Recipes

It seems that blogs with recipes are very popular.  Welllll, I have some recipes from my family and my husband's family which those of you reading this might enjoy.

However!!  I am NOT giving out the recipe for the famous Iron Mountain Inn chocolate chip cookies!  Guests have wheedled, begged, bribed all to no avail.  This recipe is only going to passed along to my granddaughter when I am on my deathbed!

My granddaughter enjoys helping me make these cookies especially since her dad really enjoys eating them. Whenever I visit, I have to take some along because the ones I make with the local flour, eggs, and other ingredients just don't taste the same as the ones I make back home at the Inn.

Here are a stack of them.  They won't last long once guests arrive.  In fact, those guests who have visited before, head directly to the cookie jar, don't even pass Go, just want the freshly baked cookies to start their visit at the Iron Mountain Inn B&B.

On the other hand, I do have some recipes which I am delighted to share.  My great-grandmother's cook, Maude, is one.  She was known to spend her days up to her elbows in flour and sugar.  But one of the unique recipes which has been handed down is how to cook fresh green beans.

First you get a big pot of boiling water with a little salt in it.  Then you snap off the ends of the string less beans.  No cutting off the ends, that changes the beans in some way according to the recipe.  Then you plop the beans in the boiling water and add a little baking soda.  This helps keep them green even when they are cooked a little more than al dente.

Now comes the unique part...you must skim the scum off the surface of the water with a sterling silver spoon!  Nothing else works quite as well.  I know, I've tried.

Once the beans are cooked to a crispness of your liking, drain them and then pouring ice over them to keep them from cooking any longer.  This is if you aren't serving them right away, hot from the pot!  Of course, if you live in Estes Park, CO, hot from the pot isn't very hot at 9,000'!   I've been with friends and we stood around the stove eating directly from the pot to have slightly warm food!

The beans are very good as is.  Or add some unsalted butter to them.  Add some herbs such as a little  basil or oregano.  That's the beauty of cooking....you never have to eat or prepare the same food twice in a row.  In fact...you could go through life never eating the same thing twice!  After all, every cook does something just a little different.  I compare it to Bach, Beethoven and the Beetles.  They all took the same notes, but look at what each of them did with them!  Sure aren't the same!

Now, are you going to try this method of cooking green beans?