I’ve never grown or cooked fresh green beans. But Mark’s mom? She was a gardening and cooking queen – and that included lots and lots of green beans. When she died, she left behind dozens of jars of canned green beans. They were SO good – and when they were gone, we were sad all over again.

Last summer, I asked my mom – who has also spent many hours canning fruits and veggies – if we could “put up” some green beans together. We didn’t get around to it, but I’m hoping we can get it done this year. Until then, though, I thought I would at least try cooking with some fresh beans.

It seemed like a summer thing to do.

Once I got the idea of making a new recipe in my mind, I decided to go all out. I flipped through my ever-growing stack of Recipes to Try Someday, and I ran across one from Kraft Foods. It looked pretty simple, and I thought it would be a good accompaniment to the chipotle chicken recipe I’d already set aside.

Green Beans & Red Peppers
1 onion, cut into thin slices
1/2 cup vinaigrette dressing
1 lb. fresh green beans, trimmed
1 red pepper, cut into thin strips

Boil green beans in water. Saute onions in 1/4 cup dressing on medium heat for five minutes or until crisp-tender, stirring occasionally. Add beans and 1/4 cup of the boiled water. Stir, cover and cook for five minutes. Stir in peppers, and cook (covered) for five to eight minutes. Remove from heat and stir in remaining dressing.

Now, a few notes. First of all, the original recipe calls for two onions. I used one small onion, and it was too much for us (and we like onions). Second, I actually boiled the green beans for close to an hour. What can I say? I’m accustomed to soft, canned beans. (And I love them. I really do.) But once I added them to the onions, peppers and dressing, they were actually too mushy. So, don’t do that.

And, the final note is a sad one. Because . . . well . . . we didn’t like this dish. I wanted to like it! I really did. I mean, it’s so healthy and was fairly simple to fix. And I had used real, fresh beans like a real grown-up! But the fact is, neither Mark nor I liked these beans. His comment, of course, was that he wished I’d added bacon instead of onions and peppers. And I was kind of bummed out that I’d used up a whole red pepper on the dish.

So, you might like this. And I might try it again. But this first time around, it was not a winner in my house.

Because you will probably love this dish more than we did, I’m linking this post to Mouthwatering Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, 33 Shades of Green and Foodie Friday.