I don’t have babies.  I just never wanted one of my own.  I always thought I’d make an exception when Anthony Bourdain, Clint Eastwood, or Ryan Gosling asked me to, but strangly enough, they never came a-knocking.  Whenever I’m around kids for extended periods of time my ovaries tie themselves up in knots.

I will confess, however, that I enjoy when my friends get pregnant. It helps to keep me out of the bars…a little. One of my nearest and dearest friends, Casandra, is currently expecting a little girl. So, instead of hanging like we used to, in a smoky bar demolishing a bottle of midshelf vodka, now we cook dinner and watch Game of Thrones.  It’s a nice break for me…sometimes.  Because I still like my vodka and am always drinking for two. Plus, she makes a pretty adorable pregnant person where I’m sure I’d just gain 100 lbs and have thighs that went all the way down to my feet.  Here she is, smiling and happy with totally normal-sized ankles:

 

The other night Casandra and I got together to cook a dinner that anyone, pregnant chick or not, would be proud to eat and decided to create a blog post on one of my favorite go-to side dishes: fresh sauteed green beans with garlic and mushrooms.  Yummmm.

 

The ingredients:

• Fresh green beans
• 3-5 toes of garlic
• sliced mushrooms
• extra virgin olive oil
• dried basil
• salt
• freshly ground pepper

First, prep your green beans.  I chop or break off the viney-stem end and give them a good rinsing.  Easy as that.

Next, finely chop your garlic and slice the mushrooms.  We didn’t take a picture of slicing the mushrooms but we’re assuming you can use your imagination here.

 

Fill a deep skillet with water, bring it to a boil, salt it liberally, then add your beans.

 

You just want to blanch them.  Cook them in the boiling water until they’re just tender enough to eat but still have lots of “snap” in them.  Test them to be sure they’re perfect before you pull them off to drain and run cold water over them to stop the cooking process.  Here’s adorable pregnant Cass doing the “green bean test”.

 

Yep.  They’re perfect!  Drain and shock them in cold water and let’s move on.

In the same pan, add a couple tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and begin sauteing your garlic.

 

Next, add the mushrooms.

 

Now, add about 1/2-1 tablespoon of dried basil and some fresh cracked pepper and let that all saute until it’s cooked over medium heat.

 

At this point, I have to physically restrain myself from eating the garlic and mushrooms out of the pan with a pair of tongs.  Do what you must.

Now add the green beans back into the pan and saute them with all that mushroomy-garlicy goodness until they’re steaming hot again.  Add some sea salt and stir until everything is hot and perfect.

The entire process happens in less than about 12 minutes and these are best when hot, fresh and right off the stove so plan on making them last, when everything else is almost done so they don’t sit around.

Now all that’s left to do is to enjoy this perfect side dish and soak up all your accolades for being the best damn green bean cook this side of the Mississippi.