This time of year affords such great culinary pleasures - especially for those of us who love to cook - with the bounty of local produce that is available. I prepared and steamed two pounds of beans this morning, lovely wax and green snap beans. I made a vinaigrette bean salad that practically screamed summer in its mixture of flavors and color.The wax beans were so gorgeous in their sculptural sleekness that I was moved to photograph several of them on this Mikasa plate. It is rather the essence of warm weather with the blaze of fresh, vibrant color basking in a sunbeam.
Washing and snapping the beans reminded me of some of my earliest memories of participating in the family rituals of food preparation. Both sets of grandparents had large gardens but in my father's family, the women made a social event every evening of preparing the vegetables for the next day's meals. I can remember sitting with the adults, equipped with a large round aluminum mixing bowl in my lap, snapping green beans as I listened to their conversations. They taught me how to pull the strings off the string beans, how to snap the beans into the proper bite sizes, how to inspect for any defects but most of all, how to appreciate food. In allowing me to be part of this adult, feminine world, I was also allowed a glimpse of the past that was woven through their conversations.
They told stories of relatives and neighbors, discussed recipes and cooking tips while I marveled at the sound of peas escaping from their pods and bouncing off the the sides of the gleaming aluminum bowls. Often, I had no idea what they were talking about but I was just happy to be included. We sometimes sat out on the screened porch, if the inside of the house was too hot. I can still feel the steamy southern evenings when the air was "so thick that you could slice it with a knife" and I was wrapped in the smell of the freshly snapped beans...