Yes… I went there…
AGAIN!
I can’t help myself. I mean just LOOK how pretty they are!
I couldn’t help myself. Really! I mean these green beans were just TRULY stunning but after steaming them, sauteing them, making them into almondine, eating them raw I needed something else to do with them. Plus truth be told I wanted finger foods. Something I could munch on while I worked on editing photos for the site. This dish just kinda…happened.
The other day I bought 2 pounds of fresh green beans from the farmer’s market. Now I’m not sure why I bought that many as I had zero clue just how big the bag was. Though I’m thinking the lil farmer man was sweet on me as he cute calling me honey pie and darlin’ while I reciprocated with cowboy. This man was a good 80 years young, dirty overalls, handkerchief in this back pocket and yes, John Deere cap on his head. His face was worn and weathered. He had working man hands and moved slowly kind of shuffling his mud covered boots. At least I’m hoping it was mud and now cow poop. Oh wait I’m sorry I live in the country… manure. LOL
We were chit chatting and he was showing me his other veggies. You could see his pride come through as he talked about his farm and what they harvested. He asked what I did and when I told him I was a dual engineer during the day and a recipe creator/cook at night his corn flower blue eyes lit up. He then said with a toothless smile “Well I’ll be! A purdy young girl like you is multi-talented! Knock out looks and brains! I sure hope your fella knows what he has!” I just giggled, blushed and said “yes, yes he does.” The man was just so genuine and sweet. He wasn’t so much into selling his product but more so about meeting people and having pride in what he produced.
You don’t much of that any more these days. Most people are out there to make a buck, get rich quick without putting in honest, hard labor. Your job doesn’t have to be in the fields or the plant. It can be in the office, at home, raising a family or tending to someone in need. Good old fashioned work with ethics and values. Something that you take pride in. You do it for the love and passion, not the fat paycheck. Sure the money is great. We all need it to survive but it’s not the most important thing in life. Honor, integrity, respect, faith, love… those are what are most important.
…and bacon. Bacon is also what is most important *wink*. Wha??? C’mon you know me and my deep seeded passion for bacon! So as I stood there staring at a good handful of beans on the counter that I had just cleaned and trimmed I kinda dreaded eating them raw. Thing is I actually don’t like them raw which is odd since I prefer most of my veggies raw (except potatoes as that’s just gross). Now Mr. Fantabulous… either raw or mushy. Not steamed. Yeah, he’s weird. But he’s so friggen sexy so I ignore the weirdness. As I stood there staring at the beans I realized I didn’t have enough protein yet for the day. Yes I know bacon is so not the best choice for protein but again, it’s BACON dude! Yes… you just got Dude’d! That’s when it hit me! My bacon wrapped onion rings were a global success that why not do it with green beans?!
But since I wasn’t sure how Sriracha would go on the beans (plus I wasn’t feeling the heat aspect that night) I opted to go straight on baconfied beans! Crispy Bacon Wrapped Green Beans Fries sounded pretty damn good at that point in time. Literally the longest part out of all of these were wrapping them. It’s really simple and as you wrap the bean you twirl the bacon down in a spiral motion. You can leave the ends exposed to get them charred like I did or you can do full on wrappage. Yes, wrappage. Go with it.
See I’ve made green bean bundles before which is nothing more than a bunch of green beans that are wrapped in a single piece of bacon. Slathered with some butter and seasonings and baked but I didn’t want that. Again, I wanted finger foods as I did need to work…and stuff my face at the same time. Actually kinda like what I’m doing right now!
Once I wrapped them, they got popped in the oven. 20-25 minutes later these awesome things were on a plate and in my mouth! They were crispy and crunchy while the beans were soft and tender on the inside. They ROCKED! I swear if Mom made stuff like this when I was a kid I would have eaten green beans, onions and heck, even cherries all the time if wrapped in bacon.
Er… um.. on second thought, yeah.. scratch eating the cherries. I just can’t. Them suckers are just nasty. But these, dear GOD they are awesome! And with pre-season football starting next week, these WILL be on the party food table! And remember, make a double batch as you’re NOT going to want to share these and I can guarantee that as you’re walking to put these on the table some will accidentally on purpose fall into your mouth!
Crispy Bacon Wrapped Green Beans Fries
Find more fantabulous recipes, tips and tricks at www.thekitchenwhisperer.net. Also, join our TKW Family on Facebook
Ingredients
- 1 lb (about 18 slices) bacon, regular (not thick)
- 1/2 lb (about 40) fresh green beans (pole beans), ends trimmed
- Grated Parmesan cheese *optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450F.
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.
- Place a cooling rack on top and lightly spray.
- Clean the beans and pat dry.
- Place the bacon on a cutting board and cut eat piece in half. You want 2 shorter pieces per strip.
- Starting at one end of the green bean wrap place one corner of the bacon and in a twisting motion, wrap the bacon down the green bean to the other side. As you’re twisting, smooth the bacon tightly around the bean.
- Place the bacon wrapped bean on the cooling sheet.
- Repeat until all the beans are wrapped.
- Bake for 10 minutes on one side and using tongs, gently flip.
- Bake for an additional 10 minutes.
- Flip and put the oven to broil for 5 minutes to get the bacon crispier – remember it’ll crisp up as it cools.
- Sprinkle with grated Parmesan.
Leave a Reply