My Green Bean Casserole Recipe

 It took a while for my in-laws to trust me to bring anything for Thanksgiving. My MIL and her mother don't let go of the responsibility to make main dishes or even prized side dishes very easily. To be fair, my SIL did forget the ham one year so I can't exactly blame them. A few years ago I finally got in on the cooking with my green bean casserole. Its nothing fancy or unique, which is probably why its allowed in this very traditional Appalachian household.

Green Bean Casserole Recipe

Green Bean Casserole on the left next to the family's favorite Sweet Potato Casserole on the right

The following recipe does not include added salt and uses reduced sodium soup base. The salt comes from the parmesan cheese and French friend onions. This is salty enough for my in-laws with health issues. Feel free to adjust for your tastes.

I double this recipe for Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner.

Ingredients

• 1 quart of green beans (I used the beans we can from the garden so I can't tell you how much store bough to use, sorry)
• 12 oz reduced sodium cream of chicken (feel free to use cream of mushroom. My partner is allergic to mushrooms so we avoid them)
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• black pepper to taste
• French fried onions - I admit, I used the can from the store rather than make my own.
• 1/2-1cup Parmesan cheese, grated.

To Make

Grease your 9x13 baking tray with butter, oil, or spray.

Preheat oven at 350F

Saute chopped onion in butter until caramelized. Do NOT put raw onion in your casserole as it will not be cooked through in time.

Strain green beans and mix them with cream of chicken soup, caramelized onions, garlic, and black pepper to taste.

Spread green bean mix into baking pan. Top with parmesan cheese and French fried onions.

Bake for 30 minutes - until the top is golden brown and inside is bubbly.

Optional

If you are using cream of mushroom soup base, add sliced mushrooms to your onion saute

Giving Thanks and Looking Forward

Thanskgiving is now over and as we digest good food, I've been processing the past year. Its been a rough one, I won't lie.

Damon hurt his back pretty bad at the start of the year and we've been struggling with doctors and insurance and so on ever since. This also meant I didn't have the much needed help on our homestead and a lot of projects failed or never got started.

We lost chickens to a weasel, caught 3 swarms of honeybees only to lose 2 of them, adopted 2 rescue dogs that we may or may not have been ready for, deer and groundhogs nibbled away at our garden faster than we could, and more.

That all said, I still have so much to be thankful for. Damon is healing, slowly but surely. Our kid is growing and healthy and happy. Two dogs now have a home where they aren't being abused, neglected, or abandoned. And we're doing ok even without the canned greens or fresh eggs this year.

For the rest of it, we will try again, with new knowledge on how to keep deer, groundhogs, weasels, and more away.

As I type, Damon is removing more dead trees from our property to help bring in more light to our very shady space and give less of our acreage to roaming deer. We're enjoying mild weather so prepping the garden beds for the winter rest is planned alongside putting up the Christmas tree and holiday decorations.

Supposedly the Celts viewed this dark and cold time of the year as a beginning. They started the day of a calendar on the night before and the year during the dark season. Before we are born, it is darkness in the womb and so too is it for a day to come. I like this theory so I am treating this time of the year as a beginning rather than wait for New Years.

Here's to Fresh Starts with a Grateful Heart.