May 14th is Mother’s Day here in the USA.  For all the mothers out there,  Happy Mother’s Day.  Hopefully, good food will be part of your day.

Mother’s Day is celebrated all around the world in different ways and different times.  Here in the USA, we celebrate the day by giving mothers gifts and flowers and a day off from cooking and other household chores.  My favorite way to spend Mother’s Day is with a family dinner of grilled burgers.

This recipe for green beans is in honor of my own mom.  It is not her recipe because she did not like to cook. Early on in my childhood she became the designated sweet tea maker while my dad did all the cooking.

She may not have cared for cooking, but she was one heck of a gardener. She grew the best green beans as well as many other vegetables. She also had a beautiful flower garden. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of any of her flowers or vegetables.  I wish I did.  I remember that she always grew Kentucky Wonder green beans.  Here is a picture of some Kentucky Wonder green beans courtesy of edenbrothers.com.

I am sure that my love of gardening came from my mom.  I don’t have room to grow vegetables but I do have a lot of summer flowers that I grow and enjoy.  I believe she would love all of them.  Here are a couple of pictures from last summer.

I love green beans cooked any way but I especially love them cooked the Southern way, which essentially means cooked to death.  These green beans will not have the bright green color that you get when cooking until just crisp-tender, but the flavor will make up for it.  This is a very easy recipe to make but it does take some time for the cooking process.  The aroma of these green beans while cooking takes me back to my Southern upbringing.

Notes:
1.  When simmering the green beans, you will want a very low simmer and not a rolling boil.
2.  I like to snap the ends off the fresh green beans and cook them whole.  If using frozen, I buy the whole green beans.