WWRD? This Is For You Marilyn, Since You Asked.

Marilyn, of FoodiesUntie, has had a spate of green beans. She's made several recipes, and in her post on August 5, wondered: "I can't wait for... that watermelon fizz. Er, no. That's not it. I can't wait to see what kinds of green bean dishes Rosie Hawthorne comes up with for me." "Now, I find myself wondering: what would Rosie Hawthorne do?"

Indeed, what would Rosie do? WWRD? I might just get me a bumper sticker with that. Mr. Hawthorne and I took a trip to FoodLion today to buy green beans, among a lot of other stuff. I must say, the produce at FL is totally crappy. Instead of grabbing a handful of beans, I had to pick through them to get acceptable beans. That's just sad. Harris Teeter has superior produce, but to buy the staples we needed, we went to FL since it's much cheaper. OK, let's see what Rosie's doing.

When we got home, I started boiling red kidney beans.

Then I brought a pot of salted water to a boil and added the green beans.

I cooked the beans until just tender, then immediately plunged them into ice water to stop the cooking and set the nice green color.

I mixed the green beans and the kidney beans.

Now, here are the fixin's for my green bean casserole. From top right and spiraling around like an "S," I have walnuts, baby corn, jumbo black olives, Italian dressing (Good Seasons), feta cheese. red onion, garlic chives, basil, and assorted peppers from my garden. (I thought they were banana peppers, but one of them is quite hot. A very nice surprise in my beans.)

I chopped the red onion and chives, sliced the peppers, and chiffonaded (rolled the leaves up tightly and sliced) the basil.

Sliced the olives and baby corn.

Green beans, red beans, feta, and walnuts.

Add in the rest of the ingredients - peppers, olives, corn, chives, basil, red onion.

Pour Italian dressing over top.

Toss and chill. This is one of my favorite things to eat.

Rosie's Christmas Dinner

AARGH!!!! The restless are getting natives.



Here's my green bean casserole, ready for the oven.

I refuse to use a can of cream of mushroom soup or the

canned onions either.

I found Alton's arrussssipppeeee on the Food Network.
Yes, I just LOGGed ONto and DOWNloaded the arrussiiippppeee.
And apparently, it's the best green bean casserole ever. Because that's the name of it: "Best Ever Green Bean Casserole."

Here's the arrrussssuuupppeee:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_81503,00.html


Next up, my sweet tater casserole.

I gave Mr. Hawthorne explicit directions on how to prepare this. I had already boiled the sweet taters until they were tender, and I was busy doing other stuff so he needed to help.
I boiled the taters. Then told Mr. H. to add ornj juice, brown sugar, buttah, and cream, and mix it up. Then top with marshmallows, pecans, brown sugah, buttah. Delish.

I had two pomegranates sittin' and awaitin'.
So I used them today.
I sauteed some onions and garlic,
and added whole peppercorns.
I added Madeira, and cooked until almost evaporated. Then I added chicken stock, pomegranate juice, some molasses, and brown sugar.
I reduced slowly to a sauce consistency.
Then added salt and pepper, chopped chives,
and pomegranate seeds.

Here's my wild rice.

Here's my pomegranate sauce.
With fresh chopped chives and pomegranate seeds.

Here's Turkey-Lurkey!

Finally finished decorating the tree on Christmas Eve.

I sliced some portabella mushrooms, sauteed them, then added the chopped giblets.

Added a bit of sherry for f'ntastic flavor and let it cook off.

Then I added a bit more butter, some flour, and cooked the flour. Turkey stock went in next and I ended up with a lovely mushroom giblet gravy that you'll just have to imagine and take my word for, since the family was hungry and getting tired of my taking pictures and they just wanted to eat.