Without the garden to keep me occupied, I have been exploring other projects to fill my free time.
My home office is finally about 90 percent complete. It’s nice to have a good space for all the papers in my life in our huge new filling cabinet and to get frames on the wall. It’s now a space that I actually want to work in instead of being the house “catch all.”
My gym recently closed (Wah! I am still sad about even though they announced it two months ago.), so I have spent my evenings gym hopping hoping to find a new gym that I love. While annoying, it has been fun trying new things like reformer Pilates and getting back into swimming.
And, of course, the down time is a great time to give Bloom a little TLC. Photography books and blogs have become my reading material as well as advice on social media outlets and SEO. But, more exciting to me, is thinking of what else I could bring to Bloom to make it more interactive and valuable to the readers. Ideas like eBooks, personal shopping at farmer’s markets and meal planning, and even Video Blogging are on the table.
Recently I enlisted Adam’s help. I wanted to experiment and see if something like Vlogging was the right direction to take.
Scratch that.
I wasn’t even there yet.
At this point, I just wanted to make sure I could talk and cook at the same time. And that I didn’t sound too stupid doing it.
It wasn’t perfect.
There were things like this:
… And, I learned my lesson to leave Adam out of my projects if it’s Sunday and football is on TV.
But, between his “Take Ninety-Seven!”‘s on Take Three and us bickering over if “garlicky” is a word or not, we got things like this:
Did you learn something?!
Not too shabby for a first timer and just an iPhone. (Minus that expression on my face in the beginning…)
And I also got a great, super simple green bean recipe out of it all.
So, who knows? Maybe there are more “vlogs” in my future.
But, one thing I know to be for sure is that, in my very immediate future there will be more garlicky green beans.
(Sorry, Trost. Auto correct recognized it. “Garlicky” is a word.)
This recipe is the easiest way to add some flavor and to do something a little different with fresh green beans. I used green beans that I blanched and froze this summer, but fresh green beans from the store with their ends trimmed off will work great too.
- 1 pound Green Beans, ends trimmed
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 garlic gloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
- salt and pepper
- Steam green beans until nearly tender, but still have a bite.
- Melt butter in a skillet on medium heat, add garlic and cook until tender and fragrant.
- Add steamed green beans, salt and pepper to the skillet.and continue to saute until the beans are coated in butter and garlic.
- Top with lemon zest and Parmesan.
