After a Break - So Much Stuff - And A Recipe!

We haven't blogged for a while.  It's just horrendously busy these days.  In addition to bringing the garden in (not even done yet), we decided to CLEAN OUT a room.  I decided, after watching several episodes of Hoarders, that there was hoarding potential here at the Haney Place.  So we dragged everything out of the Office (really, our closet).  You see, this house is so old, that these old bedrooms don't come with closets.  So we turned one of our bedrooms into a walk-in closet.  Only problem was, we couldn't walk in anymore.  Suffice it to say, it is now an awesome walk-in closet, dressing room, put on your makeup, do what you need to do to get ready for the day kind of room.  And the Salvation Army received from us, earlier in the week, a whopping 140 garments from our house!!  Awesome.

So...anyway...today was Saturday.  So Stiva picked a babka bowl full of brussels sprouts, peppers (bell & jalapeno) and even a lovely red cabbage.  I cooked a bunch of brussels sprouts, and we really enjoyed them for dinner tonight.  Even James, who ate and even swallowed a whole 1/2 brussels sprout...bless his heart!  Tonight we had a nice simmered ham shank, butternut squash, and brussels sprouts w/hot bacon dressing.

So....Big Steve got the antique roto-tiller working again, after weeks of parts replacement and a lot of loving care.  And then he proceeded to pick said babka bowl full of brussels sprouts/peppers/red cabbage.  How beautiful is this?????  I ask you???

We cooked some with a hot bacon dressing for supper tonight, and this is all that is left:

Seriously -- that picture is so pretty, I can't believe I took it of my own brussels sprouts (that Steve grew)...  I'll share the hot bacon dressing at the very end.

I'm sure there is really a hard killing frost in our future, however, for now, the tomatoes, collard greens, black beans and peppermint are safe for now.  Once they are all in, one way or another, we'll begin blogging about Christmas baking/presents to put away for December.

And now, as we promised, the hot bacon dressing:

1/2 lb. good (really good) bacon, cooked crisp (reserve the bacon fat in the pan)
a bit of brown sugar (a fat spoonful or two)
1/2 c. cider vinegar
a fat tablespoon of fresh horseradish
salt and pepper (nice wet sea salt and freshly ground pepper ) to taste
one fat onion, finely chopped

Cook the bacon in a skillet till it's all crispy.  Take out the bacon and drain it, and leave the fat in the skillet.

Add everything else, and simmer till it's all really nice.  Sorry, this is the best instruction I can give you.

Pour the whole hot mess over the hot, cooked brussels sprouts.

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!