Oven Fried Plastic

Erma, I’ve always loved your Corn Pudding, and never have mine come out quite like yours. Maybe Southern corn is different from Iowa corn?

I’ll bet you have green beans running out your ears just like we do. Are you canning or freezing any this year? I’ll can 20 or 30 quarts this summer, which seems like a nothing compared to when the kids were little. I swear my mother must have canned at least a hundred quarts of green beans every August, and in a kitchen that was not air-conditioned.

Freezing is certainly easier, but I prefer the canned taste for beans.

A funny green bean thing happened last week. Late one evening a neighbor called asking if I had a salad spinner, like the KitchenAid Salad & Fruit Spinner, she could borrow. She was freezing beans and wanted to get as much of the water off them as possible so she uses her salad spinner as a dryer. It seems that a few days before she had been using it and company was coming so she wanted to have a neat, clear counter in the kitchen. Instead of packing it away in the pantry, she stuck the spinner in the oven. None of us have ever done this, have we? As you can by now guess, she forgot it and it was Oven Fried Plastic. I am so glad that other people do these things. It just proves that we are all human.

Instead of freezing those excess beans, she should have made up Dilled Green Bean Salad From the Shakers. It is a shame that more people do not know about the Shakers and their ideas about food. I have you to thank, Erma, for introducing me to the Shaker way of life at Pleasant Hill, and for giving me their cookbooks. What a lovely mix of excellent food preparation ideas, and the history of food. This recipe sounds like the latest haute cuisine for a fancy New York restaurant when actually it is a Shaker invention from the 1830’s.

Dilled Green Bean Salad from the Shakers:

1 ½ pounds fresh green beans
Lettuce leaves

Dressing:

1 cup olive oil
4 tablespoons tarragon, or red wine, vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped chives, or baby green onions
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dillweed
Salt, pepper, sugar to taste

Wash and string, if necessary, the whole beans. Use whole. Cook in a covered sauce pan in salted, boiling water until just tender. Depending on the freshness of the beans this may be as little as 5 minutes, or as much as 15.

Drain at once in a collander with lots of cold water to stop the cooking.

Mix the Dressing ingredients together and pour over the beans. Chill for at least an hour.

To serve, drain the excess dressing off the beans and place 7 or 8 of the whole beans on a lettuce leaf. A slice of tomato and a green pepper ring will dress up the salad plate.

Serves 4.