Judith's Green Beans Almondine

- Green beans, French-cut (you can buy fresh and cut them yourself, or a good bag of the frozen kind if you are not a food snob. The nutrient value is the same...and with the sauce I'm going to describe you won't taste any difference...)
- Fresh slivered almonds (fresh IS important here or you get a nasty stale taste in the whole dish)
- about a teaspoon of good peanut butter
- a quarter-cup of butter (not margarine)
- sea salt / peppercorns / dash of hot sauce


Heat up two burners - one with a big pot of water, one with a frying pan with a quarter-cup of butter (yeah, yeah, real butter).

Watch the butter like a hawk - it has to brown very dark and just begin to give off a smoky smell but NOT burn or go black!

While you are watching, the pot of water should boil at some point. Dump in your bag of green beans and cook as long as instructed on the bag. Keep watching that butter!

OK, the butter is perfect! Turn off the heat under the frying pan, stir in the spoon of peanut butter and let it melt and combine.

Pour the mixture out into a clean dish. Turn on the burner again, toss a little more butter in (just a half-teaspoon or so) the frypan and saute the almonds till just browned and going crispy.   Turn off the heat. Dump the melted butter/peanut butter back into the pan over the almonds. Add the dash of hot sauce, some sea salt, grind fresh pepper to taste over the mixture... and a bit of juice obtained by scraping across the top of a cut onion adds interest.

Your green beans should be bright green and still crispy but cooked by now, if you've been paying attention to the time. Drain them when they are ready (yeah, turn off the burner there too) and pour the Almondine sauce over them just before serving. They look pretty in contrast, so don't 'toss to coat' until they are actually on the table and people are ready to dig in.

You can garnish with a couple of rings of purple onion and red pepper - veddy pretty!