September 2020 - Big Guy Tiny Trailer

Green Beans

Green Beans are the vegetable for my first post with the cooking group, Good Friends Good Food (GFGF). I am afraid it is rather late because we were traveling when it was due. However, GFGF is a very flexible group, which I like very much. So, you just post a recipe of your choosing every two weeks. The only requirement is you must include the assigned vegetable for the week in your recipe.

My Recipe this Week

My dish is a modification of one I have occasionally used for holidays. The original recipe was obtained from my bosses’ wife more than thirty years ago. The original was good, but way bad for you. I must say, my scaled-down version is still not especially healthy because it has bacon, that delicious, yet bad for you meat. But, you might want to limit this dish to special occasions.

Recipe, Green Beans Almondine

Ingredients

1 lb Fresh Green Beans (or 3 cans)
3 Strips Bacon
4 Tbsp Sugar
4 Tbsp Vinegar
3 Tbsp Slivered Almonds
Salt to taste

Directions

If using fresh beans, remove ends and strings; wash. Cook beans in a small amount of boiling salted water covered for 20-25 minutes or until crisp tender. Drain and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook bacon until crisp. Crumble and reserve 2 Tbsp of drippings. Stir sugar and vinegar into reserved drippings. After that, add the crumbled bacon to the dripping mixture.

Next, layer 1/2 the beans, bacon mixture, and almonds in a casserole dish and then repeat with remaining half.

Bake 35 minutes, uncovered.

The Results

It felt like a holiday having this somewhat decadent dish on a weekday. I haven’t actually served it in about ten years, but remembered it was good. Actually, it was quite delicious. The bacon remained crispy and the almonds were nicely toasted. Also, the beans had a nice sweet/sour flavor. My husband said, “I could eat this every day.” I told him that he should not expect that because it has too many calories and is too much work.