Crockpot Southern-Style Green Beans

Crockpots to the Rescue

When you plan to make a big meal for the holidays, you suddenly realize there is only so much room in your oven or on the stove top to make all the things you want to eat. Here is where a crockpot slow cooker can really come to the rescue!

Not only does the handy dandy crockpot free up room elsewhere in the kitchen, it also helps spread out the work on the day of your holiday event. Most crockpot sides need to get started 4 to 8 hours before you serve them.  Once you get them started, you'll have time to rest before the stove-top and oven made dishes on your menu need your attention.

Plus once they are cooked, just turn your slow cooker to warm and serve them buffet style right out of the crock.

Green Beans with Bacon...Yum!

This indulgent way to prepare green beans reminds me a whole lot of how my Grandma made them on the stove top for holiday meals when I was a child.  I discovered this year that the wonderful Musica Spanish Pole Beans I grow in my garden are absolutely delicious prepared this way.

If you remember my post on these pole beans, you'll recall that I save bummer crops by washing them, drying them, cutting them into slivers and then freezing them in Ziploc vacuum freezer bags.  Which means, I did all the prep work on these green beans way back in August--a real holiday time saver!

This recipe is so simple, you'll want to include it at your next get-together:

Southern-Style Green Beans

serves 6 to 8

6 strips of nitrate-free bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 pounds of green beans, ends snipped and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
4 peeled cloves of garlic
6 whole black peppercorns

Simply place all the ingredient into a 5 to 7 quart slow cooker, cover and cook on LOW for six hours.  When ready to serve, discard the garlic cloves and whole peppercorns and dish up using tongs or a slotted spoon.

Recipe adapted from Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever (With More Than 400 Easy-to-Make Recipes) by Diane Phillips. 

Want to get a crockpot/slow cooker of your own?  Click here to browse the selection and compare prices at Amazon.com. A slow cooker also makes a great holiday gift for the time-strapped cook in your life.

What The Seated Gardener Makes for Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in the United States and all around the world.

So, were you wondering what The Seated Gardener makes and eats on Thanksgiving?  Let me share what was on the menu at my home this year:

1. At 12 o'clock: homemade cranberry orange relish and fresh steamed asparagus
2. At 2 o'clock: Crockpot Baked Potatoes, slow cooked and delicious
3. At 5 o'clock: a wing from the 9 pound Li'l Butterball turkey that was fried using a Butterball Professional Series Indoor Electric Turkey Fryer and seasoned with a Butterball Buttery Creole Seasoning Kit
4. At 8 o'clock: Southern-style Green Beans made in the crockpot, featured the Musica Spanish Pole Beans I grew this past summer in my garden
5. In the middle: Stove Top stuffing (my husband's favorite) with diced onions, celery, carrots and fennel
6. Next to the plate: a glass of Sutter Home Fre White Zinfandel (alcohol-removed wine) in a Govino Recyclable Shatterproof Plastic Wine Glass
7. Not pictured: Gala Apple pie

Check back over the weekend as I will be sharing the recipes I used to make this Thanksgiving feast.

 

 

Related articles

• Crockpot Southern-Style Green Beans (theseatedgardener.com)
• Crockpot Baked Potatoes (theseatedgardener.com)
• Cranberry Relish to Remember (theseatedgardener.com)
• Gala Apple Pie (theseatedgardener.com)

Harvest Spotlight: Musica Spanish Pole Beans

On the vine

 I love growing green beans.  Growing green beans is really quite easy.  I just plant the seeds, add water and some fertilizer, provide a trellis for them to climb on and watch them grow.

The most challenging part of growing green beans is figuring out how to harvest the ones at the top of the vines.  That's where a Pik-Stik really comes in handy. I have a dedicated one stored in the garage that I only use outside in the garden.

I find that the green bean seeds I buy from Renee's Garden always produce consistent and delicious harvests from my container garden.  I can't always find her amazing seeds at my local nursery, so I often order directly from her website, which is quick and easy.

Now I think these green beans are the kind of beans that are used to make those French green beans you find in cans and frozen packs in the grocery store.  When it comes time to prepare them, I wash them, dry them, trim the ends and then turn them into slivers.

Preparing them for cooking or freezing

I enjoy them steamed or in my Garden Green Bean Medley, a recipe I just discover this year.  When I have more than I can eat at one time, I freeze them in Ziploc vacuum freezer bags so I can use them well into the Fall and Winter.

Try Musica Spanish pole beans next year in your garden.

 

 

Related articles

• Garden Green Bean Medley (theseatedgardener.com)

Garden Green Bean Medley

One of my favorite vegetables is green beans. They are so easy to grow and so easy to preserve after harvesting bummer crops. Simply wash, dry thoroughly, pack into Ziploc vacuum bags and freeze.  When you get around to using them, they'll taste as fresh as the day you picked them from your garden.


But don't pack them all for freezing!  Try this recipe to make a delicious, harvest-inspired Garden Green Bean Medley to enjoy now.  I'm even contemplating this instead of my usual green bean casserole for Christmas.  

Garden Green Bean Medley

1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 2 to 3 inch-long pieces

3 tomatoes, halved and thinly sliced

1 onion, thinly sliced

2 large bell pepper, halved and cut into thin strips - choose two different colors from green, yellow, red or orange

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 can sliced ripe olives

1 palm-full dried basil (the way Rachel Ray measures her herbs and spices)

sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1/3 cup slivered sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1. Mix together the beans, tomatoes, onion, peppers, garlic, olives, basil, salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons each of the balsamic vinegar and olive oil into a 4 quart slow cooker.   Sprinkle the sun-dried tomatoes on top.

2. Cover and cook on LOW about 3 hours, just until the vegetables are crisp-tender.

3. Remove the vegetables from the crock and place into a serving bowl, leaving the cooking liquid behind. Dress with the remaining 1 tablespoon each of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Based on the recipe Green Beans, Peppers, And Tomatoes With Balsamic Vinegar And Sun Dried Tomatoes in the cookbook The Best Slow Cooker Cookbook Ever by Natalie Haughton. Buy The Best Slow Cooker Cookbook Ever at Barnes&Noble.com.