Do you hear the word casserole and cringe? Although the word holds a certain nostalgia for my Midwestern upbringing, I tend to cringe too. The only exception - or should I say the single casserole for me - is green bean casserole. Here and there, in between our quests to master pizza and baking, Chris and I will find ourselves at the table with a distinctly Midwestern meal - potatoes, a vegetable side, and meat (in our case, the meat is usually of the soy variety).
"I love our Midwestern meals," Chris said as we set the table and sat down to dinner over the weekend.
"Me too!" I replied. "I think that out of all of our friends from home, we're probably considered the least likely to say such a thing, don't you?"
"I think," Chris chimed in, "that sometimes we're more Midwestern than even we thought we were."
Laughing, he noted, "But do you think the german techno playing in the background throws it off?"
This is by far the best green bean casserole I have made, nay, ever had. It would be fun to bake and serve in individual ramekins at a casual dinner party too!
Green Bean Casserole by CDR and me
Yields 4 - 6 servings
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk + 1 Tablespoon milk or half and half
1 teaspoon soy sauce
salt and black pepper to taste
1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed, halved and blanched
1/2 tablespoon butter + 1/2 table olive oil
6 ounces crimini mushrooms, washed and sliced
1 small onion, diced
2 cups French's french fried onions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare ice bath. Fill medium sized bowl with cold water and ice cubes. Set aside. Meanwhile, bring large pot of water to boil; blanch trimmed and halved green beans, 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon or colander, remove green beans from hot water and shock in prepared ice bath. After the green beans have cooled, removed from ice bath, and dry beans on several layers of paper towels.
Heat oil and butter in sauce pan, over medium heat, until foam subsides. Saute onions until translucent, 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and saute until they release their water and begin to brown, 5 additional minutes. Remove from heat.
Combine mushroom soup, milk, soy sauce, 1 cup french fried onions, and black pepper in large bowl. Add cooled, blanched green beans and mushroom mixture, stir until combined. If mixture seems dry, add the additional 1 tablespoon milk or half and half. I didn't want the mixture to be watery, but it needed some additional moisture, so I used half and half instead of adding more skim milk.
Pour casserole into 1.5 or 2 quart baking dish. Back uncovered for 25 minutes, until bean mixture begins to bubble. Remove from oven, stir and top with remaining 1 cup french fried onions. Return casserole to oven and bake for 5 more minutes, until the french fried onions turn golden brown.
Cool at least 5 minutes before serving.
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As a side note, we also ate roasted corn over the weekend. I thought I would share a little, 5 minute DIY project I did this summer...
I love sweet corn but I hate corn holders. Ours were floating around in the silverware drawer, sticking me when I wasn't careful (say when a saucepan was overheating and I needed a utensil asap). I attempted to solve the problem by putting the holders in a clear bag. Sadly, this only made the issue worse because I had concentrated the sharp points; they continued to stick me whenever I opened the bag. Thus this frame turned "corn holder-holder" was born.
All you need is the following:
Heavy-duty frame (or the weight of the holders will cause the entire thing to fall over).
Small piece of cork board (use the glass you remove from the frame as a template for the cork board).
Simply frame the cork board like an image and you're set! I hear they sell interlocking corn holders these days, but I like these and the frame doesn't look so bad on the table either...
Oct 8, 2010 
