There comes a time in our lives when we have to accept our rightful position in life. For Ava, this recognition has come at the tender age of 8. She gracefully accepts her much-needed role as our family brussels sprout trimmer.
We all adore brussels sprouts but only Ava has the patience to trim each miniature globe on a weekly basis. With a grateful sigh, we sit back and admire the painstaking attention she devotes to each sprout.
Not that there is tremendous effort to be endured. It just goes to show how little patience the rest of us possess. However, we appreciate it just the same as if she were hauling buckets of water back from the well. Her diligence helps ensure we enjoy our favorite sprouts almost every week.
It is usually on a lazy Sunday afternoon that she carries a large bowl full of sprouts to a corner of our dining room table, which is bathed in light from the front window. As the sun shines through, it illuminates her small hands as she cuts off the end and peels away the outer layers of each sprout. Then she slowly, carefully, slices each sprout in half and places it in the colander.
After a few minutes she emerges into the kitchen and asks us if we could put on some music, preferably something classical. We gladly oblige.
With no further delay, she attentively trims two large bags of sprouts. We rinse then toss them with some grapeseed oil, salt and pepper, and place in a hot oven to roast.
As summer approaches, we still roast our sprouts but we need something else to help distinguish this dish of sprouts from our winter staple.
My addiction to eating every meal with a dollop of crème fraiche leads us to a lovely way to adorn our summer sprouts. We whip some creme fraiche together with lemon zest, a few teaspoons of lemon juice and a chiffonade of mint.
While topping our sprouts with our minty lemon crème fraiche is marvelous atop hot sprouts it also is terrific cold when the temperature outside is soaring.
The next day for lunch, we tumble our cold sprouts into a bowl, top with the minty lemon crème fraiche and suddenly it bears no resemblance to our winter favorite. Instead, we enjoy something cool and refreshing that seems perfectly suited to summer.
I guess it just goes to show that maybe we never need to accept our status quo. Brussel sprouts can assume their rightful position in summer, just as they did in winter.
And, while we know Ava will eventually relinquish her post as family brussels sprout wrangler, we hope she doesn’t feel the need to move on any time soon.
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:13]