As mentioned last week, I made a brussels sprout grilled cheese for dinner to accompany E’s homemade pumpkin spice soup. Brussels sprouts sauteed in sage butter sounded like a perfect compliment to the pumpkin—to me at least.

When I suggested using the greens to my picky boyfriend, he turned up his lip in disgust. I waved one of the cooked, buttery sprouts under his nose, hoping he’d take just a bite, just a little itty bite for little ol’ me…c’mon sweetiekins…

“I will throw that at you if you don’t get it out of here,” E said.

Is he for real? Could he not envision the culinary magic I was about to make with charred brussels sprouts with melted, gooey fontina cheese on crusty wheat bread? I browned my sprouts, getting them nice and basted in that sage-y butter, cut them up and shoveled the greens onto fresh bakery wheat bread covered with planks of fontina. Then, I put the whole thing back into the same sage butter covered pan for a few minutes so the cheese would melt and toast the bread in the flavored butter. Spatula, scoop, cut, and done.

I loved every warm, crunchy, cheesy bite—it was so good, I made another one for myself over the weekend while I was kicking back watching a movie, this time adding a little onion and red chili flakes to the mix. This grilled cheese would also serve as a great holiday leftovers sandwich if you’ve made brussels sprouts as trimmings for your turkey.

But since E has reminded me several times of his hatred for brussels sprouts, sadly they won’t be trimming our Thanksgiving meal this year—or any other year.

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