Full of Beans

Is it Thursday already!?! Actually, I was busy preparing this and this and hoped that you would not mind too much that this post slipped into Friday. Merci beaucoup.

My original idea was to share about my new (used) market basket on wheels that rolls with me to the far-off ED market.


I'm saving euros with that basket! (Not to mention my sometimes aching back.) The post was to be about how I would fill this market basket with haricots verts if I could as I put a fair dent in the bounty during the summer months.


But to accompany my "full of beans" post, I've decided to let you in on a slice of my little French life. Yes, I found that someone else turned out to be "full of beans". And it has been a bit expensive for me so far.

You may have heard about the dollar/euro exchange in the past months. The dollar has been...errr....in the toilet to be quite frank. Since I am still exchanging dollars to euros monthly, it chokes me as I watch the euros with which I live costing more and more. Given that, you can imagine that my choke-o-meter went off the scale when I received the quote for the new lenses for my glasses: a whoppin' over-six-hundred-euros for the lenses only!! I had put off changing to my new prescription to avoid the expense but when I could no longer delay, I took in an old pair of frames (several years old) and ordered lenses only. Being "of a certain age" as they say here in the hexagon, I have graduated to progressive lenses that keep me from falling down stairs and getting dizzy if I move my head too fast but this quote was shocking to me! They were lovely at this optical place, offering me the opportunity to pay in multiple payments - which I accepted. But unfortunately, as the dollar dropped, each equal payment was cost more than the last...and so it went.

In need of sunglasses as well, I called my old place in southern California where I had had my glasses made for decades before I moved to France...and went into progressives. As I had hoped, my loyalty with this place paid off and he offered to do my progressive sunglasses for around 300...dollars. Veritable music to my ears. What's more, he told me that he had done the same thing for clients in Europe before and was familiar with getting them to the other continent. And the people here who had so kindly offered to me a payment schedule also agreed to make that little measured dot on the lenses to send off so that the SoCal place would have the proper measure for the progressives. (They were very sensitive to my dollar situation here...nice, huh?!) Formidable!

I sent off my very cool and very funky frames, picked up on some special a couple of years ago, that I had been holding for sunglasses. Sent insured from here, I called the SoCal store to give them a heads up and make the connection to stay in close touch as we moved through the process. They arrived quickly and he was great in getting right on the task as soon as they arrived.

Now to get them back to me...and here is where it breaks down terribly. I felt confident that he knew what he was doing because he had "sent to clients in Europe before"...errr....that turned out to be not so true. Once at the US Post Office, he told me he handed them over to a guy at the Post who said he knew "exactly how to do this" and took my box of new sunglasses, stuck them in a bag, put a tag around it and voilà! At that point, they seemed to have been lost forever! They were sent to me on 9 July 2008...and have not yet arrived. The worst part: I've already paid that $300 for the lenses. There was no insurance, no tracking... Nada. Zip. Rien. Zilch.

I'm screwing up my courage now to call this "full of beans" character in SoCal to do a bit of problem solving as to how to "make this situation right"...for me! Fingers crossed. Keep the good thought for me as I go forward to get this settled. Or send all good thoughts that my very cool and very funky sunglasses show up...tomorrow! (We are headed into the season of annual strikes here in France and the post is often the first to drop out of service.)

In the meantime, back to the business of the real beans. Here are a couple of recipes with which to enjoy the last of summer's bounty of green beans.

They have gotten a bit of a bad rap in centuries past. Sarah Josepha Hale suggested the following preparation in The Good Housekeeper in 1839:

“Green Beans, or string beans as they are usually called, must be done [boiled] till very tender -- it takes nearly an hour and a half.”

And then there was the incarnation dropped out of a tin can where the first hour and 20 minutes had been taken care of for the modern housewife of the 50’s era.

So tender they are, straight from the marché, that they are topped at stem and tail with a quick twist of the wrist and dropped into a hot bath briefly before being tossed into a pan of melted butter for a bit of a shake around then served instantly alongside a grilled steak (as was the case when I was invited by Richard Olney’s brothers for lunch one day while there were on their annual visit Chez Richard...another lovely story to share in the future), or with Tomatoes Provençal (as was the case while I was staying with a friend in Corsica). I tend to add a clove or three of finely minced garlic to that butter, cooked gently until it is soft and sweet then toss in the beans for a shake and a shimmy before serving the fragrant side dish with a piece of grilled lamb.

And then there are days when it is simply too hot to crank up a grill and cranking up the water to a quick boil is the limit. On those days, these lovely green beans make their way into one of a couple of salads that have become summertime regulars around the table at La Fourchette’s.


They are both delicious and great on a picnic!

Bon appétit!
Leslie

HARICOTS VERTS SALAD WITH BLACK OLIVES, RED ONIONS AND FETA CHEESE

Serves 4 to 6

1 3/4 pounds fresh green beans
1 t. sea salt
1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1/2 – 2/3 cup of black oil cured olives, pitted
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
3 T. pine nuts, lightly toasted in a dry skillet

Vinaigrette
2 T. olive oil
1T. red wine vinegar
1T. Dijon mustard
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Trim the stem ends from the beans and cut then into 2 inch pieces. In a large saucepan, bring 6 cups of water to a rolling boil. Add the salt and drop in the beans. Cook over high heat for about 2 minutes, or until the beans are tender but crisp; do not overcook.

Place in a colander under cold running water to stop the cooking. Shake the colander to drain. Put the green beans in a large bowl along with the red onions, olives, feta and pine nuts. Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together in a small bowl and pour over the salad ingredients. Toss gently and serve.


SALAD OF GREEN BEANS, SAUSAGE AND BACON (SALADE d’HARICOTS VERTS, SAUCISSON ET LARDONS)


Serves 4 to 6

1 3/4 pounds fresh green beans
1 t. sea salt
3 ounces dry sausage or salami, cut into thick slices and then into strips (about 1/2 cup)
4 bacon slices, cooked crisp, drained and crumbled
3 T. pine nuts, lightly toasted in a dry skillet

Vinaigrette
2 T. olive oil
1T. red wine vinegar
1T. Dijon mustard
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Trim the stem ends from the beans and cut then into 2 inch pieces. In a large saucepan, bring 6 cups of water to a rolling boil. Add the salt and drop in the beans. Cook over high heat for about 4 minutes, or until the beans are tender but crisp; do not overcook.

Place in a colander under cold running water to stop the cooking. Shake the colander to drain. Put the green beans in a large bowl along with the sausage, bacon, and pine nuts. Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together in a small bowl and pour over the salad ingredients. Toss gently and serve.