Bar Beans

Wow, I am so happy its Friday!  It has been a crazy week of school meetings, birthdays, out of town friends, oh yea, work... But we made it!  Last night G had a meeting and dinner out but I really felt like we had not had much family time this week and I wanted to have a nice dinner.  I knew I had some Yukon Gold potatoes from the CSA bag so I started there.  A quick run thru Trader Joe's found a great price on boneless pork chops (3 for $5) and some nice Marsala sauce.  Add to that what I found out was the number 1 seller at Trader Joes - the skinny green beans and we were set.

So the pork chops were just covered with salt, pepper and an equivalent of McCormicks steak seasoning (great stuff if you don't know about  it) and then browned.  After browning, I put them in a small casserole and covered with the TJoe's Marsala sauce. (If you don't have a Trader Joe's I am sure a regular pork gravy would have been fine)   The potato's were easy too...take a sharp knife and carefully slice them almost all the way thru, then carefully spread them apart.  Drizzle the inside with salt, pepper and olive oil and bake at 375 for about 30 minutes.  Test for doneness after 30 and then sprinkle some cheese (white cheddar last night, but I have done this with Parmesan also) on top and run them back in for another 5-10 minutes.

Now the beans....that's the title of the post.  Several years ago our oldest son "A" was travelling for work and met some folks in a local bar.  Instead of popcorn, peanuts or chex mix, the bar served green beans as a snack item. At first A thought this was crazy and then he popped a couple of beans in his mouth and loved it!  If you know our son, he can talk anybody into just about anything and before he left, he had the waitress tell him the recipe for the beans.  Basically, it is just skinny beans, low to medium heat and olive oil and garlic.  I do mine in a large skillet and keep the heat between low and medium and most of the time I used the pre-chopped garlic when I am in a hurry.  The trick is NOT to stir them around a lot and they get all brown and crispy.  Both of my (younger) kids will eat the beans this way, and are full of nothing but complaints most every other way I prepare them...give it a try - with a cold beer or a pork chop they are delicious.

Tomorrow is a big day of football and I'm working on some fun munchies while we watch!  Have a great weekend and please let me know what you think about the blog so far.