Green Beans, Take 2

I was headed home today daydreaming about making szechuan green beans, but when I actually got back, in a sheer fit of laziness (not wanting to walk an extra 20 feet to grab my computer and look up my recipe), I decided to look for  recipes in the cookbooks by the kitchen.  Am I ever glad that I did.  The second book I pulled off the shelf was More Best Recipes by the folks of Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen.  In this book series (I'm told that their Best 30-Minute Recipe is one of the top cookbooks around), the editors take a fairly common food and, through dozens and dozens of test runs and experiments, come up with the perfect, foolproof recipe.

Well, after checking the index, I discovered that a full four pages were devoted to green beans, both sauteed and roasted.  The common problem they saw with the former was that by the time the beans were cooked, the outsides were usually black and burnt.  Their solution?  Saute the green beans for six minutes, add a small bit of water and cover the pan, thus steaming them for two minutes, then uncover and turn up the heat to evaporate any leftover water, and finish sauteeing along with the flavorings/spices for two more minutes.  The result? Perfection.  Just the right amount of browning and wrinkling, fully cooked, yet still with a crisp bite.

Luckily for you, this recipe (along with variations, but without the long explanation of the recipe's development) is online!  I made the first variation, with smoked paprika and almonds.

Cook's Illustrated Sauteed Green Beans with Garlic and Herbs

And the list goes on

Zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, green beans, purple potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes of various sorts, green peppers, habanero peppers (much hotter than I anticipated, even at a very unripe stage), butternut squash, eggplant, pattypan squash, beets, okra, multi-colored carrots...I think that pretty much covers what I've been getting from my CSA subscription and the community garden.  Needless to say, I haven't been buying much in groceries lately except for eggs, milk, and the occasional bag of sugar for canning.  Speaking of which, I bought a half bushel of peaches the other week which I--besides simply canning a large portion of them--made into preserves as well as this delicious peach barbecue sauce (a great recipe that you could simply make fresh).  There are still a few boxes of jars sitting around waiting for an apple-picking excursion followed by applesauce making.  Hopefully they're not bothering my roommate too much!

So what does one do with all the aforementioned produce? Especially when extra, unanticipated zucchini show up on your doorstep?  Well, I've made buttermilk zucchini soup, ordinary zucchini soup, chocolate zucchini bread, pineapple-raisin zucchini bread, cucumber salad, cucumber and basil slush (I was incredibly skeptical of this, but it actually tasted fairly good), ratatouille, roasted root vegetables, sauted squash, okra and tomatoes, and borscht. For the latter (a great soup that utilizes a lot of mid- to late-summer vegetables), Mary and I used a conglomaration of a few recipes, and it turned out well.  We actually only used one beet.  One beet, which yielded 4 cups when grated.  No joke.

The beet which became the borscht:

I hope you're enjoying the bounty of summer as much as I am!

It was bound to happen...

Time for a confession.  Two days ago I bought 96 canning jars on Craigslist.  Yes, 96.  For only $22!  It was actually kind of a hike to get to the folks (45 minutes), but I had to go halfway there that day, anyway, so what's another 20 minutes?  I'd been wanting to learn how to can, so this was the impetus to get going.

Now my friend Mary and I are on a quest to fill said jars.  She'd helped with canning once before; I was a novice.  We mostly used information online, these two sites being particularly helpful:  All About Canning and National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Here is our first attempt--tart cherry preserves (step-by-step instructions on the first website above).  It was successful, we think.  The only difficult part, honestly, was waiting for the water to boil.  My burners have always been incredibly slow, and this involved quite a lot of water, so it was a long process, though fairly easy.

Now to do something with the other 20 lbs. of cherries, as well as the 25 lbs. of peaches ripening in boxes in the spare room.  Peach salsa or cherry butter, anyone?

You Are What You Eat

A series of portraits by Mark Menjivar made by examining the interiors of refrigerators in homes across the United States.  Click the link and use the arrows at the bottom of the page to cycle through the thirty-four photographs.


For three years I traveled around the country exploring food issues.  The more time I spent speaking and listening to individual stories, the more I began to think about the foods we consume and the effects they have on us as individuals and communities....An intense curiosity and questions about stewardship led me to begin to make these unconventional portraits. A refrigerator is both a private and a shared space.  One person likened the question, "May I photograph the interior of your fridge?" to asking someone to pose nude for the camera.