Backyard Garden Brag
Hello! Thanks for stopping by! I'm feeling very pleased with myself tonight -- I've just gone out to the backyard and picked another delightful harvest of fresh, home-grown green beans! It's an embarrassment of riches, because on a whim I grabbed a packet of bean seeds when I was buying tomato plants at Calloway's, and I just poked some holes in the garden plot and stuck them in. That was after I left the seed packet sitting outside for days, even through a pouring rain -- pitiful gardener, I am. Well, bless those little bean plants, in spite of my gardening ineptitude, they are the hardest-working things you ever saw, making cute little beans day in and day out!
And I'm going to share with you the most delicious way to prepare them -- whether you grow them yourself or buy them at the store:
Wash them, trim the stems, then cover in water in a pan. Boil for 10 minutes or so -- until they feel as tender or crisp as you want. Drain in a collander, and dry off the pan. Put the pan back on the stove with a little olive oil -- a tablespoon or two depending on how many beans you have. When the oil is hot, add the beans, and sprinkle generously with Chef Paul Prudhomme's "Magic Seasoning Blends Vegetable Magic." ** Saute a few minutes then serve -- they will be the best green beans you ever ate, I promise.
** Disclaimer -- my husband works for Chef Paul, and I have cupboards of seasonings in my kitchen (hence the ability to do all that bragging about my cooking. I remain humble as a gardener, though).
Tell me your gardening tales! I'd love to hear from those of you who really know what you're doing!
Comments
Well, here's a gardening woe: I have a hobby greenhouse. It's wonderful, heated in the winter and cooled in the summer. I grow lots of cool stuff in the middle of winter that nobody else has. You know, passion flower, limes, hoya, succulents, etc. Ok. Bragging is not a nice quality, I agree. So, last March, I set out my little tomato seeds in the greenhouse. They sprout quickly. I plant them out after the last chance of frost. They survive hail storm after hail storm all spring (seven different hail events total) and this one variety grows huge! It's now over five feet tall. There's no storage of bees here (secret: if you want bees, grow a patch of clover). And lo and behold, I have one tomato growing on this plant. One lonely, yet lovely tomato. So much for the greenhouse gardener!