The recipes that y’all link up every Monday inspire me, make me drool and often have me jumping into the kitchen to try my own hand at them.

A few weeks ago, my lovely friend, Amy, linked up her Roasted Brussels Sprouts recipe.  She talked about them so enthusiastically that despite my reservations I grabbed some at the grocery store and tried my own hand at making these reportedly delicious Roasted Brussels Sprouts.

For the first time in my adult life, there were brussels sprouts in my kitchen.

 

I cleaned them, chopped off their stems and got out my olive oil, sea salt and pepper

 

I tossed the brussels sprouts in a bowl with the olive oil, sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper and then laid them out on my pan to roast them in the oven

 

I set the timer and went back to laundry and working

………

……..

…….

…….

hmmm I can’t believe they aren’t ready yet…

What!!  Why is the timer off????

and that, friends, is where my brussels sprouts tale ends.

I never got to taste them

I did, however learn a valuable lesson.

When timing something in the oven, make sure you don’t use the microwave timer that you also recently taught your 8 year old how to use to time herself doing timed math tests

(sigh)

Amy – I shall have to try them again, when Princess has a new timer

To get the recipe and try these delicious snacks for yourself – go visit the lovely Amy.

HUGE thanks to Deanna for picking up the ball and keeping Mouthwatering Monday going last week during our internet storm debacle!  AT&T came out and had to completely replace the entire outdoor system, the lightning fried the box!

A few favorites from last week’s linky

• Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
• Cranberry Kiss Mocktail
• Chocolate Champagne Cupcakes with Pink Champagne Frosting
• Herb and Gruyere Quiche
• Chicken Tuscan Garlic Chicken

Can’t wait to see what y’all have for me this week!  I’m still recuperating from my amazingly Tonguegasmic visit to New Orleans with Zatarain’s and a few of my new (and old) favorite people!

It’s Secret Recipe Club time again!

This month I was assigned to a blog with the intriguing name; The Haggis and The Herring.  Dan and Meredith are a lovely couple who started their blog as a wedding website; a way to share their lives, food, and wedding preparations with family and friends.  After the wedding, they decided to keep up with the website and turn it’s now a delicious and intriguing website full of friends and family tested recipes.  From their website header:

Tasty recipes tested in our kitchen – drawing from flavours around the world including our English, European, Mediterranean and South-Asian food experiences

I had a great time browsing their recipes and I have several bookmarked to try later.

For this month’s Secret Recipe Club challenge, I decided to try their Balsamic Coleslaw recipe.

This recipe intrigued me for a couple of reasons; the first is that Nathan and I both have an aversion to traditional coleslaw, the second is that I have this deep, powerful dislike for goopy mayonnaise laden dishes and I vividly remember making coleslaw for different restaurants that I worked at and the sheer amounts of mayonnaise and sugar simply made my skin crawl.

I shudder even now just thinking about it!

This coleslaw features balsamic vinegar, white wine vinegar, dijon, spicy mustard, fresh cracked pepper and a few other delightful ingredients.

Balsamic Vinaigrette Coleslaw

Even the preparation of this coleslaw is unique! This recipe calls for heating the ingredients to dissolve the sugar {yay for non-crunchy, grainy, sugary coleslaw!}

Most of y’all know me and y’all know that I’m pretty much incapable of leaving a recipe alone.. here’s the recipe from The Haggis and The Herring, what follows is my adaptation.

Mix 1/4 C white wine vinegar, 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1/4 C sugar (honestly, I think this might be optional – your call), 1 Tbsp olive oil, 1 Tbsp spicy mustard, 1/4 tsp salt ( I used Himalayan Pink Salt) and 1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper.

Heat in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently until it reaches a gentle rolling boil and the sugar dissolves.

Let the mixture cool and then pour over your coleslaw veggies — I used 1 (16 oz) bag of pre-made coleslaw mix and 1 (12 oz) bag of rainbow salad mix {I love the crunch this adds}.

You can serve immediately, but I recommend letting it sit in the fridge chilling and allowing the flavors to fully absorb and marry.

This is absolutely delicious served with Pulled Pork or Grilled Chicken.