Green Beans With Hazelnuts and Blue Cheese

A few years ago for Thanksgiving, my mom made green beans with blue cheese and toasted hazelnuts and after helping myself to seconds, thirds, heck, probably even fourths, that night… I haven't been able to stop thinking about them.  Cut to 4 years later and I finally decided to attempt to recreate said blessed recipe for Friendsgiving.  And you know what?  Every last nibble of the green beans were gone.  I got a text message a few days later from Julie begging me for the recipe.  The power of the blue cheese green beans lives on!!

Now, I should them you know that I really love blue cheese.  It's my preferred pizza topping, it goes of almost all of my salads and I pop handfuls of crumbles into my mouth.  I like the strong stuff, the mild stuff and everything in-between.  I blame my mother, she got me hooked early.

If blue cheese doesn't make your skirt fly up, that's ok.  I'll convince you sooner or later.  For the time being, try a buttermilk blue cheese in this recipe.  It has enough flavor to satisfy a seasoned veteran like me, but is mild enough to ease the unexperienced in.

If you were wondering, this recipe is quick to make, easy to store and a dream to reheat (…if there are even any leftovers).
 
Green Beans With Hazelnuts and Blue Cheese
Ingredients

• 2 pounds green beans, trimmed
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 3/2 cup whole hazelnuts
• 3/4 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans, return to a boil and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until bright green and crisp. Drain well and set aside.
2. Return the pot to medium-high. Add the butter and hazelnuts and stir until the nuts are lightly toasted and fragrant, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the green beans and stir until heated through.
3. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese and toss until melted. Season with salt and pepper.

Whole Wheat Pizza

I'm back living at my parents house until I move out to Seattle in August.  I graduated a week ago, two of my housemates are in Greece/Dubai, the other is in New Mexico for the summer and I didn't want to be all by myself in Ann Arbor.  It's also really nice to be home, I'm spending some very nice quality time with my parents until I leave "forever."  I've been helping my mom around the house… and cooking dinner.  While their house may be a little bit messier when I come home (sorry Mom!), they can't complain because I cook dinner a fair amount.  Case in point, Whole Wheat Pizza.  My best friend, Katherine (Crutcher, she lives in Texas) sent me a similar recipe about a month back.  I added sugar (fun fact: yeast love sugar, it's their superfood.  The more they eat, the faster and better they grow), spices and decreased the all-purpose flour by a ½ cup.  I also adapted the cooking time.  The two pizzas I made were quite different but equally delicious.  The one pictured on top has a pesto base with sun dried tomatoes, basil chiffonade, pine nuts, onions (diced), mozzarella and parmesan.

This one has a tomato sauce base with onions (diced), red & yellow peppers (diced), broccoli, blue cheese, pine nuts, mozzarella and parmesan.

It's an easy and healthy dinner, and even if you haven't had much experience making bread, this is a fairly smooth dough so the kneading isn't hard at all!

Whole Wheat Pizza

Ingredients:

• 2/3 + 4 TBSP warm water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 packets of yeast
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ tsp italian seasoning
• ½ tsp oregano
• ½ tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup wheat flour
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Cornmeal for pan

Directions:

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water.
2. Mix in spices, salt and olive oil.  Add in flour one cup at a time.  Depending on the weather and the humidity, you made need ½ cup more of all-purpose flour.  Knead for 5 minutes.
3. Form dough into a tight ball and let rise in an oiled bowl covered with a damp and clean dish towel for about an hour, or until doubled in size.
4. Preheat ove to 450 degrees.
5. When dough has doubled in size, punch down and divide into two equal sections.  With either your hands or a rolling pin, make into two thin 12-inch pizzas, dusting the pans with cornmeal.
6. Pre-bake crusts in oven for about 6 to 7 minutes.  Top pizza with desired toppings and cook for about 7 more minutes, or until all the cheese is melted.
7. Let cool for a minute (if you can!), cut and enjoy!