Yellow Wax Beans

Another farmers market purchase was yellow wax beans. I used some in a soup that also incorporated the rest of my lima beans last night (yes, it was 100 degrees here yesterday and no, I don’t believe in “soup season”), but I decided to showcase the rest in a wax bean-intensive dish, which I based off this recipe on The Crispy Cook.

Yellow Wax Beans with Tomatoes and Shallots

2 cups yellow wax beans, trimmed
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
1 or 2 healthy splashes champagne or white wine vinegar
flaked sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Boil the beans in water to cover for 5 minutes or until just past crisp-tender. Drain and run under cold water. In the same pot, heat a little oil, add the shallot and cook until soft, then add the tomatoes and cook for another minute or two. Add the beans and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled.

We got home a bit late tonight and, having been at a not-overly-vegan-friendly conference all day, I was starving, so this was quickly put together and served with Gardein Crispy Tenders, a cucumber salad I made yesterday, and a few pickled radishes.

Gomez and Torticia are proving to be mighty popular with readers, so I wouldn’t dream of making a post without pictures, but when we got home they were WOUND UP, and it is very hard to take pictures of kittens that are running around like lunatics, especially with a flash that has batteries that need to be recharged (and is therefore taking a while to cycle between flashes), and especially when one is starving and trying to cook dinner at the same time. So these pictures may not be very good, but they do capture the essence of An Evening With Gomez and Torticia.

The day before I brought the kittens home, I spent close to $200 buying them supplies, which included a number of toys. They also inherited toys from Tigger and Brachtune. Then last weekend, my mom and aunt came to visit and singlehandedly more than tripled their toy supply. What I’m trying to say here is these cats are NOT hurting for cat toys. Naturally, their favorite thing in the world is pipe cleaners. This picture amuses me because it looks like the pipe cleaner is a squiggle I rather inartistically added in GIMP (which, I’m afraid, is how I do everything in GIMP), but really Torticia is tossing it into the air. (The pipe cleaner used to be wound up in a nice spiral.)

I love, love, love it when cats carry their toys around in their mouths.

Torticia managed to lose the red pipe cleaner so I gave her a new yellow one, which she again carried around in her mouth because she knows how to make me swoon with her cuteness.

Speaking of losing toys, at the exact same time the red pipe cleaner went missing, Gomez lost HIS toy under the heater. At least he seemed to; he tried to retrieve it for so long I interceded on his behalf and there was absolutely no toy there. No idea what he did with it.

Poor Gomez.

I found him a new toy but he wasn’t sure if it was a fair trade for his pawn.

You can’t tell here but his final decision was whatever Torticia was playing with.

Finally, Torticia surrendered her toy to Gomez and invaded my dinner.

9 Comments »

  1. Lisa G/K Said,

    June 29, 2010 @ 7:10 am

    Greetings from Utah!
    Thanks for the food & the kitty posts…
    It may be the Jewish mother in me – but I would think again about having the cats play with pipe cleaners – I would be afraid of a piece of the metal being inadvertently chewed/swallowed.
    On the other hand, we are huge fans of boxes. It’s amazing how our cats never tire of the hide-behind-the-box/bum wiggle/attack game. It goes on for hours!

  2. kibbles Said,

    June 29, 2010 @ 9:57 am

    I love those kittens! Gomez is gorgeous, I just noticed that he has very dark stripes. I used to have a black cat who had that, you could only tell in the sun, he was like a secret tiger.
    Also. Cats + toys in mouths = ADORABLE. Our blind cat does this with his favorite toy, but it takes a while for him to find it again. Sometimes in the middle of the night he will leave it on our bed.

  3. Amanda Said,

    June 29, 2010 @ 11:18 am

    Oh it looks like Gomez has some faint black stripes on his black coat! Tres adorable. I too love it when my cats carry things in their mouths – my black cat does it the most and it makes my heart melt every time!

  4. jamie Said,

    June 29, 2010 @ 12:58 pm

    these kittens are awesome!! We have discovered that our cat goes ultra bananas for strips of bamboo plant. We brought some home from a gardening job about three feet in length and the mere rustle of the leaves will wake Penny out of a complete dead sleep and send her catapulting across the room airborne for 12 feet. It’s pretty funny. If you ever come across a length of bamboo plant, give it a try. 🙂

    Love all the photos, food and cats!

    Cheerio!!

  5. renae Said,

    June 29, 2010 @ 1:10 pm

    Lisa, ugh don’t make me paranoid! I’m trying to kitten-proof everything! But we’ve given cats pipe cleaners since I was a kid and I’ve never seen anything remotely bad happen; I think it’s pretty safe. By the way, I’ve been meaning to email you about The Help, though now it’s been months since I read it!

    Kibbles, did your cat keep his stripes past kittenhood? I’m hoping Gomez doesn’t outgrow them, they’re so cute!

    Jamie, we actually have bamboo growing in our backyard so I will definitely try it! I remember playing with my cats with the palms from Palm Sunday when I was a kid. And peacock feathers from the farm next door.

  6. susan Said,

    June 29, 2010 @ 8:34 pm

    i really wanted an all black cat and i also adopted his (striped) sister with him…he has stripes you can see in the sun five years later…another black one (yeah…they are a favorite of mine) is solid black…i love love their facial expressions..amazing how your two look much leggier already….
    i originally came for the food blog a long time ago…but these new little guys have me flipping through their pictures daily…so cute

  7. Josiane Said,

    June 30, 2010 @ 4:09 pm

    Though I really like wax beans, I usually end up using them in the most uninspired ways. Thanks for providing inspiration here!

  8. Courtney Said,

    June 30, 2010 @ 9:00 pm

    I love waxed beans, and that dish looks simple and perfect to showcase them–yum!

    Your cats are too cute for words!

    Courtney

  9. kibbles Said,

    June 30, 2010 @ 9:17 pm

    My black cat is about 8 years old and he still has the stripes. Sometimes I just see a black kitty but in the sunlight, bam, tiger!

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