No Green Beans

This is my 30th Post. It's Sunday Morning, February 27th and I just wanted to come clean. Even though I'm a skeptic I love the idea of a supreme being. Truth. I also want to believe in magic, happy endings, true love, Santa Claus, the Democrats, desserts that aren't fattening, the kindness of strangers, karma, destiny, the meek shall inherit the earth, life is like a box of chocolates, our president, our congress, the Red Sox, the Bruins, the Celtics, all men are created equal, everything works out in the end, I just look that way because the camera adds 10 pounds, there is life after death, space people exist,  they will balance the budget with-out crushing programs that help poor women and sick kids, and right about now you have to be shaking your head because no matter what you believe you know that I'm in for a truckload of disappointment. True that.

But aren't we all hard wired to believe in the unbelievable? More importantly doesn't the unbelievable come true every once and a while? Sure it's a bad way to bet, but who would have though that a lightening bolt to the primal ooze half a billion years ago would create a cascading series of events that could result in Justin Bieber and Mylie Cyrus  reproducing themselves someday, maybe with each other? No I did not just disprove the theory of evolution. So even though I don't roll the dice myself I can't really blame people that do... And shame on me because all the really great stuff we ever did ( I'm talking the universal we here ) required a leap of faith at some point. It is Sunday, so I'm going to load you up with the greatest gospel singer of the twentieth century, only if you're a believer...



... and I'm going to give  the rest of you something real, something that our parents and our parents, parents believed in. Hey, it came from the sweat of their brows and their own leap of faith in themselves. More importantly it is what everyone, red state or blue state, is afraid of losing.



Well that was pretty simple, a whole post with almost no irony or sarcasm. You know why? Because when push comes to shove I believe in you people, not just your parents. It is amazing how many hard working honorable people I meet in the coarse of a day. Unfortunately for my hard working and honorable friends this post doesn't have a green bean recipe. Oops! I promised too didn't I? OK, real quick.

1. Take a bunch, a hand full, a pile, a load, as many as you want green beans.
2. Grab them in a fist full. Tap them on the cutting board thus lining up the ends. Use a knife to slice off the gnarly bits. Then reverse the beans and do it again. This will be quicker and easier than snapping the gnarly bits off by hand.
3. While you are cleaning the beans heat a pot of water to boiling and put a bowel of ice water in the sink.
4. Put the beans in the boiling water for 1 and a half minutes, 2 tops, then put them in the ice water. This will fix the bright green of the chlorophyl and get them started toward being cooked without softening them too much. Remember eating is as much about looks and texture as it is about taste.
5. They can sit in the fridge overnight at this point, but lets keep going. (Hey it's Sunday, there's a newspaper and a breakfast sandwich with my name on it out there).
6. Heat some olive oil in a skillet, or forget about health altogether and heat some butter. Mmmm butter!
7. While your grease of choice is getting hot finely chop 2 or 3 shallots. Throw them in the pan.
8. Mince 1 clove of garlic. Throw it in the pan.
9. Throw in a healthy bit of crushed red pepper. Not cayenne, you will kill the dish. You want flashes of heat as you eat, not a blowtorch. 
10. Get the beans in the pan in no less than 30 seconds. If the garlic browns the dish is ruined.
11. Cook for about 5 minutes. The beans should still have a little crunch.
12. Serve with the steak and mashed we cooked earlier in the week. Maybe with a chiffonade of fresh basil or some chopped fresh parsley sprinkled on top.

So I'm off to Al's. That's the great thing about my stomach, my wish list may be a pipe dream, but a barnyard special is only 7 dollars away.