Sharon comes to town!

...so let's put her to work!

...or better yet, vacu bag her with the FoodSaver!

Sharon's in town for volleyball games this weekend, and stopped by after dropping Justin off at work (handy for her - she stays at his place and he lets her use his car!). We had a few hours to kill before meeting the OCLF (Off Campus Lunch Friday) for lunch at Green Beans (aka Evergreen Buffet, but let's be honest - their most absolutely amazing buffet dish is the garlicky stir fried green beans!!).

Since we had time to kill, and since we're talking about green beans, and since they were piling up here at home even AFTER I'd given some away and we'd eaten a bunch - it was time to try out the new FoodSaver! Folks here like Steven, FarmGirl and my cousin's wife Stacy (hi Stacy, Bryce and Mav!) rave about their FoodSavers. Apparely (according to the booklet), normally green beans would only last 8 months in the freezer - but vacu-pack 'em with the FoodSaver and they're good for 2-3 years! Yowza!!

So first someone's gotta stem/trim all those beans! Sharon didn't have anything better to do - the kitten didn't want to play with her. Voila! Bean-trimmer extraordinaire!


But first we must stop Sharon from EATING all the beans!!!



Ok, so she didn't really TROUGH at the beans, but we DID find the beans, after steam blanched for 4 minutes and then shocked in an ice water bath were REALLY good dipped in blue cheese dressing. MMMmmmmmMMMMMmmmm Good! Now Sharon - save room for lunch!

And then there's my usual kitchen helper - Tucker. He REALLY loves watching whatever's going on on the kitchen counter. I don't know why he decided NOT to hop up on the counter this time - usually I have to remove him. Luckily the barstool seemed good enough for him, so he sat and supervised for awhile.


Hm, the way that ear's cocked back, maybe we're doing something wrong? Did you have an opinion Tucker?


As Sharon was stemming/trimming (what do you call it?) beans, I started steam blanching them, and then dropping 'em in ice water. Once they were all done I had to figure out the best way to dry them (per instructions - is this necessary?). I didn't feel like hand blotting piles of beans with kitchen towels - that seemed like more effort than it was worth and would soak most of the towels.

BUT!

I have another kitchen gadget that came to the rescue - the salad spinner!! Fill it with beans, spin, shake to redistribute the beans, spin again, and voila - mostly dry!! They seem to hold water a little better than lettuce - perhaps it's their fine hairs? Oh well - no biggie - that took care of 'em in no time!

And then it was time to learn the FoodSaver. Read the instruction manual? Nah! It didn't seem very helpful (since I was skimming). Watch the DVD? Eh - too slow, and we had to head out the door for OCLF!! So after playing around with it a few minutes, I finally realized I had to put the open end of the bag down into the slot that also catches excess liquid, and THEN turn it on. Neat! Nicely packaged green beans!!

And I'm SO glad I got the model that let's you push a button on the side and swivel the whole thing into a veritcal position on it's base - easier for storage!

Here's the end result:

Man, that doesn't LOOK like it was a huge colander full of beans!! Oh well - that was yesterday. I'm sure if I make it out to the garden tomorrow, I'll easily have that many to pick again!

So - all you FoodSaver people - any tips?? Recommendations? I understand I can take these bagged beans and drop 'em in a pot of water, bring the pot to boiling, and once it hits boiling the beans should be thawed/cooked?! Do you re-use your bags? Do you prefer make-it-yourself bags from the rolls, or do you just buy a bunch of the bags? What size do you prefer? (I thought the 11 inch wide would be best, but have decided maybe 8 inch wide is best for servings-for-two) What's your preferred method of buying the bags - in store or online? So far we've found them cheapest at WalMart, and even found generic ones (anyone tried 'em!?), but I still need to check Amazon. Might be best hitting Bed Bath & Beyond with a 20% off coupon!

Brett missed out on playing with the FoodSaver, so we bought some strawberries and blueberries today for him to play with later. And I might start shredding squash for it as well?

Maybe I can vacu bag the kitten!!!