Garden of Ethan

I keep saying this, but there's nothing like cooking from the garden. I love creating my dinner around what I have available and it's always extra cool to be eating food that YOU cooked from food that YOU grew!
So yesterday, when I saw that my beans had finally decided to grow, I started thinking about how I could showcase them, to keep it simple but to accent their natural taste...I first, I thought about simply seasoning this mix of Green Beans, Wax Beans and Purple Beans with some lemon and dill, but I wanted to serve them along with Pork and some noodles that already had dill... What to do? I needed something flavorful but simple. and that would compliment my other dishes...
And then it came to me; couldn't I steam the beans in something other than water? Sure! So could I steam them in wine, no, better yet in sherry? Why Not? And couldn't I also throw in some fresh Rosemary sprigs to infuse it all? Absolutely!

Rosemary-Sherry Infused Garden Beans
-Fresh Green Beans, trimmed
- 1/4 c water
- 1/4 c cooking sherry
- 3 sprigs fresh rosemary

Pour water into the bottom of a pot, insert the steaming rack, then put in the rosemary and then the beans on top of the rosemary. Steam beans until crisp but tender, then transfer immediately to a bowl and serve.
These are very lightly flavored, centering mostly on the goodness of the bean itself, but the sherry ads a slight sweetness and the rosemary flavor does come through.

variations: use this same idea for any vegetable with any steaming liquid and any herb (for example, I have steamed Cauliflower in curried vegetable stock...)