garden fresh-picked green beans
Italian-style with goat cheese and pimento
For me, the best time of year is during the summer when it’s time to reap the rewards of our spring-time labor in the gardens! A perfect time for my family’s Fresh Italian Green Salad and A Kitchen Garden update.
Although my favorite all-time season is spring when everything outside wakes up after their winter nap, I experience just an amazing internal feeling of gratification for an abundant garden harvest throughout summer. Truthfully, it never fails to overwhelm me how we can feed and sustain ourselves in such a heathy, pure way just from planting tiny little seeds!
Food from seeds!
Seriously, just stop and think about this for a second! It’s mind-boggling!
If everyone could have a garden, whether on an acreage, farm, or in even in pots placed on a patio or windowsill, we’d all be nourishing our bodies, minds and souls so much better!
I’ve been so fortunate to have been raised in a family of extraordinary gardeners from Italy to Iowa. Gardening is just in my blood!
fresh green beans from my gardens
When we built our home, I specifically wanted my vegetable and herb gardens to be right next to my kitchen with a door that I could just walk out into the gardens with my sheers and harvesting basket in hand at a moment’s notice.
my kitchen window and gardens just outside my door
During the winter, I look out at my raised beds through my kitchen window and see them empty and sleeping through the cold. My thoughts seriously drifting off, as I cannot wait until I can get my hands back in the dirt to plant again come springtime! As my father used to say, “You’re the one in the family that certainly got the farming gene.” No one else in my immediate family gardens any more . . . just me. And I love it!
This week, we picked beans. LOTS of beans!
Which means that it is that time of year to prepare my ‘go to’, ultra-simple Fresh Italian Green Bean Salad that my mother continues to make to this day and that which everyone eats straight out of the serving bowl without waiting to use a bowl of our own! Oh yes, we eventually do use our manners and serve this bean salad in a bowl, but when it is first made? Look out, we go straight in for it and can’t stop!
use about 1 pound of freshly cooked beans
Add about 1 up of chopped onions added to your favorite home-made or store-bought Italian dressing (we use Good Seasons packets and use part red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar in place of regular apple cider vinegar. And we also always use extra-virgin olive oil instead of regular ‘oil’)
toss the beans into the Italian dressing while the beans are still warm
generously salt and pepper to taste
To amp this salad up a little bit more, sprinkle in some crumbled goat cheese and some drained, diced red pimentos! DELICIOUS!
I use the same recipe for our family’s Simple Beet Salad
Fresh Italian Beet Salad
and now if you love green beans, especially the thin French ‘haricot vert’ variety, you will absolutely LOVE this fresh recipe for
Fresh Haricot Vert Green Beans with Roasted Peppers
Fresh Haricot Vert Green Beans with Roasted Peppers
one last peak from my kitchen window as a lazy summer day goes by . . .
Enjoy this recipe about my
Fresh Garden Green Bean Salad and A Kitchen Garden !
Mindy says
July 7, 2014 at 3:49 PMI love seeing photos of your garden! I can’t imagine life without a plot of dirt. The beans sound delicious.
Roz says
July 7, 2014 at 4:13 PMOh thank you Mindy, I couldn’t live out a plot of dirt either! I’ll be right by your blog to see what you’ve been up to!
Roz
Angie@Angie's Recipes says
July 8, 2014 at 5:30 AMYou have a wonderful garden! Those chive flowers are beautiful…can’t believe that you already harvested your tomatoes while mine are still very tiny.
Roz says
July 8, 2014 at 8:24 AMThanks Angie! It’s just because of living in the South where things just grow so much faster and for a longer season. I love the chive flowers too and want to plant more of them just for the pop of color!
Roz
2 Sisters Recipes says
July 8, 2014 at 10:40 AMHow wonderful and amazing your garden is! You are so lucky to grow your own veggies like this. We love all the stunning photos you post every time.
Ciao!! Anna and Liz
Roz says
July 26, 2014 at 5:23 PMThank you Liz and Anna! Hope all is well in Charleston! I’d love to get down there and visit again soon!
Hugs,
Roz
Laura Dembowski says
July 8, 2014 at 12:59 PMGreen beans are always a hit! Your roses are gorgeous! We grow a lot of flowers, but not food. We leave that to the pros at the farmers market.
Roz says
July 26, 2014 at 4:32 PMI totally understand how you feel about the pros at the farmers’ markets . . . there are MANY, MANY things that I have little success in growing! I leave those to the pros too! Thank you for your kind visit! I’ll be right by to see what you’re up to in your blog!
Hugs,
Roz
pam (Sidewalk Shoes) says
July 8, 2014 at 1:03 PMOh my goodness that view from your window is gorgeous!
Roz says
July 26, 2014 at 4:41 PMThank you Pam; I’m an old soul and the best place on earth for me is in my kitchen and looking out at my gardens. It was a dream that I am now living. I’ll be right by to see what you’re cooking up!
Hugs,
Roz
Kitchen Belleicious says
July 8, 2014 at 4:55 PMoh your garden is lovely and just beautiful and those beans are to die for. I love the dressing you used on them
Roz says
July 26, 2014 at 5:13 PMOh Jessica, you are too sweet; it’s just a simple Italian dressing that works in a pinch of time. it’s been a stand-by since childhood! Hope your Saturday is going SWELL!
Hugs,
Roz
Betty says
July 8, 2014 at 10:51 PMWhat a beautiful garden! I come from a gardening family too, but the deer eat everything I plant. Sigh. I get loads of fresh veggies from my brother though, and I have a big bag of beautiful green beans in my refrigerator right now. I think everyone at my house would love this salad. I will attest to the fact that all green beans actually do taste better when eaten one by one right out of the serving bowl. 🙂
Roz says
July 26, 2014 at 5:00 PMHi Betty, Sounds like we have A LOT in common with family gardening backgrounds! And secondly, we have so many deer out here on the acreage that we have to continually put up fences, netting, spray plants, etc. Someday I fear, I won’t have the energy to fight them any more. Then I’ll go straight to the Farmers’ Markets!
Hugs,
Roz
mjskit says
July 10, 2014 at 11:26 PMI won’t be picking beans for at least 2 more weeks. I can’t wait, because I’d love to give this recipe a try!
Roz says
July 26, 2014 at 4:47 PMAre your beans ripe yet MJ? How’s your garden doing? I’ll be right by in a moment!
Hugs,
Roz
Shari Kelley says
July 14, 2014 at 4:19 PMWhat gorgeous beans! And I loved the picture of your kitchen window with the garden plants in front of it. How nice to look out on it every day, and great that it is so close for picking. The bean recipe sounds so yummy with the dressing on them. I am going to have to check to see if beans will grow in Arizona. I have never tried growing them before. Thanks for the glimpse of your kitchen garden and another wonderful recipe!
Roz says
July 26, 2014 at 5:08 PMYou’re welcome Shari . . . glad that you have a chance to ‘cyberly’ visit my life and my kitchen and gardens! So happy to share with you!
Hugs,
Roz