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When it's peak season for green beans... we make them every which way. Try this recipe to enjoy one of our summer favorites...

Ingredients
Fresh, local green beans
Pecorino cheese
Olive oil
Lemon
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

To make...
Rinse and stem beans leaving them whole.

Fill a wide bottom pan with water so that it is 2 inches high up the sides. On a high heat... bring the water to a boil and then add a teeny tiny pinch of baking soda... it keeps the color of green vegetables vibrant. Cover with a loose fitting lid.

Turn down heat to a medium and add beans making sure they are fully submerged in the water. Blanch them at a low boil for 3 -5 minutes depending on their size... tasting them along the way to achieve your desired crispness.

Remove beans from heat immediately into a colander rinsing them in cold water to stop the cooking. Drain well and transfer to a serving bowl.

While still warm season the beans with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Drizzle with olive oil and add a handful of grated Pecorino. Then... anoint with the juice of a half a lemon... leaving the seeds behind. Toss well.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Adaptation...
Add fresh arugula and or fresh summer herbs just before tossing.

Every summer I leave our AMAZING teaching kitchen in DC to pass time at our 1965 beach cottage on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I cross my fingers and hold my breath that the original GE four burner stove top and oven works. And... every summer it does.

I LOVE our 45 year old General Electric stove. Although a challenge to cook on... it turns out our favorites... summer after summer after summer like... Gus's Fried Chicken, The New Basics Paella and Peach and Blueberry Rustic Tart.

So one of my cooking students texted from Miami to ask about Red Snapper.

He'd caught the fish and needed a refresher on how to cook it like we did in class a few weeks ago.

Here's what we told him...

Clean, scale and gut the Snapper.

Rinse and dry them good. Sea salt and pepper them inside and out.

Then... rub them down with olive oil.

Thinly slice 4 cloves of garlic, 2 scallions and an orange, lemon and lime.

Stuff the fish with your garlic, scallions and citrus and fasten them closed with skewers... saving some of the sliced citrus for later.

Grill Snapper basting with olive oil to avoid sticking.

You'll know when its done if the flesh is white and moist.

Just before serving... anoint with the juice of some of the reserved citrus.

Garnish with the rest of the citrus slices and some chopped flat leaf parsley.

Enjoy!!!

On our last day in the kitchen we wanted to treat our boys to some special food so we chose two dishes that use only very simple ingredients but require some attention and care when making... Fried Chicken and Homemade Tagliatelle Pasta.

For the Fried Chicken, we followed a favorite of ours here at Just Simply...Cuisine, Gus's Fried Chicken from Gus Vanderbilt's restaurant in Memphis. For those interested, the recipe is in the Saveur Cooks Authentic American Cookbook. If you are ever in Memphis, you MUST visit Gus's Fried Chicken. It is an unforgettable experience.

We soaked the chicken in buttermilk overnight and then we covered it in flour, paprika, cayenne, salt, freshly ground pepper and Old Bay and deep-fried it. The boys loved it!

Next, we made homemade pasta by creating a well of flour and adding beaten eggs into the center. We combined the flour to the egg mixture a little bit at a time until we had a pliable dough. We let the dough rest for thirty minutes and then we ran it through a pasta maker.

We used a very simple Roman sauce, Cacio e Pepe to adorn the pasta. The boys may never feel the same about eating dried pasta again!

Today our Landon boys learned how to use less of an ingredient to make more taste.

Our menu...
Grilled Marinated Skirt Steak Fajitas
Pan Toasted Tortillas
Jalapenos and Onions Roasted in a Grill Pouch
Chipotle Cream
Gan's Blueberry Buckle with Whipped Cream

Just a hint of chipotle peppers in adobe sauce created the perfect amount of fire in our Chipotle Cream garnish for our fajitas. See the recipe below....

Chipotle Cream

1-2 chipotle peppers from a can of chipotle peppers in adobe sauce

The juice of half a lime

½ cup sour cream

¼ cup mayonnaise

½ cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped

Sea salt

Freshly ground white pepper

In a mini food processor or blender, mix the above ingredients until pureed. Adjust seasoning for taste and set aside.

And for dessert...

Gan's Blueberry Buckle

Batter:

¼ cup unsalted butter

¾ cup sugar

1 egg

½ cup milk

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Butter and flour an 8" square baking pan.

Sift dry ingredients together and set aside.

Beat butter and sugar together. Add egg and beat until incorporated. Slowly blend in milk. Mix in dry ingredients. Gently stir in blueberries.

Topping:

Mix together with a fork...

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

½ tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

Drizzle over batter.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or when center is poked with a knife it comes out clean. Eat warm with vanilla ice cream.