Green Bean Bonanza!!!

Wow!  In the span of just a few days my green beans have really taken off! 😀😀  I had picked just a handful last week and then we were gone for a few days.  I came home and checked the garden to find a bean bonanza!!!  So I thought I would share a recipe here for a Sweet and Sour Green Bean Casserole.  I really love a traditional green bean casserole, but this one is an awesome variation and a family favorite too!


SWEET & SOUR GREEN BEANS

You can make this with fresh, canned or frozen green beans.  If using fresh, I trim and clean about 3 cups of beans then saute/stream them in a large covered skillet for 3 minutes in 1/3-1/2 cup of water.

For frozen beans, I cook about the same quantity in the microwave.  For canned, use 3 cans.

Drain prepared beans.  Brown about 1/2 package of bacon with one chopped medium size white onion..  Drain well and chop bacon.  Mix together 1/2 cup of mayo, 4 1/2 Tbsp sugar and 2 1/4 Tbsp vinegar.  Mix everything together and place in a clean skillet to heat thoroughly and serve.


Hope you enjoy this one!  Share the YUM.

~ Connie

Quick Broccoli Salad

Getting the garden in this Spring has been a challenge.  Our family life was disrupted a bit with helping out our aging parents and work trips out of state.  I've decided to treat each gardening season as an experiment and give myself some extra grace and forgiveness.  Family is way more important than good looking flower beds, and my husband jokes that the veggies seem to do best when they are ignored! 😁  We have not had good luck with raising broccoli, but it's still one of my favorites so I hit up the local farmers market for my fix.  Below is a favorite recipe that I've fixed for years, I hope you will enjoy the yum!

Quick Broccoli Salad (serves 5-6)

1 head broccoli chopped small

1/4 cup diced red onion

1 cup raisins

8 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled

1/3 cup shelled sunflower seeds

Combine above in a mixing bowl and stir.  

In a separate bowl combine the dressing ingredients.

1/2 cup mayo

3 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp vinegar

Pour over veggies, stir well and chill.

Check the tabs at the top for more recipe ideas or join the recipe email list to stay updated by email!

Happy Munching!

~Connie

Apple Pear and Romaine Salad

One of my favorite salad recipes is one shared with me by my grandmother.  She was a wonderful cook and I have lots of awesome recipes from her.  This salad is so colorful and tasty that it has become one of my all time favorites!  I hope you will give it a try soon.

Apple Pear and Romaine Salad

1 pear and 1 apple, chopped

1 cup salted cashews, chopped

1 head romaine lettuce

4 oz shredded swiss cheese

1/4 c. dried cranberries

Mix all together

Dressing - 

1/2 c. sugar

1/3 c. lemon juice

2 tsp finely chopped onion

1 Tbsp dijon mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp poppy seed

2/3 c. oil

Mix together and pour over lettuce mixture (use whatever amount you desire ...this seems like a lot of dressing to me!) Chill salad 1/2 hour before serving.

Hope you enjoy this as you wish for Spring! 

~ Connie

Down a gravel road ...

Hi-
My name is Connie and I'd like to Welcome you to my Blog - PrairieChickNotes.blogspot.com.

I have decided in 2024 to revive my blog.  2024 is my 60th year of life, so I have been telling myself "Go Big, or Go Home!".  This life is NOT a dress rehearsal.  It's the only life we've got here on this planet.  In case you are keeping track, my 60th birthday will be on 12-31-2024 and I like chocolate or flowers! 😁

The "Prairie Chick" refers to myself and my return to rural life in Iowa a few years ago.  I grew up in Iowa (not on a farm) but as a small town/somewhat rural area girl. 😉  After college at a large mid western university, I was excited to move to my "big girl" life in Chicago!  I worked in both the city and the suburbs as an interior and graphic designer for over 28 years.  All the while, my husband and I raised our four children in the charming suburb of Glen Ellyn, Illinois.  We led your typical crazy, busy suburban lives with jobs, friends, kid sports, church activities, piano lessons, etc.  It was a great life, but as our kids headed off to their colleges and the nest started to empty ... we began to think about our next adventure.  We had long talked of moving out of suburbia and dreamed of owning some place out in the country.  

My wonderful husband works in the technology industry and is able to work from anywhere.  And over the years I have transitioned from corporate design work to freelancing from my home.  So with the kids finishing up high school and moving on to college, we began to explore the possibility of finding our dream home out in the Iowa countryside.  Within the span of four months in early 2017, we found our dream property,  sold our home in Illinois,  worked out the details of working remotely and moved 10 miles outside a small town in central Iowa.  

We still wake up every morning and can't really believe we made such a life change.  And we still sit on our front porch or by our cozy fireplace most evenings and are so happy that we did it!

As I reflect on what my blog could be, I know it's going to be hard to narrow down the focus... but then again who says I have too!  I am a person with a lot of interests (thanks Dad) 😉 so I may just write about them all.

I think I will be sharing easy recipes (featuring some fresh goodness from my garden), art and design projects that I am working on and my other interests in reading, genealogy, sewing, writing, photography, fashion and knitting. I hope you'll come along to see what's happening down our gravel road! 😉

Love & Hugs,

Connie

contact me by email - prairiechicknotes@gmail.com