When I was 14 and babysitting for a family in town the mother called home around 4:00 in the afternoon and asked me to cook some fresh green beans for supper. I immediately called my mother and asked her exactly how to cook them. “For today?” she replied incredulously.

Fast forward ten years (or so… ahem) to the first trip The Yankee and I made together to his homeland of the frozen tundra Detroit area where I ordered green beans at a restaurant. What arrived on my plate was something bright green and very crunchy. They were, er, not my favorite part of the meal. Mine start cooking by noon for supper that night. 😉

Southern style green beans

Ingredients

• Green beans from last year’s garden (they’d been frozen; I try to avoid the BPA in canned ones)
• A slice or two of bacon or pork jowels
• Olive oil
• Chicken broth from the freezer
• Garlic
• Salt

Instructions

1. Pick a heavy-bottomed pot and pour in enough olive oil to cover the bottom; use that to fry a couple strips of bacon or pork jowls
2. When the bacon is cooked through toss in a couple handfuls of fresh green beans, a clove of garlic, a sprinkling of salt and enough chicken broth to cover the beans; cover pot with lid and gently simmer… for a long time

You can also add some red pepper flakes and or some Worcestershire sauce into this if you’re so inclined. It’s pretty fabulous.

This is easy, right? And of course you can control exactly how cooked they are this way.

Now if only I could get the Yankee to try them….