Green Beans a Go Go

 About a million years ago I  made Thanksgiving dinner in a small kitchen apartment for my mom and her good friend, Heather. In fact, I think it was 10 years ago this year that I cooked that dinner – it was before I started the blog, before I had high speed internet, and before I’d paid off my student loans. 2004 was a big year for me – I started my first “real” job, moved to a better apartment, and hosted my own Thanksgiving dinner in my upgraded slightly improved kitchen apartment. I was proud.

I don’t remember anything about the turkey, I think it turned out okay, but I do remember the green beans. I had found a recipe somewhere – clipped from a magazine, of course, since I didn’t surf the web a lot back then thanks to my slow-as-molasses dial up connection – for a fresh green bean side  dish that was a huge hit that Thanksgiving. At some point during the dinner, we started referring to them as “green beans a go-go” – I’m not if that’s what the recipe was actually called (I’ve since lost that recipe clipping) or if we just made that up after a few bottles of wine. My memory is a little foggy on that one, so I’m guessing the latter. Now, ten years later, I decided to recreate them just in time for Thanksgiving 2014. Before I got started, I did a quick Google search and discovered a couple sources with recipes of the same name. Each are similar to the one I made, but none were the source I used way back in 2004, which will always be a mystery, I guess.

So, about the salad. The nice thing is most of it can be made the night before, which means there’s one less thing to do on the big day, but, also it gives the flavors a chance to develop. The flavors are pretty great – fresh green beans are tossed with a tangy Dijon vinaigrette and topped with toasted almonds and crispy breadcrumbs. These green beans go great with all the other rich and creamy Thanksgiving dishes – they’re fresh and bright.

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