Saying Grace: How To: Garden Green Beans

We were on vacation in Maine last week. A trip I look forward to every year. Time spent dipping chubby legs in the water for the first time, amid kicks and splashes and giggles.

Time spent choosing just the right rock to pitch headlong into the lake, breaking the surface of the water with a loud plunk and breaking the silence with loud delight.

Time spent in the water, everyone's raft or kayak or inner tube hooked together. Laughter echoing across the water as one family member's raft springs a leak and he has to tread water to stay afloat.

And time spent around the fire, a sliver of moon balancing in the pinks and mauves of a muted sunset. Low murmurs of family talk with the occasional joke or story passed across the flames. Shooting stars that burn, etching their way in light across a brilliantly-studded sky. A moment of blazing glory, gone before the breath of awe can escape from your lungs.

And time spent with my Grammy in her kitchen, watching her wash jars with sanitizing steam for pickling or hold a handful of just-picked beans over a small pot, patiently waiting for the contents to return to a boil.

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I love to snap green beans. There's almost nothing more satisfying than sitting down with a large bucket of string beans and an empty bowl, slowly diminishing the one pile and filling up the other with neat little chunks of soon-to-be-goodness. It's a moment of peace in the otherwise hectic scene of dinner-making. A time to sit and observe, to think and enjoy. All the while accompanied by the sound of the snap methodically breaking the stillness and the feel of the snap shooting up my arm.

This is my Grammy's way to cook green beans. She told me that her Aunt Leila (pronounced with my Grammy's Maine accent as Leel-yer) taught her this technique when she was working at the Maine Idyll and she's been doing it this way ever since.

Garden Green Beans

Total Time: 20 minutes (to cook)

You'll need:

Green Beans, fresh from the garden or farmer's market

water

salt

1 T. butter

pepper

Start by snapping off the ends of each green bean and then snap each bean into 2 inch pieces.

You can cut them up with a knife, but a fresh green bean will snap easily when bent, so I just use my hands. If your beans will bend without breaking easily, then they are old and probably tasteless anyway. It's a good way to tell if the beans are fresh!

Bring a small amount of salted water to boil.

You want just enough water to barely cover the beans.

And to season: Add some salt, stir together and then dip your finger in to taste. You want it to taste like the sea. If it doesn't, add more salt until it does. My mom always says "beans need lots of salt."

Add a handful of beans. Wait for the water to come back to a boil. Keep adding small handfuls, waiting between each handful for the water to boil until all the beans are added.

Simmer until fork tender, about 15 minutes.