When I was still living at home, my mother would frequently give us "jobs" for dinner. It was pretty common for her to tell me that I had the vegetable for dinner. She didn't care what it was, but I had to get a vegetable on the table. What a great idea--she combined teaching me how to cook and be creative with getting out of doing it herself. Last night I thought I should do the same favor with my daughters. One had the vegetable and one had to think of something else--potato, rice, another veg--whatever. I baked a chicken.
The veg ended up being some beautiful roasted brussel sprouts and the other dish was mashed potatoes. The recipe for the sprouts was from Ina Garten at the Food Network, but it was basically cleaning a pound of brussel sprouts and tossing them with olive oil, salt, and pepper and then roasting them for 35-40 minutes at 400 degrees. My daughter cut them in half and I thought the roasting time was a little long with them cut in half, but I know that we'll never cook them another way again!
