HOW TO MAKE GREEN BEAN BUNDLES

While the turkey's in the oven I wanted to tell you how to make green bean bundles the quick and EASY way! My husband and kids like this dish so much better than my green bean casserole that has cream of mushroom soup and Durkee's onions on top and say it's the best Christmas and Thanksgiving recipe ever...other than the cakes, pies, candy and other sweets, of course!

INGREDIENTS

2 cans of whole green beans (NOT STORE BRAND! IN MY EXPERIENCE, THE STORE BRAND HAS TOO MANY SHORT BEANS WHICH MAKES THEM VERY DIFFICULT TO BUNDLE)

1 pound of cheap but still good tasting bacon (TOP QUALITY BACON IS TOO THICK AND INFLEXIBLE MAKING IT DIFFICULT TO WRAP THE GREEN BEAN BUNDLES)

1/2 cup of chopped onion (optional)

3/4 cup of your favorite Italian salad dressing


INSTRUCTIONS - HOW TO MAKE GREEN BEAN BUNDLES THE QUICK AND EASY WAY!

Open both cans of beans, drain them, pour them into a bowl and set aside.

Remove the bacon from the package as a solid block. DO NOT SEPARATE THE PIECES YET! Cut the rectangle of bacon slices in half making each slice now about 4 or 5 inches long.

NOW..peel off one slice of bacon and lie it across the cupped, palm of your hand. Pick up a wad of green beans from the bowl (that makes a bundle about 1 1/2 inches across) and lie it across the slice of bacon in the palm of your hand.

Quickly pull one end of the slice of bacon over the top of the beans diagonally tucking the end underneath the green beans and then repeat with the other end of the slice of bacon thus forming the VOILA!!! bundle of green beans. Carefully place the bundle in a shallow, oven safe baking dish about 8X11 inches or thereabouts. You should put them in a dish that's attractive enough to put on the table is preferred since you won't want to be transferring the bundles from one dish to another after they are baked.

After you are done, drizzle the bundles with salad dressing taking care that the beans are seasoned. I like to make this a day ahead so that the beans and bacon marinate in the salad dressing but it is not essential.

Bake the dish of green bean bundles, uncovered, in an oven that has been preheated to 350° F for 10-15 minutes or until you can see things start to bubble a little and then turn on the broiler and broil them 4 or 5 inches from the heat for a couple of minutes or until bacon looks browned. Do NOT walk away from the oven during this step or you may be serving blackened beans and take it from me that nobody's going to buy your story that you were experimenting with the Cajun version.

That's my quick recipe for this dish. If I have time later, I'll write some instructions on how to make green bean bundles using fresh green beans rather than canned beans. If I don't get around to it, please don't sweat it because the only benefit to using fresh beans is that you can trim them in uniform lengths which I have to admit does make a lovely presentation. But when time is of the essence, this recipe works just fine and I have NEVER had anyone complain.

Christmas Menu Ideas

Hey everybody, I'm open to some new and interesting Christmas menu ideas if you happen to have any lying around. I made a huge pan of southern cornbread dressing using my family's traditional recipe for Thanksgiving with all the usual trimmings including a large cheesecake for those who don't fully appreciate sweet potato pie or banana pudding.

Plus, we had enough turkey to feed our large group, have turkey sandwiches for a week and then boil it for a big pot of turkey carcass soup. My nieces and nephews cringe at the word "carcass" so if you have any suggestions for renaming my favorite leftover turkey recipe I will consider them.

My problem is that after eating one creative leftover turkey recipe after another for several weeks, the idea of baking another one so soon is not so appealing to me and my husband actually turned a lovely shade of green awhile ago when I mentioned it. His Christmas menu idea is to buy rib eye steaks, potatoes and salad fixings and let that be it; he even offered to be the cook! Whoa, now that's hard to resist but I can feel all my ancestors in the background threatening to haunt me if I'm lazy enough to cave.

We are not big fans of ham around here so I need Holiday recipes that don't use ham and Christmas menu ideas that will keep both my living and departed family members happy!

CHRISTMAS DINNER MENUS

I have been suffering over possible Christmas dinner menus. Somehow the thought of basting a turkey and stuffing myself with dressing so soon on the heels of Thanksgiving is not appealing.

I have polled the kin who will be attending to see if they will be sad without a traditional Christmas dinner. You might be wondering what a traditional, southern holiday meal might include. At our house that would be a combination or all of the following:

• A golden brown basted turkey to serve as a centerpiece and an extra baked turkey breast so nobody gets mad if the white meat is gone before they get a slice.
  
• Two large jellyroll pans full of cornbread dressing with a pitcher of special gravy to pour over it which works wonders if for some reason the dressing is dry.
  
• Sweet potato casserole using one of several different recipes
  
• A crock-pot full of slow simmered green beans or green bean bundles
  
• Molded cranberry salad.
  
• Yeast rolls
  
• Gallons of sweet iced tea
  
• Desserts
  

Since we had turkey for Thanksgiving and the thought of doing it again is not appealing. I'm researching Christmas dinner menus for baked ham and all the trimmings.

Do you have a website that has a good recipe or some Christmas dinner menu ideas that include something festive besides turkey? Please let me know about it in the comment section, quickly. I need to make up my mind so that I can make a grocery list so that I can go shopping for the ingredients before tomorrow.