Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Green Beans with Prosciutto

Green Beans on Platter

 

These green beans rock!!  I could eat them alone as an entire meal and be completely satisfied.  They are that good.  I mean it.  Really.

They are adapted from a Pioneer Woman recipe.   My version has a few secret weapon ingredients and I have tweaked this recipe enough to finally declare that the version I have here is the preferred recipe of choice.  Pretty bold statements I know.  But really, these are tasty!!

Green Beans with Citterio Prosciutto

My secret weapon ingredient is diced prosciutto.  My favorite brand is Citterio which is one of the brands my company merchandises for the supermarket chain we service.   The cheese company I work for has branched out a bit and we now merchandise some meats and sausages and so that is how this fun and magic making product showed up on my radar.  Now of course you could use diced ham which would be very nice in this recipe or even some bacon.  I think The Pioneer Woman gets a lot of the flavor for her recipe by using bacon grease…. but if you can find the prosciutto it really makes a difference.  And you will only need to use half of the 4oz. package of prosciutto. 

Green Beans with Prosciutto

There are a few other things that I tweaked from her original recipe.  I leave out the chopped red pepper and I also leave out the salt.  I find that the chicken stock really has enough salt and whenever I added the salt she called for in her recipe it was too much.  And if it was too much for me, and I LOVE my salt, even though I am not supposed to, then please take my advice and leave it out until after you cook these delicious babies up.  You can always add it later if you need to. 

Green Beans  Garlic and Black Pepper

My second secret weapon ingredient are the Pictsweet  Frozen Whole Green Beans.  Of course fresh is always best and I would absolutely use fresh in the summertime if I grew my own or found some at the Farmer’s Market, but this is my favorite brand of frozen vegetables.  They cost a little bit more but they really are worth it and I usually stock up on them when Harris Teeter has a buy one get one free deal  which they do quite frequently. 

     Green Beans Almost Done!          Green Beans on Platter

Here’s the recipe:

Green Beans with Prosciutto

1 24oz. package of Pictsweet Whole Green Beans (Family Size)

1 cup chicken stock.  (I like Kitchen Basics)

1 medium onion, diced small

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil

2 Tbsp. butter

Half a package of Citterio Cubetti Prosciutto.  2 oz.

2 cloves of garlic, pressed

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter with the olive oil and sauté the diced onion till soft and they start to caramelize.

Add the prosciutto and sauté with the onion just enough for the prosciutto to start to brown careful not to burn the prosciutto and onions.

Add the entire package of frozen green beans. Mix well with the meat and the onions. 

Add the cup of chicken broth and deglaze the pan by scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. 

Green Beans on Platter

Add the garlic and pepper and quickly put a lid on the mixture till it comes to a boil and then reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 30 minutes with the lid on.   Add more chicken stock as needed so watch them close.  When they are done they will have a somewhat thickened sauce on them. 

Green Beans Finished 5

Delicious!

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Snow Day Lunch

Snowday Lunch

Woke up to a blanket of snow and the local weather forecasters are falling all over themselves trying to explain it.

It’s okay by me.  I’m taking a snow day off.  I am also going to:

Drink too much coffee

Cook a real dinner tonight

Play on my blog

Bake something

Dig deeper into some of the new blogs I have recently discovered like Modern Mrs. Darcy and some old favorites like Parisienne Farmgirl and Cup of Jo

Investigate Instagram and see if I like it better than Twitter

and

eat this

Snowday Lunch 005

Toast an English Muffin.  Add chopped up avocado.  Salt and pepper the avocado.  Top with bacon and sliced tomatoes.  Pepper the tomatoes.  I like pepper.  Lot’s and lot’s of pepper.

Eat Open faced. 

Delicious!

Monday, February 23, 2015

Life From Scratch

I am currently wrapped up in reading a book that I was asked to read and review for TLC Book Tours.  It’s called Life From Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family, and ForgivenessLife From Scratch and I can only say that it’s really good!   My review of the book is scheduled for March 12, 2015 and I am already thinking about how I am going to put my blog post together for it. It’s a memoir of growing up under difficult circumstances but with an abundance of love and memories with ties to people, places, and food.

Book Life From Scratch 3

The author is Sasha Martin and the book is already drawing lots of attention.  I am her newest follower on Facebook where I saw a post that her book was recognized by Oprah’s Reading Room.    She also writes a blog called Global Table Adventure where she blogs about cooking for 195 weeks the 195 foods from 195 countries around the world.  Amazing, ambitious and inspiring to be sure!   So, in addition to reading her memoir,  I am also busy digging in to all the amazing blog posts of the recipes and foods she’s cooked from every corner of the world.    Go ahead.  Pick a country and see what she came up with.  Who knows…it might just be just what you need for tonight’s menu.  : )

You can find it on Life From Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family, and ForgivenessAmazon and it’s available for pre-order.   The book will be released on next Tuesday, March 3rd by National Geographic Press.

 

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Watercolor Cowboy Boots

watercolors 015

Yep. That’s what it says.  “Cowboy up or go cry in the truck”  Ha!  I saw a photo of some cowboy boots  in the September issue of Country Living Magazine (I’m a little behind in my reading).  : )  And decided to see if I could sketch them out on some watercolor paper.  Then after I finished painting them, I decide to go in search of a quote to add to the empty space on the side of the painting and found a quote that made me chuckle.  Not sure why I decided to paint them since I don’t even own a pair of cowboy boots.  But they reminded me of the boots I saw in shop after shop when I was in Nashville a couple of years ago for a wedding and looked basic enough to give them a try.  They were a fun mini painting project.  (I found the frame in the photo above at Goodwill.  It doesn’t have any glass or a back for it but it won’t need them for the project I have in mind.  Anyways, Seemed like a good way to display last nights painting projects. )

watercolors 002

And then I found myself binge sketching and painting.  After the cowboy boots I then sketched out the window picture and sketched it from a beautiful photo I have saved on my All Things French board on Pinterest.  Each of the paintings are rather small…just the right size for a beginner like me.  I took a large piece of watercolor paper and folded it in half and then in half again and then gently tore the sheet into 4 smaller sheets and sketched and painted three by the end of the night.

Window     watercolors 011

Of the three I did last night I think the window picture is my favorite. 

Fence Water Color 2

And then last but not least I made this fence painting.  I found the quote first online and love it and so decided that the simplest way to illustrate it would be to sketch a small fence.  So it seems inspiration can come in any order and from anyplace!  Hope you are having a Happy Wednesday!