A California Girl Learns a New Trick

I love green beans.  Period.

I don't care how they're prepared- fresh from a farmer's market or simply reheated from a can, I'm going to love them.  

I'm going to DEVOUR them.

My mom laughs about how I used to eat them by the can as a kid.

Well, then I moved to Tennessee ...Southern cuisine is the one type of cooking that I continually struggle with- and between Mississippi and Tennessee I've lived in the South for 12 years now.  That seems like such a long time!  Ugh.  I'm getting old.

I once made corn bread so bad my ex-husband spit it out.  I couldn't fry anything- I had no idea what I was doing.  And green beans?  Well...um...I wasn't used to cooking them with bacon grease/fatback/etc.

In fact, I didn't know what fatback was.  lol it's a thing, I promise.

One of those things whose name I laughed at when I first moved here...right up there with "Livermush".  Yup, that's a thing too.

Actually, I still laugh when I see that on the supermarket shelf :-)

Fatback is actually a piece of "hard fat" from a pig, or so Wikipedia tells me.  I'm sure you could substitute bacon or something, but I've found fatback works so well in my recipe.  And I played around with this for a while before I perfected it!

When I buy a package of it, I cut it into strips and freeze them so I can pull a piece out for my beans whenever I need it.

These aren't fresh, light, gourmet beans.

I love those, I do.

These are flavorful, seasoned, lovely, delicious, country-style green beans.

And they're phenomenal in a whole different way :-)

Give them a try- I'm sure you'll love them too!

Classic Country Green Beans

50 oz can cut green beans, undrained 

2 oz piece fatback 

2 cubes chicken bouillon 

1 1/2 tsp onion powder 

1 tsp garlic powder 

1 tsp seasoned salt 

1/2 tsp black pepper

1. Empty can of green beans into large saucepan. Add enough water to just cover beans. Place remaining ingredients to pan and stir to combine. Bring liquid to a boil and allow to boil for 10 minutes; reduce heat to low and cook for an additional 30 minutes.