Spicy Drunken Brussels Sprouts

Happy Saturday! How many of you are being dumped on by a huge snowstorm? As of right now, Boston is 100% snow free. Let’s keep it that way.

I hope you enjoyed my first Friday Foodie Feature. Don’t forget I am looking for both future featured foodies and guest bloggers for January. If you would like to submit something just send me an email to traveleatlove2009@hotmail.com.

I worked from home on Friday and had an enjoyable day for the most part. At around 3:30 I decided to take my “lunch” and went for a long run, about 9.7 miles. I had planned on 10, but running along the waterfront in Boston was brutally cold and windy, so I cut it slightly short. I promise though, in quality it was worth about 12 miles!

After my run, I worked two more hours and my hubby arrived home from Texas where he was being interviewed for a new job. We shared some Chateau St. Michelle Frizzante bubbly and some spicy Korean shrimp from Teriyaki House by the lights of our Christmas tree. It was absolutely lovely.

This morning, we had brunch at my favorite brunch spot ever, Masa. I can tell you that I had my favorite, caramelized plaintain empanadas, Southwest eggs Benedict with home fries, and a spicy Bloody Masa. It was delicious, and I will be writing a guest post about it for another site in a couple of weeks. I will be sure to let you all know when its posted!

We spent the rest of the day sort of lazing around. A huge snowstorm was predicted, so we didn’t plan much. I am half happy for a lazy day and half annoyed that I listened to the weather and didn’t do more. I could have done with a massage today!

Tonight is going to be another night in, waiting for the snow and resting up. I think that I suppressed my cold long enough to run yesterday, but now it is coming back with a vengeance. I want to be healthy enough to walk dogs and get in a few good workouts before Christmas, when I know I will be eating lots and resting with family.

Dinner was leftovers from Teriyaki House, but I wanted a hearty, healthy vegetable dish to serve on the side. I am driving my cold away with vegetables!

I promise this will be my last Brussels sprouts post! The recipe I used tonight was originally inspired by a Rachael Ray recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/sweet-and-spicy-brussels-sprouts-recipe/index.html

As always, I took the recipe idea and made a few fun tweaks based on what we have in the house and the flavors that we like.

I started out with the last of our Brussels Sprouts. My hubby/ sous chef removed them from the stalk while I prepared the rest of the ingredients:

Mezzetta roasted red peppers (about 4 large pieces, chopped)

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 cup Spanish red wine, I used a Monastrell

3 tsp agave nectar

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

2 tsp habanero oil

I combined all of the ingredients except for the Brussels sprouts and brought them up to a boil, then lowered to a simmer until the onions had softened substantially. Then I placed each sprout face down into the bubbling wine mixture, which smelled amazing, by the way!

Isn’t this festive looking?! I let everything simmer together, uncovered, until the sprouts were soft enough for me. Leaving it uncovered also helped the wine mixture to reduce to an almost syrupy, sweet and spicy glaze.

This recipe was spot on! We ate the entire pan, along with some chicken and noodles for dinner with some Long Trail Hibernator ale. And hibernators we will be tonight! We have never watched Mad Men, so we are going to tune in to a few episodes online to see if we like it.

Have a great night, everyone! I will be back tomorrow with some last minute holiday entertaining ideas and recipes, some courtesy of Mezzetta, who very kindly sent me some delicious samples and recipes a couple of days ago.

What are you up to on this wintry Saturday? Are you snowed in?