What in this world has happened to Saturday night TV shows? As mama would say, “They have completely gone to $#!* pot!” Yes, I cleaned that up. Mama didn’t mince too many words.

Our Saturday nights were always the same. Mama, Noma and I would get our boiled peanuts and buckets and sit in the living room to shell peas, snap beans or shuck corn. We would watch “our programs” while we worked.

Do you remember when Saturday nights had some great programs? We would start with HeeHaw. I loved to watch the cloggers! They were my absolute favorite part. I had taken dance classes since I was 2 and would always get up and clog with them. At 7, I thought I was world clogger extraordinaire!  I could do a seriously mean cow tail like nobody’s business!

The Love Boat followed. Man I loved the adventures of Captain Stubing, Dr. Bricker, Gopher and Isaac. I had a mad man crush on Ace. Sigh.  “…the LOOOOOVE Boat, soon we’ll be making another run. The LOOOOOVE boat, happiness for everyone! Set a course for adventure, your mind on a new rooooomance….” Good times on that boat. Good times.

Finally, my all-time favorite!! Fantasy Island with Tattoo announcing to Mr. Rourke, “Da Plane boss, da plane!” The scarier the fantasies the more I loved the show. Mama and Noma would cover their eyes, but not me. I wanted to live on Fantasy Island!

By the time all of those were over, we had usually made a dern good dent in the bushels of veggies we were dealing with. I always loved to help because I was well aware of the rewards in the freezer, in the jars and on the dinner table.

This past week while exchanging recipes with fellow food bloggers, Ellen, author of From Scratch offered her Easy Dilly Beans recipe for a trade. I couldn’t resist as it brought back all of the memories of those amazing Saturday nights I spent shelling and shucking with mama and Noma.

Check out the original recipe for Ellen’s Dilly Beans and also don’t miss her SUPERB recipe for her Rosemary Rubarb Jelly here. Also, don’t miss her take on our homemade Rosemary Lavender Rolls. She made pretzels with a twist on our recipe! How awesome is she??? Check those out here, Rosemary Lavender Pretzels. You can thank me later. The best things are always From Scratch 😉

Refrigerator Cilantro Dilly Beans…From Scratch

Ingredients:

• 1 pound fresh green beans or more; this recipe is completely scalable
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1 bunch dill, roughly chopped
• 1 bunch Cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1/2 onion, sliced into rings
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp. black peppercorns

Directions:

In a small pot, combine water, vinegar, sugar, salt and garlic. Bring to a boil, then let cool to room temperature. In a larger pot, bring some water to a boil.  While it’s coming to a boil, fill a large bowl with ice and water.  When the water is at a full boil, put the beans in for 30 seconds, just to blanch them.  Then drain them and plunge them into the ice water to stop them from cooking.

Drain the beans.  Chop half of an onion into rings or thin strips.  Grab a couple of sprigs of fresh dill.  Take a clean mason jar and put in the onion, the dill, and some whole black peppercorns and a dash of red pepper flakes.  You can play around with the seasonings and see what you like.

Then, carefully pile as many of the beans as you can into the jar. Really cram those guys in, but make sure that they don’t extend over the top of the jar.  You’ll want them to all be covered by the brine.

Carefully pour in the brine until it is up to the top.  If you have enough extra, make two jars’ worth! Stick a lid on it, and put it in the fridge for at least 4 days and up to a month. Good luck getting them to last that long.  These aren’t shelf-stable, so make sure you keep them in the fridge.

To make shelf stable beans, leave 1/4″ headspace in the jar, top with a sealable lid and ring, and place in a pressure canner. Allow to process according to canner directions for beans.

Again, DON’T. MISS. THESE. PRETZELS!!

Life is too short to eat ugly food y’all.

*Last photo copyright From Scratch, 2014