An absolutely gorgeous day.  Low 70s and a slight breeze.  No humidity.  I could get used to this. Alas, it shan’t last, but I’m taking advantage of it while it’s here.  Windows are open and the grill has been used.

Tonight was a couple of strip steaks.  Salt and pepper – nothing else.  A couple of potatoes, cubed and roasted in the oven – with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  And French-cut green beans with butter, salt, and pepper.

It was a salt-and-pepper sort of night.

We both bemoan single-use kitchen gadgets, yet we seem to have an awful lot of them.  Tonight I broke out one of my more favorite ones – a string bean slicer and stringer.

I do have to admit I haven’t seen a string bean in quite a while.  They’ve mostly been bred out of existence, I think.  I remember stringing beans as a kid.  It was some tedious work.  Not difficult, but every damned bean had to be done by hand.  I got pretty good at it pretty fast.  Fast-forward many years, and I’m still doing beans by hand – but this time with a French green bean cutter.

I really have no idea where I got it or how long I have had it, but it’s one of the best single-use kitchen gizmos around!  Just feed the bean in and pull it through.  If you have string beans, it will string it for you as it goes through.  Way cool.

The beans come out great and besides a great side dish, make for a great cold bean salad.

And I think at some point I’m going to have to soften my stance on single-use gadgets.  We just have too many of them to be taken seriously about it…