Garlic and Green Beans

As you must know by now, I'm not a fancy cook - I like to describe myself as producing good, plain food. I'm generally content to cook veggies simply and to adorn them with nothing more than a wisp of butter and perhaps a light shake of salt. In my view, it's hard to improve on the flavor of good, fresh vegetables.

Every now and then, however, I do embellish. I had some green beans in the fridge and some garlic; that reminded me of a recent Sunset recipe that sautéed fresh green beans with garlic and fresh thyme (I used lemon thyme as that is currently booming along in my pot garden - no, not that kind of pot!) for a little flavor boost. I used olive oil, just a drizzle, and minced the garlic and herbs. Once the beans were just starting to brown lightly, I added the rest for a moment or two to just warm the garlic and release the scent from the lemon thyme. Off the heat, added a squeeze of lemon juice.

I don't like the word "nice." So namby-pamby. But, in this case, it was appropriate. The dish was nice. Not offensive, not spectacular, but happily, tastily - nice.