©istockphoto/Benjamin Brandt

Sunday, and the green beans in the vegetable drawer were on their third day of staring back at me in a very accusatory way. I had hoped for fava beans, but they are no longer anywhere close to in season. So I had these enormous green beans. Not skinny either. As thick as my ring finger.

I needed to find a tasty recipe that was also relatively healthful. I tend to pack on three pounds a weekend when I’m cooking three meals a day for the family. The idea of having to run another mile in an effort to melt away the excesses of Friday through Sunday is anathema. So I turned to that stalwart companion, The French Farmhouse Cookbook, recommended by our fellow bon vivant, Aesthete.

I found two. Breton Green Beans and Green Beans with Onions sounded good. I had the ingredients for both.

The problem was that I also had some more leftovers to deal with. I’m a frugal cook. Never more so than in years when the price of groceries soars and I’m forced to confront a budget. I’d been gnawing away at a side of smoked salmon for almost a week, and I was worried that I wouldn’t make it alone through the fish before I was forced to abandon it to the garbage can raiding squirrel who lives in the backyard.

Fresh green beans. Smoked Salmon. Well, why not? I combined both recipes and ad-libbed a bit. It came out fine! I only wish that I had had alfalfa sprouts, too. Then I could have entitled this post “Luncheon from Alfalfa to Omega-3’s….” But the mix, and the pun, may have been a bit dubious.

The Easy and Elegant Life’s Smoked Salmon and Green Beans Luncheon for Two.

15-20 of the huge fresh green beans.
1 clove of garlic, spilt in two with the green germ removed.
1/2 a sweet onion, cut across into paper thin slices
1/2 cup of fresh parsley
1 tablespoon butter
2 lemon slices
salt and pepper
smoked salmon (I used about a cup and a half) flaked.

Boil a pot of salted water.
Wash the green beans and destring them if needed. Using your Cutco kitchen shears, clip the ends of the green beans and cut them on the diagonal into 1 inch pieces. Boil them for about 4 minutes. Drain.

Mince the parsley and garlic together.

Melt the butter in a skillet, letting it go until it stops foaming. Sauté the onion in the butter until it is soft (about three minutes?) Add the garlic/parsley and sauté for an additional minute or two. DO NOT brown the garlic. When you start to smell it, mix in the drained green beans. Sauté for another couple of minutes, enough to get the mix coating the green beans. Salt and pepper to taste. Flake in the salmon and serve with lemon slices to squeeze over the dish.

We drank an inexpensive Sauvignon Blanc (Canyon Road, California, 2007) with the meal. It brought out all the bright flavours of the beans and mellowed the salmon.

©istockphoto/Inta Eihmane

Since having children I am rarely on time to anything that involves the four of us. Herding cats must be easier than getting two toddlers dressed, fed, out the door and strapped into the numerous safety devices in the car.

On our recent trip we were either too early or too late. Our hostess was still at her rocket scientist job and we realized that we had failed to take into account our luncheon options. The kids were fine with the yoghurt we’d packed along, but Mrs. E. and I were out of luck. By the time our hostess came home, we were famished. So it was with grateful abandon that we tucked into the simplest of summer meals: a sandwich made from just picked cucumbers.

Perfectly delicious, summery, very easy to make and if you trimmed the crusts, even a little bit elegant. I would have never thought to make these this way. Then again, I’m no rocket scientist.

The Rocket Scientist’s Cucumber Sandwiches
(Serves two)

In a medium bowl mix:
1 large, homegrown, delicious cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/2 block of cream cheese softened (about 4 oz?)
2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste

Spread on:
4 slices of homemade country white bread.

Serve with iced tea.

That’s it. Can also be used as a dip. It’s summertime, the recipes should be easy!

We here in Virginia are inventors and entrepreneurs. The internet is based in Northern Virginia, for goodness sakes. Yes, we have a way with influencing the globe. Take for example the watermen who devised more efficient and cheaper ways of harvesting our Blue Crabs from the Chesapeake Bay. Yes, it is we Virginians who are responsible for jumbo lump crab meat at USD$31.00 (+) a pound. There just aren’t that many crabs left.

And what is summer without Blue Crabs? No jumbo lump crabcakes. No Crab Imperial. No She-Crab Soup. No pan fried soft shells.

Sacrifices will have to be made.

This year, it will be cheaper to eat lobster than to dine on the more humble crab. Chin up and uncork the champagne.

The Easy and Elegant Maine Course Lobster Salad.
Serves Four.

1 cup of cooked and chopped lobster. (Or one to two small tails.)
Grated Onion to taste.
White pepper and salt to taste.
Vinaigrette
(chill one hour)
1 cup chopped celery
2 teaspoons of dry sherry
Mayonnaise
Dash of dry mustard

Garnish with fresh parsley, pickles and hard-boiled eggs.

Mix well, lobster, salt, pepper, vinaigrette and chill for an hour to blend the flavours.

Add in the celery, sherry, dry mustard and about a tablespoon (+) of mayonnaise. Stir to combine. Serve over a bed of lettuce and garnish with chopped fresh parsley, chopped pickles and chopped hard-boiled eggs.

If you’re out of bubbly, a nice rosé goes equally well.