Croque Monsieur Casserole, Fried green beans
Well, it’s Tuesday, not Sunday night. My motivation level the last couple of days was used up entirely at work and I didn’t get around to getting this posted! Quarantine blahs are a real thing. I go through huge bursts of energy and then… nothing. Couch potato it is. I realize this blog is mostly about food, I need to seriously write some other posts, but right now all I can think about is I WANT TO GO SOMEWHERE ELSE TO EAT AND HAVE SOMEONE ELSE SERVE IT TO ME AND THEN CLEAN IT ALL UP WHEN I’M FINISHED!!! Ugh. This is a hard time for foodies! There’s only so much cooking you can do. BUT, I’m still making sure to put effort into Sunday Supper, even if we did have Taco Bell and The Willard take-out Friday and Saturday.
This casserole was delicious! The recipe is from Melissa Clark’s Dining In French again this week, which we purchased at from our lovely friend Tiffany at Wild Geese Bookshop! Check her out, she’s filling online orders like crazy! wildgeesebookshop.com
I will say, I initially missed the caveat on her sidebar about NOT using soft bread. That was all we had, and it was a tad soggy, but still very tasty. The edges and outer pieces had crisped up pretty nicely. Lesson learned, read the whole page, even the stuff in the margins. Oops. I did use both Dijon and grainy mustard in the sandwiches so there was lots of good flavor in them. The assembly did make kind of a mess, but part of that was operator error (I’m a flinger) so there was quite a bit of cheese in areas that did not require cheese. Also oops. But then you can eat that cheese, so it’s a win-win situation.
Also, I am still obsessed with frying green beans. I can’t help it. They taste SO MUCH better than just heating them up out of the can, and it really is minimal effort! I don’t measure anything. I diced up about half a cup of onion, a clove of garlic, and sauteed them in olive oil. Then tossed in the drained green beans, added S&P, and fried them until they started to brown. This time, at the end I added in about a tablespoon (guessing) of balsamic vinegar, and let that glaze up the beans for a minute or two. Delicious! And didn’t take 10 minutes to do! DEFINITELY worth the effort. I took extra pics this week just in case you didn’t believe me. I even used the crappy generic beans! My point is, you can make something fairly special with pantry staples if you just give a little effort. There s a metaphor in there somewhere. 🙂
Cheers! ~ Jen
