I’d like to tell you that Iris loves brussels sprouts, but she doesn’t. She does love broccoli, which doesn’t taste any more bitter to me than sprouts, so go figure. Sometimes she likes the creamy braised brussels sprouts from All About Braising, but probably more for the cream than the sprouts.

I, on the other hand, could easily eat a bowl of brussels sprouts for dinner. Here’s how I usually make them. Halve two cups of brussels sprouts. In a large skillet or saute pan, fry a couple of strips of bacon, crumble and reserve the bacon, and leave some fat in the pan. Raise the heat to medium high and throw in the sprouts and some salt. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sprouts are lightly browned. Deglaze with chicken broth, cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook to desired tenderness. Stir in fresh ground pepper and the reserved bacon.

Until recently, I would make this only occasionally (because brussels sprouts are a big pain to trim), and only when I could get good sprouts at the farmer’s market (because supermarket sprouts are generally old and tattered, and old specimens are probably responsible for brussels sprouts’ bad reputation). Now I make them all the time, thanks to Mark Bittman, who reminded me in a column last winter that frozen brussels sprouts exist and are almost always better than fresh:

> At a meal last fall at Citronelle, the great Washington restaurant, I was served a delicious plate of brussels sprouts. When I asked the chef, Michel Richard, where they were from, he said without hesitation, “the freezer.”

Buy “petite” frozen sprouts (I get Safeway Select brand) if possible.

Brussels sprouts at Broadway farmers market, Seattle

In Julie Powell’s book Julie and Julia, there are a couple of references to Domino’s bacon-jalapeño pizza. This must have been a special, because it’s no longer on the [Domino’s](http://www.dominos.com/) web site, although I did find the Bacon Cheeseburger Feast pizza and the Steak Fanatic Pizza:

> The Steak Fanatic Pizza combines guys’ ultimate food cravings — steak and pizza — into one delicious arrangement. The new Steak Fanatic Pizza is crafted with Domino’s signature hand-stretched dough piled with Angus steak — on top of more steak — and smothered in American and provolone cheeses.

This pie is also described as “man-fuel,” and you can add extra steak for $2. In conjunction with the Steak Fanatic pizza, Domino’s also introduced the Domino’s Pizza Steak Fanatic Pizza Couch. I’m still not joking. The couch is not made out of steak, which is total bullshit.

Anyway, Iris loves pizza, bacon, and chiles of all kinds, and I sure liked the idea of bacon-jalapeño pizza, so I decided to make some. Everything you need to make this pie is at Trader Joe’s. Get their new cornmeal pizza dough, a jar of pickled jalapeños, a package of low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella, some Niman Ranch bacon, and the tomato sauce of your choice. This isn’t exactly what I did, because I already had some bacon and spaghetti sauce in the fridge, and I forgot the mozzarella.

Preheat the oven to 500°F with a pizza stone or tiles on the bottom rack. Slice three rashers of bacon crosswise into half-inch pieces. Cook it in a pan until just starting to crisp, then transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.

The cornmeal dough tears easily, so you can’t fling it in the air, but it’s a snap to roll out with a rolling pin. Roll it out thin on a sheet of parchment and then cut off the excess. Top the pizza with sauce, shredded mozzarella, and a liberal dose of bacon and jalapeños (I didn’t use enough of either). Bake for seven minutes or until the cheese is browning and bubbly. Iris loved it, though not as much as Laurie did.

I considered taking this in a more Southwestern direction by putting chili powder in the sauce or something, but decided that would be veering into Domino’s Taco Fiend Pizza territory. Probably a crumble of Mexican hard cheese over the top wouldn’t hurt, though. I did try fresh jalapeños against pickled, and pickled won hands-down.

Now, I’m going to collapse on my Steak Lover’s Couch and take a nap.