Roasted Curried Green Beans An unexpected respite

Due to some less than rigorous flossing and a lapse in regular dental appointments, I had to have what is scarily known as a "deep cleaning" today, when the dental hygienist numbs one side of my mouth so that she can attack everything that is the evil on the left hand side.  I didnt really think much about the appointment, but I did have a slight sinking feeling as all my friends, when I mentioned I was going to the dentist, made that "Oh, I am GLAD I am not you" face, all the while trying to pat my shoulder reassuringly.

Upon my arrival to my dentist, whom I really think is great, I was ushered into a quiet room, where the hygienist asked me to sit down.  She also told me to lean back and put my feet up.  I grabbed my phone/music and asked if it would be all right to listen to some music while she cleaned my teeth.  "Absolutely.  Id love it if youd do that," she said, smiling.

Hold on.  You want me to sit still, lie back, put my feet up, listen to some music so YOU CAN DO THE CLEANING?  Its like a vacation!  I opened my mouth, let her numb it and let the rest of my body completely relax and listened to a bunch of songs I have not been able to listen to because of the Frozen obsession at home.  Before I knew it, she was pulling my chair to an upright position, and I almost found myself saying, "But wait!  Dont you have to do any more?"

After a quick mouth rinse and quick check to make sure she was satisfied, she turned to me and said, "Wow.  You were an amazing patient."

"You probably say that to everyone," I remarked.

"No seriously.  You were so still and so relaxed you really made my job easier," she replied.

"I have three kids and believe me, no one in my house EVER tells me to sit back and relax.  You just gave me a mini vacation!"

The hygienist looked completely surprised and began laughing.  I finished with, "You should only take patients who have three kids.  Theyll be the best."

Now these green beans arent exactly as relaxing as dental visit, but they are pretty relaxing to get on the table.  The beans only require a few ingredients, but the end result is slightly exotic and different, almost like a mini vacation.  And all you have to do is mix some ingredients and roast.  Trust me, youll love these almost as much as I love going to the dentist.

Roasted Curried Green Beans
Serves 4 to 6 people

Ingredients
1 lb french green beans trimmed (these are the thinner green beans)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon curry powder
½ teaspoon sea salt

Method
Preheat oven to 450.    On a large baking sheet (go bigger as more room means the beans roast better) place beans, drizzle olive oil and sprinkle curry powder and sea salt.  Using your hands, toss all the ingredients together to coat the beans.

Roast beans for 12 to 15 minutes, until they are shriveled and the tips and bits are brown and golden. Before removing beans from pan, shake the pan to coat the beans with the spices.

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Make these beans and put your feet up and relax.

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Sauteed Green Beans with Soy and Garlic Table Traitors

For all the home cooks who have a table traitor

There is nothing quite like working hard (or not so hard) to get a hot meal in front of your family only to have someone (or some TWO) eat politely the required few bites and then quietly leave the table to go eat McDonalds or something else that appeals to them.  Sometimes it takes the form of a bowl of cereal, other times it takes place in the form of outright treachery when said culprits sneak out of the house to eat something entirely different from what youve worked hard to make.

My new term for these people are table traitors.  They leave the table, and whats been prepared for them and run off to the enemy to enjoy the bounty of someone elses work, oftentimes not necessarily the best food for them.  In my house, Daughter #2 is the most traitorous as I know, and as soon as she is able to drive a car, shell be driving off to some location (probably one with food that is bad for her) and eat to her hearts content, spending her hard earned cash, because there is NO WAY Im supporting THAT.  Her number one cause for treachery is the green vegetables at our table, and she just cant get her head around them.  If she sees a meal full of vegetables, the whines begin, and the immediate "Can I have rice and seaweed" beg and deny routine begins.  (She begs, I deny.)

The face as she sits at the table, needing to eat her vegetables, is one that I see almost every evening, and I know that in that tiny little brain of hers, shes looking for different ways to get out of eating the thing that she hates the most.  Im pretty relentless however, as I continually stick the vegetable on her plate and insist that she consume them.  It pretty much doesnt matter what the vegetable is (she does like raw carrots and raw bell peppers), as shell look for ways to either bolt from the table or negotiate for something else.

Because of this desire not to eat vegetables, I push them more.  They make up a large part of our diet at home, therefore increasing her distaste for the food on the table.  Her face, when she gets to the table and sees the green, and says, "AGAIN" is not one that sits all that well with me, but Im stubborn and I figure if she cant join us, shell be hungry.  This green bean dish was consumed by her, albeit reluctantly, but she got down her portion that I asked her to eat.  Daughter #1 and Son, however, DEVOURED them, and I ate my fair share as well.  It was so well received by other members of our eating team at lunch that I made them again for dinner to Daughter #2s dismay, where Husband ate through a large pile of them as well.

If you too have a table traitor (wait - am I the only one who does?) I want to encourage you to keep trying to feed your family the food that they should eat, and keep up your hard work in the kitchen.  Even if your table of eaters doesnt fully appreciate your work, know that I, in some small suburb town, am thinking of you and supporting you in your conquest to conquer the table traitor.

Wish me luck with mine.

Sauteed Green Beans with Soy and Garlic
adapted from Food and Wine, September 2002
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½ small onion, thinly sliced
1 pound skinny green beans (haricot vert), cut into 3-inch lengths
½ red bell pepper, cut into ¼ inch dice
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon sugar
¼  cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and cook over moderately high heat, until lightly browned. Add the green beans, red pepper, and garlic and stir-fry until the beans are slightly softened and browned in spots, 5 minutes.

Stir in the sugar. Add the water, cover and cook over moderately low heat until it has evaporated and the beans are tender, 5 minutes. Add the soy sauce and pepper and cook for 1 minute. Taste and sprinkle with salt, if necessary.Transfer to a platter and serve.

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Dry Sauteed Green Beans with Pancetta Six of what

As I sat talking to Husband the other day, he suddenly said, "Baby.  Im going to give you as six pack."

"Of beer?" I asked.

"No.  Me.  Six-pack abs."

"Beer might be easier," I quipped.

Dont get me wrong.  Im sure Husband can do it.  He puts his mind to something and it gets done.  I watched him lose 20 lbs in less than 6 months, and these days, due his concern over his aging body and health, he has also lost weight again.   He looks good - young, hip, and handsome (and still with a good majority of his hair intact).  People often mistaken him for a college student from behind and are surprised by his more mature face in front.

But I wonder about what my response should be.  "Okay babe.  Me too.  Ill get you a six pack - abs, not beer." So I pause.  Because although Husbands body is older than my body, my body carried three babies and breast-fed them each for over twelve months.  Furthermore, although Ive lost weight and changed my body shape over the last year, I think Im pretty far off from the six pack.  And it really isnt a particular goal of mine to give him six pack abs.

Instead, Dear Husband, I give you your favorite Chinese vegetable dish - the dry sauteed green beans!  I know how much you love these, how we used to love eating them together while I was in grad school at our favorite Chinese restaurant Jing-Jings.  (I know there are some people for whom THAT restaurant brings back crazy memories as well.) This is your non-six-pack-abs wifes version and itll taste really good with the six pack that you bring (beer, not abs).

My version takes advantage of those lovely 4 oz packages of chopped pancetta which fry up so crispy and brown and are really a lovely little salty kick next to the crisp tender green beans.  Dry sauteeing (which really means cooking in oil and high heat) blisters the outside of the green beans and gives them that crisp tender texture.  Children loved them tonight, with Daughter #2 (professed veggie hater) taking down more than her fair share.  They go perfectly with rice and some Poached Chicken.

Dry Sauteed Green Beans with Pancetta
Serves 4

Ingredients
Vegetable oil, for deep frying
1 lb green beans (slim ones like haricot vert), ends trimmed
2 tablespoons soy sauce (I always cook with kikoman low sodium)
1 tablespoon shao xing wine or sake
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon sambal oelek (ground chili paste)
4 oz chopped pancetta (chop it yourself or prepackaged)
¼ cup minced scallions
3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (I like Kadoya brand)

Method
Heat a large wok over high heat. Add about 3 tablespoons of oil and heat until oil shimmers (you can test for this by putting in a green bean and seeing if it begins sizzling. When oil is ready, add green beans and fry until they are bright green and slightly shriveled, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove green beans from oil, and allow to drain on paper towel. Discard all but 1 tablespoons of oil from wok.

Combine soy sauce, sugar, sake, and chili paste in a bowl. Set aside.

Return wok with oil to high heat. Add pancetta and stir fry for 1 minute. Add scallions and garlic and fry for 20 seconds and then add green beans. Stir fry together for another minute. Add soy sauce mixture and fry until sauce is almost completely reduced, about 30 seconds. Add sesame oil and serve hot from the wok.

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Cold Sesame Green Beans Vacation whiplash

For JZ, who gave me the idea of a vacation in the first place.

Our family has just returned from a 7 day vacation in Cancun, Mexico.  Although the trip was filled with tons of fun for the family as they flew on a trapeze, played at the beach, played tennis and swam, my trip was decidedly less exciting.   My 7 day vacation consisted of not thinking about cooking, shopping, dishes, food, meal planning for an entire 21 meal period.

21 meals that I did not have to worry about.  21 meals where I just showed up and food appeared.  21 meals where I got up from a table laden with dishes and I did not even have a milisecond to inwardly groan at the mess that Family made.  I got 21 meals, in a row, of liberation.

However, upon our return from the airport on Sunday night, four pairs of eyes looked expectantly in mine awaiting my return to the kitchen.  Mind you - I was just off the plane, doing mental gymnastics around the sheer number of laundry loads Id have to do just to get on top of things, and already contemplating the tough work week ahead.  Motherhood was not going to offer me a break.  I threw together the quickest meal possible, with all the family gobbling down Korean food as if theyd been starving in the desert and not eating super filling meals on vacation, and the four people satiated their desire for homecooked meals while I daydreamed and reminisced about my days without the responsibility of feeding my family.

Monday morning was filled with a series of moments where I had to just shake my head in disbelief.  What - I go grocery shopping again?  Im supposed to make every single meal?  The kids want a complicated Korean dinner that evening?  This cart is heavy.  How can I

load all these groceries?  When did filling the refrigerator with food become a Herculean task?  Where is my vacation free of thinking about food?

Vacation whiplash I call it.  Its the residual effects of missing your vacation when youre back in your reality, making your reality a bit more painful.  I never thought about how much work went into my regular daily life, but here I was breaking a sweat at just trying to get groceries from the car into the house.  My vacation had basically made me unfit to be a mother.

But when duty calls, sometimes you just have to be better than you want to be.  This week I wanted back on my vacation, but reality put me back in the kitchen, thinking about and cooking food.  I tried to keep things very simple, to help me adjust, and this is one of the dishes I made.

This cold green bean salad is my take an a Japanese/Korean style green bean dish.  Its sweet, salty, and nutty with the sesame seeds.  Its a favorite with our family, although Son prefers a version I do with tofu.  (Ill post that one later.) Its simple because its about cooking green beans, cold shocking them in water, and then making a dressing.  The finish is simply tossing the green beans with the dressing.

Cold Sesame Green Beans
Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients
1 lb of haricot vert, or thin green beans
5 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
3 tablespoons of sugar
6 tablespoons of soy sauce (I use Kikoman low sodium  with the green top)
1 tablespoon sake
salt to taste

Method
Bring a large pot of salted water to a rapid boil.  While getting water to a boil, prepare a large bowl with lots of ice and water where you can dunk your green beans after cooking into it to cold shock it.

Once water is boiling, add green beans and make sure all beans and swimming in water.  Stir and cook until green beans are bright green and tender crisp to the bite, about 4 minutes.  Drain green beans, and place in ice cold water.  Once beans are cooled in the water, drain the ice water out, and cut each green bean into halves or thirds, depending your preference.  (Easy way to do this is to grab a handful, line them up and do a single cut down a bunch of beans.)  Green beans can be prepared ahead of time and placed in refrigerator until ready to serve.

To make the dressing, place toasted sesame seeds and sugar in the bowl of a mini food processor.  Process together until sesame seeds and sugar become a fine powder.  Remove from processor and place in a bowl. Add soy sauce and sake.  Set aside until serving green beans.

When you are ready to serve, toss together green beans with dressing.  Season with salt if necessary. Serve immediately.

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Pasta with Pesto Chicken and Green Beans

For SH - for making pesto for Son and inspiring me to try the same.

As Children got older, many things changed.  Their clothing changed as they no longer needed clothes that looked good with a diaper stuffed underneath it.  Their needs changed as it became less about getting a bottle or breast in their mouth and more about cooking a meal that would satisfy them.  As a side note, I wonder if I knew how much work it would be to feed them if I would have ever pushed them towards solids?  Their communication with me changed as well, as they went from cries, smiles, whimpers and coos to complete sentences that express multiple emotions.  These changes I expected.

However, I never thought much another change - and that is the change in my living space.  When the Children were young, they generally kept much to themselves in a small contained area - whether it was the playpen, their crib or their stroller.  As Children began to grow older, their STUFF began to land in spaces of the house I wouldnt expect like my bathroom, underneath the sofa, and in my bed.  And now that Son has his own idea about his favorite toy, suddenly Ive discovered that Im walking on pins and needles.

Actually what Im walking on are Lego pieces of varying sizes.  I land on them regularly and because of the nature of the carpeting of our house, its hard to see where they are all the time. If Im rushing around the house in a hurry to do something, forget it - Ill step on a bunch of them.  The other day, in an attempt to retrieve something for a darkened playroom I managed to step on a series of Legos that led to a series of screams, yells and G-rated expletives.  (poop!)

Now, Ive tried asking Son to clean up his Lego pieces.  And he does.  He gets in there and picks up the pieces that are in a variety of places, but I am convinced that on some level he thinks that if he SPRINKLES the pieces throughout the house, hell manage to grow some.  But he loves his projects, loves his ideas, and has decided that the entire house has to be a place for him to find something to build.  Im all for keeping the house clean and neat and safe from potential foot injuries, but the other half of me realizes that sometimes creativity is messy, thinking requires space to spread out, and that in the joy of the moment of creation, cleaning up is the last thing on Sons mind. 

This doesnt mean that it doesnt drive me crazy.  My friend this ecard for me based on a Facebook post I had made a while ago.   It pretty much sums up how I feel about it all.

But Im embracing the change that comes from having Children.  Although my space seems a bit insane and dangerous, its a place that is filled with the laughter of Children and the chaos of happiness.  Its not a bad thing to have in my adult space and its part of the adjustment I make. 

Change also happens most often in the kitchen because of Sons allergies.  Although I love pesto, I never thought at all of making it at home because of the whole forbidden nut and dairy thing.  However, a couple months back, friend SH brought over a delicious pesto pizza for Son, something like a flatbread with roasted potatoes and onions and a green pesto sauce that she had made for him that was safe for him to consume.  It was completely delicious and Id been pondering how to make it work for something that I make at home and came up with this idea.  Pesto with chicken, pasta, and green beans.  The end result is really easy, a great pack-to-school lunch, and everyone in my home devoured it without stopping.  Son, as it turns out, ADORES pesto in this form and has asked for it as a dipping sauce for a variety of unusual food items.  (Waffles are the strangest.) 

This can be served warm or cold and tastes great both ways.

Pasta with Pesto, Chicken, and Green Beans
Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients
1 lb of pasta
1 lb of cooked chicken, cut up into bite sized pieces - either a rotisserie chicken or you can just cook up some chicken breasts.  Leftover roasted chicken here is also perfect.
12 oz of green beans

2 cups fresh basil leaves
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper

Cheese (your choice) for serving

Method
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Blanch green beans for about 1 minute.  Remove from water and immediately rinse in cold water.  Bring water in pot back up to a boil and cook pasta according to package directions.

While pasta is cooking, cut green beans into 1 inch pieces.  Set aside.

To make basil pesto, into a food processor or blender, add basil leaves, olive oil, cloves, salt and pepper and puree/process until mixture is even in consistency.  Taste - it should be a little bit salty.  Add additional salt and pepper if desired.  Set aside until pasta is fully cooked.

Once pasta is cooked, drain.  Immediately add green bean pieces, chicken and pesto.  Toss well together.  Season, if necessary with additional salt and pepper.

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Garbanzo Beans with Sun Dried Tomato Dressing For all complaints my name is James

Friend SH and I have recently been lamenting how much our families complain about the food that we put in front of them.  Its funny because her family will eat what Im cooking and my family loves what shes cooking, but when we cook for our own families, no one seems to be satisfied.  Both of us want to emphasize health, more vegetables than meat, and a focus on eating balanced meal, while our audience members seem to think that what we are serving them isnt what they ordered.  For the record, families, there is NO menu from which to choose.

Its hard cooking for family because they are the biggest critics and the biggest gripers.  If I make meatloaf one night, Daughter #1 is over the moon while Daughter #2 and Son complain.  (I happen to really like meatloaf as well.)  If I make some steak, Daughter #1 will complain while Daughter #2 and I enjoy it.  Son is neutral.  If I make a spicy curry, Son and I will chow down while Daughter #1 and Daughter #2 complain.

Ive left Husband off of this list of complainers because he is in a different category.  Dont get me wrong - Husband is incredibly supportive of the food that comes out of my kitchen.  He eats everything that I put in front of him, minus beans, and eats with relish and a thankful heart for the food hes been given.  However, he cant just eat the food and smile and say, "It tastes great."  He always has to offer some sort of comment about how it doesnt quite taste like the last time, or how he wishes it was angel hair pasta instead of spaghetti, or how he likes this same dish with gravy.

Hmph.  Every once in a while, when I get good and fed up about the number of complaints (please address James when complaining) I go all crazy and cook something that I KNOW no one else will like but me.  Beans.  A salad.  Something cold.  Something that looks herby.  Something that Im sure that no one will enjoy but ME.

I raided my pantry, stumbled upon a can of garbanzo beans and made a quick and easy bean salad for myself using up some Italian parsley, shallots, and sun dried tomatoes I had.  And THIS....THIS became the hit for the day among Children.

If I were a cartoon character, my head would have spun around in its socket several times and then rolled off.  And my decapitated head would ask, "Oh!  Is THIS what you like?"  But it is really good and tasty and oh-so-easy-to make.

Garbanzo Beans with Sun Dried Tomato Dressing

Serves 4

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons lemon juice

4 sun dried tomato halves (not in oil), finely chopped

2 shallots, finely chopped

15 1/2-ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed, drained

¼ cup finely chopped Italian parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Method

In a medium-sized bowl, add whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, sun dried tomatoes and shallots.  Add garbanzo beans and toss into dressing.  Finish with Italian parsley and salt and pepper to taste.  Cover and refrigerate for about 45 minutes or longer to allow flavors to blend.

Serve as a side salad, or on top of toasted bread for a tidy appetizer.

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The sun-dried tomatoes I used - but the amount sold here is a HUGE amount.

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