The Perfect Green Bean

I have discovered the perfect way to cook green beans. I can't believe I hadn't discovered it before-- and quite honestly, I know I am not the first person to figure it out. But it is like a giant light has begun to shine in my life! Because I can cook green beans perfectly every time!


I used to cook green beans several different ways. For a while, I just tossed them fresh in a pan with some garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Sometimes a little lemon zest and red pepper flakes (delicious). This method takes a long time, and they still come out pretty crunchy. Seriously, I don't have time for that. Don't get me wrong, I like crunchy green beans, but they never really tasted like they were cooked, and they weren't great at absorbing the other flavors. They were alright, but never awesome.

Then for Christmas I got a set of pots & pans that included a steamer, so I began steaming my green beans. I really liked this method because they came out with a great texture, nice and firm-- not limp, not crunchy. Steaming is also a great way to keep all of the nutrients in veggies and really get the best bang out of them. The problem with this method is that I couldn't season them well. I recently became a huge advocate of seasoning during cooking as opposed to after -- give this a try, because it will make a big difference in your foods. Salt and pepper during the process will bring out the flavor of your food, whereas putting it on after it's all done just makes it taste salty. Given the holes in the bottom of the pot when you steam, seasoning isn't really an option (unless someone knows something I don't?).

Then it struck me. There was nothing special about the meal or the day, but I really didn't feel like dealing with another batch of so-so green beans. I knew I wanted the seasoning, so the pan was the way to go, but I had no patience. I took a lesson from potato roasting: steam them a little first and they'll get a great texture and crust when you roast them. I steamed the green beans. Then I finished them off in a pan with seasonings. What!?!?!? It was AWESOME. Yes, I used capital letters because I am YELLING that these green beans were AWESOME. And let's talk about how it took less than half the time of cooking them in a pan. Seriously. Eight minutes, max. You get the amazing texture of steamed green beans and the delicious flavor of whatever seasoning you want to put on them.

My life has changed, and yours will too. Here is the recipe for perfect green beans. Read it all the way through before you start cooking:

Get a steamer. You need this. You can buy a steamer basket in the grocery store for like eight bucks, so do it. Put a little water in the bottom of a pot - enough so that when it starts boiling it won't boil away, but not enough to touch the bottom of the steamer basket. Set the pot on the stove and boil the water (you should know how to do this). While you're waiting, put a pan on another burner and set it to medium-high heat - this will get the pan nice and hot so it's ready when the beans are done steaming. Once the water is boiling, put the steamer basket and green beans in the pot and cover. The boiling water releases steam but the lid keeps the steam in so this is how the beans cook!

Steam them for about 4 minutes. They should be bright green and beautiful. While they're steaming, mince up a clove or two of garlic. When the beans are about ready to be moved to the pan, put a tablespoon or so of oil in the pan and throw the garlic in there, too. Turn the heat down if it gives you a crazy sizzle cause the garlic will burn quickly and you don't want that. Cook the garlic for about 30 seconds, which is when you should start to smell that amazing garlic smell.

It's time. Grab those green beans with some sort of kitchen utensil (tongs) and throw them in the pan. Use the tongs to mix 'em all around so they get covered with oil and garlic, then put a dash of salt and pepper in there. The beans will need to cook in the pan for about 4 more minutes. After 2 or 3, I take a lemon and zest it into the green beans. What you'll need to do this is a lemon (duh) and a zester. This is a zester. It's like a grater with tiny holes - you're just grating the lemon rind into the beans. Keep moving the lemon around though, you don't want to zest the white part of the lemon because it's bitter. If you like a little kick, you can add a dash of red pepper flakes, too.

Toss them around a little more in the pan, take a little taste test, and... Voila! You have perfect green beans. No need to thank me. Enjoy.

Oh my gosh it's the weekend.

It wasn't until I started working Monday-Friday that I began to appreciate the weekend. The sad thing is I have pretty reasonable hours during the week and I still cherish the weekend. Before I became the manager at Aromas, I opened once a week - that means being at the hospital between 6am and 12pm - and closed once or twice a week. I actually preferred opening to closing (12pm-5:30pm) because there were fewer responsibilities in the morning. Now that I'm the manager, I cherish the two days a week that I get to close because those are the days that I get to sleep past 5:30am; three days a week now I open the bar and it's sucking the life out of me.

This week in particular I only had one day that I got to sleep in a little bit, so I'm definitely suffering. In fact I opened this morning and last night I barely slept (had a damn Rihanna song stuck in my head), so that made for a pretty miserable morning. BUT! It actually ended up making for a perfect day. Yes I was miserable, but now that I'm done, it's Friday. And as much as I'd love to have Corbin home, he's working until 9:30 - so I get the whoooole day to sleep and catch up on TV shows and do absolutely nothing. Because it's Friday. It's the weekend!!

p.s. An addendum to the previous post about home: I find it to be quite possible that the thing that excites me most about changing my official address is getting a new, snazzy license.

Home

When Corbin and I move to our new apartment, I will (for the first time) officially change my address. All through college I lived in different places and received mail there but my permanent address was always 2000 Monument Ave. This time, I'm ushering in a new era: the era of “my parents' house is not necessarily 'home' anymore.”

This is a tough era for some people to welcome. To be honest, I'm not sure that I'll ever stop using the word “home” when referring to my parents house, but I am certain that the sense of comfort and familiarity that comes with a home is no longer something I feel when I'm at my parents' house. There's nothing wrong with this, of course-- I still feel the comfort and familiarity of family, just not home.

Corbin and I have been living together for about a year now, and I've known even since before we lived together that my sense of home comes from Corbin. I'm not sure I ever thought that a sense of home could come from a person, but I think sometimes people put too much stock in a space and the things in that space when really it's the people and the relationships that create a home.

I started this post earlier today and have had some time to think about it before finishing it. I wanted to examine the difference between that sense of family and the sense of home. I've decided that I think it's all about the crucial relationships in life. Growing up, it was my family, as it is for a lot of people. They provided for me, I saw them every day, they knew me and what was going on in my life. As I grew older, they became less given in my life and more human. They were no longer just my mom, dad, sisters, these people that were in my life without my consent. They were people who had feelings similar to mine. They thought about the world in ways I thought about the world. This brought us closer as people, but also distanced us in a way-- it put them on the same level as the rest of the world. Then Corbin became the primary relationship in my life, and he became the person who knows me best. The sense of comfort I get from him is based on our intimate knowledge of each other, the way we support each other, the way we encourage each other, fight with each other, yell at each other, apologize to each other, laugh with each other. And that's home to me. My family is my family, and when I'm around them I'll always feel the familiarity of the dynamic that I grew up with. They are crucial to my life, but they're no longer the people who know me best.


p.s. I feel that this whole situation may be specific to my age and where I am in my life. At some point the definition of  "family" will change. For now it's mom, dad, sisters. But in the future it may be husband, kids. This whole feeling of family vs. home will probably change, but that's to be expected given that it already has. 

Some Thoughts

These days, when I feel the urge to post here, it's usually because I feel the need to complain. I will try to keep myself from doing this as I know it is not something anybody enjoys reading. Here are some things I've been thinking about... some of them might sound like complaining.

- I'm kind of pissed at sunscreen. I used to think that sunscreen smelled like coconut; now I think that coconut smells like sunscreen. Coconut has been ruined for me.

- I'm ready to move in to my new apartment, but I still have a month to go.

- Corbin and I decided a few nights ago (maybe last week?) to watch the extended Lord of the Rings trilogy as a miniseries. I have issues with watching movies at night because I get sleepy like an old person, so we're taking it in chunks. We're currently in the middle of watching The Two Towers. I really like that we're doing this... it's kinda random and quirky and fun!

- I love my dog. And my boyfriend.

- I've never been much of a shoes-obsessed kind of gal, but for some reason I have three pairs arriving by mail tomorrow.

- We've had so many sunny days recently and today it was rainy. It surprised me that I was disappointed when the sun came out this evening.

- Tonight we're making hot italian turkey sausage with peppers, onions, & gnocchi. This is a recipe I discovered in the Weight Watchers cookbook last year (I added the gnocchi myself - it's also good served over rice) and it's a fairly simple meal but it is so delicious. I swear I could eat gnocchi every day for the rest of my life. I tried making gnocchi from scratch about two weeks ago and it was mildly successful.

- It has become apparent to me that food is one of my top five priorities in life. I'm not sure exactly what the others are yet, but food is way up there. Should I go ahead and accept that food is more important to me than some people I know?

- My sister is getting married in a little over a month, and I've had time to get used to this-- but it hit me two days ago that she will no longer be a Thomson, she'll be a Seabolt, and that's crazy. She's the first to jump ship.

- Last one: I've been thinking a lot about this blog lately, and every time I think about writing something I feel as though I'm really boring so I don't. There are a few blogs that I sincerely love to read and I know it's because the writers are willing to be open about thoughts, feelings, relationships, etc. -- I long to feel the freedom to write about those things without feeling scrutinized. It occurs to me that I used to be a very open person about very personal feelings, and somehow in the past 5 or 6 years I've closed up. I'm not sure what happened, but I think I became very aware of how the things I do and say affect the kind of person I appear to be. I need to stop thinking about what this or that will say to other people and focus more on doing what feels good.

The story of the past few months

Can't believe I haven't posted about this yet.

I suppose I should start from the beginning, which comes before the whole apartment thing. I decided a few months ago that I want to go to culinary school, so I started to do some research and before I knew it I was accepted into Texas Culinary Academy in Austin, TX. It seemed like an awesome opportunity for both Corbin and me, so we took a trip to Austin to visit the city and see the school. The week before we went, though, I discovered that the school was not quite what I wanted it to be. I'd also heard from a lot of people in the culinary industry that culinary school is not as important as kitchen experience, so I decided not to go to the school but we went to visit Austin anyway.

We had a good time in Austin-- SXSW was going on so the place was packed and there were bands playing in every bar. This was pretty cool, but also not really what we wanted. We made the most of our weekend but came back feeling like Austin wasn't quite the right place for us. In fact, our time in Austin actually made us more excited about Richmond. So we decided when we got back that we would stay in Richmond a little while longer.

In March I became the new manager of Aromas Coffee Bar, where I'd been working since September. The more I learned about the position, the more valuable I realized it was for me because the owners essentially treat me like I'm the owner. So upon deciding to stay in Richmond, I decided that I wanted to stay at Aromas longer (I'd planned to leave June 1, having been the manager at the time for 3 months). So the game plan became that we would move into a new apartment - preferably larger, but more importantly with a larger kitchen - so that I could dedicate more time to teaching myself how to cook through cookbooks, cooking classes, and eventually a second or full-time job in a kitchen.

So began the apartment hunting process, but in no hurry. I drove around the fan, combing the streets for "For Rent" signs, and I hit Craig's List hard, mostly disappointed with what I found. Then last week I got a call from my sister, who told me that the apartment across the hall from her would be opening up. It's a one bedroom apartment on the second floor of a house in the fan and it shares the floor with one other apartment (my sister's). The owner of the house lives in the basement and her parents live on the first floor. They are friends of my parents'.

At first it seemed that the apartment would be too expensive, but we wanted to see it anyway so that we could get an idea of what we can get for what kind of money. Turns out the landlord agreed that we could pay the previous tenant's rent price, but she would raise it $35 for anyone else. In addition, the rent included water/sewer, heat, cable & internet. What we would pay for is electricity and gas. Um, wow. So then we saw the apartment, and it was awesome. Big. With a kitchen twice the size of ours now. Built-in shelves in the living room. Lots of windows and light. Gas cooking. Gas cooking! And located exactly where we wanted to be.

So we learned that we had first dibs if we wanted it, but that the owner had gotten a lot of calls about it so we basically had about 24 hours to decide. We went back and forth, mostly trying to decide if we could afford it. We decided we could, and that it was actually an AWESOME deal (apartments like this in the fan are usually in the $1200/month region and we're paying several hundreds less than that).

Move in is approximately June 1 and YAY!! New apartment!!

Spinach & Tortellini Soup with Sausage

This is the soup that I made last night, and I wanted to share it with you because it is so delicious. It's a perfect soup for this time of year because it's light but still filling. I used andouille chicken sausage from Costco - it made the soup spicy and delicious! Here's the recipe:

Spinach & Tortellini Soup with Sausage

1 lb andouille chicken sausage
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 package fresh cheese tortellini
3 cups spinach

Heat the oil in a dutch oven or heavy-bottomed stockpot. Add the sausages and cook, turning occasionally, until browned. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate. If using regular sausage, remove all but 1 Tbsp of sausage fat from the pot. Add the onions and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 45 seconds.

Add the chicken broth and the bay leaf, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pot, and bring to a boil. Cut the sausages into 1/2-inch rounds and add to the broth. Stir in the tortellini and simmer on medium heat until tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in the spinach and cook until just wilted, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Enjoy! ;)

Love this, can't help it.

This is the kind of band I would love to be in... one with great beats and rich, rich harmonies. Harmonies. Mmm.

"Follow Me Back Into the Sun" - The Rescues (might just have to listen to a sample in iTunes)
"Crazy Ever After" - The Rescues

It's a sign!

Ahem.

Both Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) and The Man in Black (Titus Welliver... what a name) are in the current season of Supernatural. Pellegrino plays Lucifer and Welliver plays one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. I'm sensing a theme? And they're both awesome bad guys.

His name is Titus Welliver. That's awesome.

Did you bring your coat?

It feels like Tuesday, Corbin and I agree. Frankly, I don't care what day of the week it is, because I'm drinking a glass of basil lemonade.

Lemon count to date: 39

I need to hire a personal juicer... one batch of lemonade takes about 8 lemons and makes about 4 glasses. Boo. Not enough. I'm making this stuff every day.

On another note, TNT is either my best friend or my worst enemy. When Charmed was first aired on the WB I watched about 2 seasons until they took the WB out of Richmond, and I got back into it years later because of TNT, who started playing old episodes twice a day and new episodes once a week. Then one day, they decided to play Alias in the afternoon after Charmed, and of course it became my favorite show. Ever. Recently they started playing Supernatural in the morning (after Charmed), and I'm hooked. What the heck, TNT?

Basil Lemonade

1 cup of fresh-squeezed lemon juice
3 cups of water
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup fresh sweet basil, lightly torn
1 vanilla bean, split
lemon wedges and extra basil for garnish

In a large saucepan, combine the water, sugar, vanilla bean, and basil. Heat on the stove until the water begins to simmer; remove from heat, cover, and let steep for 15 minutes. Strain the mixture; combine with lemon juice and chill. Add lemon wedges and extra basil for garnish if desired.

Enjoy :)

Basil Lemonade

is the drink of the season. it will probably be stocked in my fridge for the rest of the summer (is it summer yet?). perhaps i should keep a tally of how many lemons i use making basil lemonade.

to date: 21 lemons

this morning i served an older gentleman who was getting coffee for his wife. he was pretty sweet and he babbled on about his diabetes and how he wasn't allowed to drink coffee as a child and that his whole family drinks coffee but he doesn't. he had a few teeth, but not many. an old neighbor spotted him while he was making the coffee and when he realized who the person was, he said, "You look radiant!"

sometimes i wish i were an old man so i could say things like that to people. it was really sweet. it was genuine and precious.

oops

i forgot i like green beans.

and i don't even like beans.

here are the two beans i do like:

my corbean

and my ivy bean.



by the way: there are many people who have opinions about writing in ALL CAPS for emphasis as opposed to italics. is there ever an appropriate time for all caps?