And those are midribs of what? Bok Choi?

Lovely plating.

Spooky fingers! Lovely.

I’m interested that you’re eating Scarlet Emperor as a dried bean. Runner beans are only ever eaten as green beans over here.

It's 10 degrees here with a noreaster on the way. I always make a huge pot of chili.

A masterpiece as usual Dcarch!

I hope all of you in the path of the great blizzard of '21 had a chance to stock up on beer, wine, and toilet paper! I would advise you to stay home but I imagine you have been for months already.

I'm indulging on fried foods today. Shrimp, Crappie, and steak fries with cocktail sauce made from homegrown/made ketchup and horseradish. Yum!

It is official we have a snow day tomorrow. No work. We have prepped. Both cars backed up to the road/driveway edge, (long driveway.) We just need to shovel a path, and the buildup from the town plowing behind the truck. If we keep the cars clean and the back plowing we will survive fine. Easy. (how dum-dumb in the past years when we hand snow plowed the entire driveway, 🙄. Or paid to have it done.

Good foods, full freezer, transfer switch if power loss. 4 days of meal plans that can be made without oven power drain. Many more meals if need be.

Very pretty colors on that plate - but now I'm curious, did you use the green part of the leaves?

Thank you everyone!

I was in a store and saw those monster bok choi, more than 24" tall. Never seen them that big before. So I bought one to try out. Not bad. But the leaves were kind of tough. So I cut them off and cook them separate and only used the stems for this dish.

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK, The Scarlet Emperor beans are delicious. Very creamy. You should try them. Yes, I also cook the young pods, and the blossoms, and the young shoots. The blossoms are very pretty, attracts many humming birds.

I am all ready to dig out about 15 inches of snow when I get up tomorrow morning.

dcarch

I’ll have to try the dry runner beans again next year. I tried them once and wasn’t impressed. Maybe it was the fault of the cook. How do you prepare them? Compost heaps all over the UK are loaded with what are considered waste beans at the end of the season. When we pull the vines down there are usually lots of pods left on them. I take what I want for seed and throw the rest away! It’s curious that our catalogues have many, many cultivars of runner beans but to my knowledge no mention is ever made of using them as anything other than green beans.

floral, I use the pressure cooker for the dried beans. I really like the flavor and the creamy texture. I guess that's just my personal taste.

So, we got about 30 inches of snow here. Will take a while to dig my cars out from the end of a 100 foot drive way.

dcarch

I’ve found some in the cupboard. I’ll have to give them a try.

We are dealing with about 22-24 inches. It was light and fluffy so the leaf blower worked great this time. 10 minutes every two hours kept the deck clear and a path to the cars...and kept the snow off the cars. Long driveway. We backed the cars to the end of the driveway right at the edge of the road. That way we could easily keep a path clear...no need to physically clear the entire driveway.

Thankfully never lost power. Cold smoked some mozzarella, cheddar, and a tomatillo/hatch chili salsa, then hot smoked a small whole chicken. Did and do have a few stovetop meals planned if we loose power.

City shut down but all should catch up today. Still snowing but lightly and not much accumulation.

Happy Groundhog Day, 🙄😜

Speaking of eating the seeds of pod-eaten immature beans (green beans), I just found a pound of seed saved from asparagus beans / yard long beans that I saved several years ago. I had not even finished shucking & cleaning them before I put them in the cabinet.

Those are related to black-eyed peas or field peas, and in the past I have rinsed them once or twice as they cook because some beans are toxic when mature unless rinsed so. I did not know if the asparagus beans were toxic, so I took that precaution. I don't even remember what the texture and taste is like, but I have put them into soup where one doesn't get a mouthful of them at once, so even if they aren't great, they are acceptable.

I think we got close to 30".

There is a car under the snow, and there is a 100' driveway in front of this car.

View of the backyard from kitchen window

I hope you were all comfortable and safe.

dcarch

My stupid phone "updated", so I don't have gardenweb on my phone right now! Too bad! I could have posted a pic of us driving to the coast with the convertible top down, going to Spuds Point Marina for clam chowder and a crabby sammie! Typical Ca weather.....top down with the heater on high and the heated seats on! ;)