Beans -n- Things

It's all about the beans these days. The bush beans are pretty much done with production, but the pole beans are exploding! I'm picking 1 - 1 1/2 pounds every few days. Luckily it's one of the few vegetables my whole family likes, which is why I planted 6 of both varieties. Next year I will stagger the planting - maybe 2 plants every 2-3 weeks to stretch out the harvest. Learning from my mistakes.

My favorite method of preparing green beans is quite simple and very tasty. I just toss them into a skillet with a little extra virgin olive oil, crushed garlic, and coarse sea salt. After letting them sizzle a few minutes I pour in a small amount of water and cover for 1-2 minutes to steam. Then remove the cover and continue cooking until they're a little caramelized, but still bright green. So good! The more mature beans from the garden have a natural peppery bite to them and require very little seasoning.

Last night's dinner incorporated several garden ingredients. Without going into great detail this quick summer skillet contained extra virgin olive oil, onion, green beans, zucchini, leftover chicken, and nitrate free turkey kielbasa. And yes, that beautiful golden ear of corn is fresh from the garden. We picked just a few to try them out and were not disappointed. I've been watching the corn closely to assess it's readiness. The husks were tight around the drying silks which have become much shorter. Peeling back a few layers of husk revealed plump kernels that bled a watery substance when pierced. My Sunset Western Garden book says that it is over-done if the liquid is milky, so it looked like they were good to go. Because corn starts converting its sugar into starch the second it's picked the girls and I shucked as fast as we could and dropped them into a pot of boiling water right away. It was fabulous - no butter or salt necessary. Fresh as it gets and without pesticides or genetic modification. I couldn't resist posting this dish because it turned out sooooo delicious. My basil is abundant and was calling out to be whirled up into pesto. I combined a few recipes and came up with this:

2 cups fresh basil leaves

4 cloves garlic

approx. 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/4 - 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Place basil, garlic, pine nuts, and a little olive oil in food processor and start. As it's running add the rest of the oil. Scrape bowl and add Parmesan, salt and pepper. Continue processing until it's the desired texture

To create the above pictured recipe I mixed pesto with cooked and drained orzo. To that I added 1 can artichoke hearts (packed in water, not oil), which I chopped, and a handful or two of toasted pine nuts. Gently mix everything together and serve warm or cold. It was great both ways.

The hard work getting this garden started and maintaining it is paying off. It takes diligence to prevent and manage weed and pest invasions.....I'm doing some homework and will share new findings soon.