Green Bean Bliss

Whole green beans in a carton. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is Saturday—and we all know what that means: Recipe Day! I can just feel the enthusiasm that this weekly sojourn into the land of the culinary elicits, but I persevere. I bought some lovely frozen full size green beans and am going to roast them in the oven using a rendition of a recipe from Food.com.  Here is the original recipe:

Roasted Green Beans

2 lbs. green beans
1 -2 tablespoon olive oil (or just enough to lightly coat beans)
1 teaspoon kosher salt (or to taste, may substitute with Mrs. Dash if desired)
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper (or to taste, omit if using Mrs. Dash)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Wash, dry well, and trim green beans.
Put green beans on a jelly roll pan.  Drizzle with olive oil.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste (1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and about 8-10 grinds of the pepper mill). *Mrs. Dash may be substituted for salt and pepper as desired.
Use your hands to be sure all the beans are evenly coated and spread them out into 1 layer.
Roast for 20-25 minutes, turning after 15 minutes, until beans are fairly brown in spots and somewhat shrivelled.
Serve hot or at room temperature.

Of course I will not be using the original recipe as I will be using frozen green beans—so no washing, drying, and trimming will be necessary, which suits this lazy cook to a T.

Happy Birthday! (Photo credit: KP_Sonny)

I am going to use this recipe for a little birthday dinner party I am throwing tomorrow night for my husband, whose birthday was last Thursday, but he has a birthday month  not day, so this is just a continuation of the celebrations (and for exactly one month he is older than I am).

I may just add some parmesan cheese to the mix to add just a little touch of bliss.

What do you add to recipes for a touch of bliss, even if they do not call for it?

Related articles

• Spicy Turkey and Green Bean Stir-Fry (mysecretlifeinthekitchen.wordpress.com)
• Spanish Green Beans (expertscolumn.com)
• Chicken and Green Bean Salad with Zesty Lemon Glaze (itsalldelicious.wordpress.com)
• Wishful (Spring) Thinking (melissariebe.wordpress.com)

Blueberry Bliss

List of U.S. state foods (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I can attest to the fact that this recipe is absolutely outstanding–a friend served it at a dinner party she and her husband hosted last week. Barbequed Steak (even though it was cold as cold can be, Dave braved the outdoors for us), baked potatoes, asparagus and this dressing on a baby spinach salad with roasted walnuts, dried cranberries, blueberries and red onion:

BLUEBERRY SALAD DRESSING

1 cup of blueberries

2/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp honey

1/2 tsp salt

Put all of the ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth. Refridgerate until serving time. This recipe accents a spinach salad well. Use up dressing within a week.

By the way, I brought garlic butter buns–that was my safe contribution. And we were served a chocolate cake celebrating the upcoming birthdays of my husband and I. Within a month of each other we are turning the big 3~0 x 2.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But the big news of the night was that Debbie and Dave (our hosts) got married. They have been together for well over a quarter of a century and decided to take the plunge in a private ceremony. They broke the wonderful news to my husband and I, and our other good friends, Lee and Rhonda (who were married the same day a year later than we were) after they had celebrated our birthdays. Talk about humble hosts. I did not notice the flowers in the kitchen from their small but elegant wedding, nor the beautiful ring on her finger, (or Dave’s finger for that matter)–which makes me wonder: what kind of a reporter am I?

Anyway–it was a blissful night of food and friends.

Do you have some blissful moments shared with friends?

Can Bliss Be Nutritional? ~ Recipe Saturday ~ 1/12/13

Spinach (Photo credit: stormgrass)

Seriously, the irony is not lost on me that I am providing you with recipes. For a number of reasons I am about the last person to provide information on cooking. Here is why:

1. I generally do not like to spend more than thirty minutes in the kitchen as it does not take the people I cook for thirty minutes to eat what I have prepared. It takes them five minutes. I like a balance between the time I put into a project and what I get out of a project. (Yes, I call cooking a project). I will put in more time when I have company as the time it takes them to eat the food is more than five minutes.

2. I am a gourmet reader of cookbooks. I am not a gourmet cook. I am barely a cook. I hardly ever follow a recipe. The fact that I have fed my family for about thirty years and they have not died from malnutrition gives me a gold star in my book.

3. I generally do not use a recipe that calls for more than five ingredients or has more than three steps.

4. I hate to clean up after I cook.

So, what makes today’s recipe special (blissful even, since that is the topic of the year)? It has more than five ingredients. It has more than three steps. It is not quite gourmet but pretty darn close for me. But it is soup so it makes more than one meal. It is healthy and my husband likes it. Usually those two phrases do not go together.

I must warn you that when I provide recipes—they are sometimes written down quickly, the steps truncated, and they are not triple tested by me. They are maps, not definite trips. But I try to be as clear as I can be. Without further ado, here is a recipe I enjoyed at my sister’s, wrote down, and made. It is good and warming on a winter day:

White Bean and Spinach Soup

Ingredients:

2 tsp. of olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Pinch hot pepper flakes

1 –  19 oz. can of white kidney beans, drained and rinsed

5 cups of chicken stock or 1  – 10 oz. tin chicken broth plus water to make up 5 cups

½ cup small pasta (macaroni, stars or wheels)

3/4 lb. fresh chopped spinach or 10 oz. frozen

1 tomato diced

Salt and pepper to taste (always feel so creative when something is to “taste”)

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (I used dried—certainly not 2 tbsp though)

Directions:

1. Cook onion, garlic, and hot pepper flakes on low until tender (of course I cooked them on high—I cook everything on high—though I am learning to turn the heat down).

2. Add beans and stock—bring to boil. Season with salt and pepper “to taste”.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for ten minutes.

3. Puree soup and return to heat. (I did not puree, but mashed it a bit). Add pasta and cook 5-10 minutes or until tender. Soup will thicken.

4. Add fresh spinach and cook until just wilted – 2 – 3 minutes. (Frozen—I suppose you thaw it out— I used fresh).

5. Add tomato.

I don’t know where the parsley came in— guess I did not write it down. Since I used dry—I am sure I just threw it in with the spinach. Most of you are more highly developed cooks then I, so you make the decision.

Makes six servings.

EAT!

January Snow Scene (Photo credit: ς↑r ĴΛϒκ❂)

I love this soup, though I am pretty sure I only added about half of the fresh spinach. My husband loved it—so that was a super bonus. It is good for you too. Nutrition can be bliss.

Do you have a healthy recipe that tastes really, really good?

Related articles

• Soup’s on: 16 recipes for a chilly night (boston.com)
• In Praise of Soup (adventuresinthanksliving.com)
• Starting Off Healthy (laughcooklove.wordpress.com)

~ Back by Popular Demand ~ Recipe Saturday ~

Picture of red kidney beans (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is official. Saturday is going to be recipe day on my blog. It is ironic in a way, since I have spent a great deal of my life calling myself the undomestic diva, but I am sure sharing a few recipes will not mean I have gone over to the “other side.”

I am providing two recipes today. One is for those of you who do not eat meat; the other is more for your reading pleasure (you will see what I mean when you read it). Both of these recipes are from my family’s cookbook (one we all contributed to at the initiation of my sister Peggy about 22 or so years ago.)

The first is one of my contributions, and it is really good. And there is no meat in it, so it is good for all those of you who have given it up. It even breaks my personal rule of not more than five ingredients—but you will be happy I did:

Mexican Bean Salad

1 – 19 oz. Can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

½ cup diced green bell pepper

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 tbsp.  Cider vinegar

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

1 clove garlic, crushed

½ tsp. chilli powder or to taste

1/8 tsp. ground cumin

3 cups shredded lettuce

2 medium sized tomatoes, coarsely chopped (1 /2 cups)

In large bowl combine ingredients except lettuce and tomatoes; toss well to mix. Refrigerate covered, at least one hour before serving.

To serve: Place ½ cup shredded lettuce on six plates; top with ½ cup of bean mixture; garnish with ¼ cup chopped tomatoes. Makes 6 servings at 120 calories per serving; 3 grams of fat, and 12 mg. sodium.

Sounds pretty precise for me, eh? Of course I have served it without the lettuce, and just heaped in a bowl and not composed onto six plates. And cumin—don’t have it, so did not miss it—but those of you with a more varied spice cupboard probably have it.

This recipe came from my “healthy” cooking days, but it tastes really good despite that (lol).

Here is the second recipe, which is my brother John’s, and is delightfully whimsical (no one has ever called him whimsical before I will bet). This is his recipe, verbatim:

Imagine it Fried! Bologna Sandwich (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Fried Bologna Sandwich

I usually only cook this magnificent creation when Starr’s not at home (Starr is his wife).

Tools: big heavy frying pan

Temp: as hot as the damn thing will go!

Ingredients:  bologna, 5 or 6 thick slices; a dab of butter or margarine

Directions: Heat the stove (high) and the frying pan. As soon as the pan starts to glow add butter. At this point make sure that the exhaust fan is set at high – everything works better on high. When the smoke subsides and the butter is a brownish colour – add a few slices of bologna – cut it like a four leaf clover to keep the little sucker from curling in the pan.

As soon as the bologna turns near black – it is done. Remove from the pan and set on the counter to drain – (you can clean up the mess after). Get 2 slices of bread (your choice), spread liberally with mayonnaise, mustard, slices of tomato, cucumber, radish, lettuce etc.

Turn on the Yankee Workshop and have lunch with Norm.

P.S. Goes well with chips, dill pickles, and beer.

Our Weird Family Tree (Photo credit: hball)

His daughter Chay wrote me a note when she read on the blog that I was going to share this recipe and wondered if it was just a “Geauvreau” treat, but said she talked to some of her friends and they were familiar with fried bologna sandwiches too. So we are not all that weird. Well, yes we are, but that is another story…..

Do you have any wonderful and weird recipes you think only your family likes?