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Truth be told, the first four decades of my life I HATED Brussels sprouts.
I thought they smelled bad and tasted even worse.
Until one day…

Actually, it was evening. I had taken my whole staff out for a fancy Christmas dinner. There I was, surrounded by about two dozen people who cared about me and respected me. We all ordered our dinner and the dishes were arriving at our table.

I don’t remember what I ordered as my entrée but I distinctly remember that the side dish that came with my meal was a substantial pile of Brussels sprouts. In my mind I turned up my nose. I would plan to eat my entrée but I was not touching those cut up little blobs of green nastiness.

As time passed, I was about finished with the entrée I had ordered and I was a bit bored with having only that, and frankly, I was still hungry. So I thought the worst I could do is bite into one and discreetly spit it back out. My employees might look at me askance, but I could risk that. So I dug in. I stabbed one half of a small Brussels sprout onto my fork and I inspected it. The color wasn’t the bright green I had experienced before. This one had some crusty edges to it that were a darker color. It also had some sort of glaze on it. I closed my eyes and put it in my mouth, preparing for my gag reflex to kick in.

Instead I opened my eyes with a jolt of surprise! What was this in my mouth!
This little green orb tasted GREAT. I was shocked out of my socks!

I asked the waitress to bring me back a menu. I wanted to see what the description was for the delightful side dish I was eating. Turns out the Brussels sprouts before me were roasted and caramelized. That was it! The way they were cooked is what made them fantastic. To this day, I always roast my Brussels sprouts now. I find all kinds of ways to coat them or put little bits of extra things in them. I have even added minced pepperoni or dried cranberries. BIG YUM!

I’m so glad I took a risk at 40+ years old and put something in my mouth that I was sure was going to be foul and turned out to be fantastic. It’s never too late to discover new goodness.

Here are a few Brussels sprouts recipes that I now love:

Big YUM!

Cheers,