Auntie Em’s Holiday Green Beans

Here is another really simple but good recipe– if you can even call it a recipe!

You need frozen green beans (no more canned ones for me!), some chopped onion, fresh Baby Bella mushrooms, garlic, and some olive oil and/or butter or bacon grease. (Just a bit, for good flavor. It’s what we do in the South. Chopped bacon is good to add, too!)  

Heat a large skillet– you want to braise, not boil the beans, so you don’t want them to be real thick in your pan. Add a tablespoon or so of oil.

Chop an onion finely and sautee 5-10 minutes, till they begin to soften and get translucent but not brown. I used about half a cup for a large bag of green beans. Put the rest in a freezer bag in the fridge if you cook with chopped onion pretty regularly, in the freezer if it will be a while. Be sure and use a FREEZER bag, not a regular storage bag, or your fridge will stink!

Add garlic now if you want to; remember it will cook and burn faster than onion.

Next, clean your mushrooms– I used 5 large ones. Paula Deen says to wipe them with a damp paper towel, don’t dunk them in water, so that’s what I do. Chop them as fine as you like. Now at this point if Mr X liked mushrooms as much as I do, I would put them in with the onion, but since he (and honestly, almost everyone else in the family) doesn’t, I make a whole different pan of onion and mushroom sautéed in butter. Then we mushroom lovers can add as much as we want. This is also excellent to top hamburgers or baked potatoes!

 

After sautéing the mushrooms a few minutes, add the green beans. Stir to coat with the oil, and cover tightly. You want to sautee the beans, not boil them, so don’t add any liquid unless the beans begin to brown. You will need to stir them occasionally, and cook them just till they get really bright green. They will still be firm. (If you like them more cooked, add 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of chicken broth and cook longer. I’m going to show you how to make your homemade turkey broth last in a later holiday cooking post.

After about 10 minutes they are done! Serve them up in a colorful bowl to show off the beautiful color!

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