CLASSIC GREEN BEAN BAKE

 

 

By Esther Smith, Beloved Grandmother to the Smith and McMurry Families

 

 

Sometimes its the simple recipes that cause all of it to come flooding back.  

I remember sitting with all my brothers and sisters and the cousins on the back porch stringin' beans that our Grandmother had grown in the garden. Grandma would bring in a couple 5 gallon buckets of beans and we'd get to prepping them for so many different recipes, or canning, or freezing.  

We'd all sit and laugh and tease each other and just pass the time in whatever way we knew how. Sometimes, we'd continue stringin', while a few of us would start up a card game and deal everyone in. Such a simple thing.  

You know, at the time, I hated the work. It was itchy, tedious, and (for a 10yr old kid), it was BORING. I wanted to be out running in the fields and being a wild man!  

Now the years have come and gone, and all the siblings and cousins have moved away, and we just celebrated 3 years since Grandma passed. Our babies never met Grandma, and my heart sometimes hurts when I remember how excited she was when Becki got pregnant, and then we found out we were having TWINS. Grandma was over the moon!  

She passed quietly, at home, surrounded by her family. Just a month later, the twins were born. When we were with her in those last moments, so many amazing, heart filling memories flooded me with tears as I remember how hard my Grandma and Grandpa worked to show the example of LOVE to our family.   Life just moves so fast! You don't realize you're living in the "Good Times" until they've already come and gone! I look back on those memories as the most precious things I have. Simple memories of laughter with my family, of songs, games, and the fellowship of food. Food prepared by those who loved us in ways we couldn't fully understand as kids.  

Cherish the NOW. Cherish TODAY. Love your babies, love your parents and grandparents, because tomorrow comes so fast.  

~Justin

 

 

Ingredients:


1 can cream of mushroom
soup
1/2 C. milk
1 tsp. soy sauce
Dash pepper
4 C. cooked cut green beans. Note:

(Use 1-16 ounce package of frozen green beans, 2-9 ounce
packages frozen green beans, 2-16 ounce cans green beans or
about 1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans.)

1 can French fried onions

Directions:


In a 1 1/2-quart casserole, combine soup, milk, soy sauce,
pepper. Stir in beans and 1 /2 can onions. Bake at 350' for 25
minutes or until hot; stir. Top with remaining onions. Bake 5
minutes more.

Simple, but delicious! Share and save those precious memories!