Green Bean Recipe

This is the first year we will be hosting our family for Thanksgiving.  We finally have the space to do so and are really excited at this prospect.  A couple of things I am working on are the turkey (more on that later) and side dishes.  I like cooking with flavor, no bland tasting food at my table, so when I began to think of a way to prepare green beans.  I know I wanted it to include bacon but at the same time did not want to go the casserole route.  I knew I wanted fresh minced garlic as part of the recipe and a bit of minced onion as well.  I then began to think what else I could throw into this dish.  I decided on a bit of Balsamic Vinegar might go well and some paprika.  Just a note about the green beans, I used frozen green beans as this would be what would be available in late November.  Feel free to use fresh green beans in season.

2 cups frozen green beans
4 strips of bacon, cooked
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp minced onion
1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 tsp paprika

Cook the green beans until tender.  Once green beans are done cold shock them in a bowl of ice water (we don't want mushy beans).  While the beans are cooking, fry the bacon reserving about 1/2 tsp of the drippings (I just used the same cast iron skillet throughout). Crumble the bacon and set aside. Add the garlic and onion to the skillet and saute until golden brown.  Add the green beans and paprika give it a good stir to mix them in with the onion and garlic.  Add the vinegar while continuing to stir.  Finally add the bacon and cook over medium heat until everything is heated through.  Serve.

Baked Beans

Well, if you've been waiting for my recipe for baked beans you will have to wait a little longer.  It was a complete failure.  But, like every good chef, failure will only lead to another attempt and eventually success.  The first failure was I did not soak the beans in enough water, lesson learned.  Secondly, the sauce was not quite what I had envisioned.  This, however, is not the end and at some point I hope to post a baked bean recipe made from scratch.  Oh and I must add, no bacon was wasted in this failed attempt.  A bacon rescue mission was initiated and all bacon pieces were successfully recovered.

Tomorrow I plan on sharing a green bean recipe I tried yesterday.  This, unlike, the baked beans turned out pretty good.