garlic

1/4 onion

olive oil

rosemary

garlic powder

thyme

salt

pepper

flour (for gravy)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F, or lower if using convection. Stuff chicken with garlic cloves and onion. Mix 2 parts salt, 1 part pepper, 1 part garlic powder and 8 parts thyme into a small bowl. Take the rub and apply it generously to the chicken (optionally do this step a day in advance). Chop potatoes with skin on into eights sprinkle with garlic powder, rosemary and olive oil and mix together with hands. Place chicken in a Pyrex dish or whatever you are working with, place potatoes around the chicken. Place dish in oven for 2 hours. After the first hour flip the potatoes as much as possible. When the bird is complete, it is now time to carve and make the gravy.

Gravy:

Remove chicken and potatoes and pour juices into a small pot and place on medium heat. Add 1/2 cup water or your favorite beer to the juices and slowly add flour while stirring until it is the right consistency. If your gravy gets lumpy grab a whisk and whisk the shit out of it. 

Carving the bird:

This takes 6 cuts. I like to start with the wings. Grab the wing and cut near the bottom of the bird to remove the wing (includes both double and single boner chicken wings together). Next grab the leg and cut through the skin between the breast and leg and continue this cut as close to the breast as possible cutting all the way to the base of the bird, removing both the leg and thigh together. Next make a cut down the center of the breasts whichever side of the bone you land on that is the first breast you will remove. Keep the knife as close to the bones as possible following the wishbone  and you will eventually 'scoop' the breast out with the knife.

Yea that just happened.

Bacon Brussels Sprouts

Trying something new today, here's what I have:

2 cups brussels sprouts
4 garlic cloves diced
1/4 medium onion chopped
5 strips of bacon
salt
black pepper
sugar

I kind of followed Emril's recipe here but made some small changes

In a large pan cook bacon on medium-high until nice and crispy. Remove bacon and place garlic and onions into bacon grease until browned. Remove vegetables and replace with brussels sprouts cooking them for about 10 minutes until golden brown. Add bacon and vegetables back into the pan with the brussels sprouts and season with salt, black pepper and sugar to taste.

The picture is shown with parmesan crusted tilapia. 

This recipe was OK but I would prefer for the brussel sprouts to have more of a bacon flavor in the individual brussel sprouts. Until next time!

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

This one I have been making for quite a while now, and it is delicious.

I will keep this recipe in terms of cooking 1 piece of tilapia just to keep things simple, here's what you need.

1 piece of thawed tilapia
2 teaspoons of mayonnaise
4 teaspoons of grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon basil

Preheat oven to 450°F, place tilapia on a lightly greased pan (I use olive oil) and place in oven once preheated. Flip after about 4 minutes, mix together remaining ingredients in a small bowl. After another 4 minutes, take tilapia out of the oven and coat the top of it with the parmesan spread (I find it easiest with the back of a fork). Place back in the oven until the top is lightly browned.

Pictured with bacon brussels sprouts