Brussels Sprouts and Bacon

This has been one of my favorite side dishes for a long time, but I've never tried to actually cook it before.  Well, last night I made the effort.  And it turned out perfectly. 

Ingredients:

Brussels Sprouts

Olive Oil

Bacon

Shallot 

Salt

Pepper

Balsamic Vinegar

Put 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil in a pan and bring to high heat.  Reduce heat to half and drop in a couple strips of bacon sliced into small chunks.  Cook bacon until fat is rendered and mildly crispy and add chopped shallot.  Cook shallot for a minute or two until tender and strain the oil of all bacon and shallot.  Also, strain about half of the oil.

Place sliced Sprouts in the pan with half of the oil and brown for 2 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Add other half of the oil back in the pan and drop pan into the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  Take out of the oven, add bacon and shallot, finish with balsamic vinegar.

Delicious!