Brussels sprouts, leftovers from Mexican cooking class

I still had leftovers from last week's Mexican cooking class, so wanted to finish them. I heated what was left up - cornbread, fajita filling, and quinoa with leeks. I also made some Brussels sprouts; I cut each sprout in half and grilled them, adding, near the end of the cooking, some shallot slices and pine nuts. Then I put it all into a bowl and mixed in some salt, freshly ground black pepper, hot sauce, and a little bit of Colgin Liquid Smoke.

I was looking forward to making another dinner for my aunt while she was visiting (she left this afternoon and had been visiting us from Connecticut since November 19th), but she wanted to take my wife and I out for dinner. We recently discovered a very nice but easy to miss restaurant on Durham's Ninth Street, Xiloa. It specializes in Central American food, especially from Nicaragua. It seems that half of their menu is vegan! They make all sorts of great complex juices, freshly made and organic, when possible. So we dined there on Wednesday. I had a cantaloupe juice and my aunt and wife each had a purple cactus juice. I had delicious nacatamales, Nicaraguan tamales with corn masa cooked in banana leaves. We shared thick plantain chips and an interesting fruit salad with mango, tomato, cucumber (so it was a vegetable-fruit plate!), and other ingredients.

Yesterday, my Mom wanted to have all of us over for some homemade pizza. Yummy!