*Tasty Side Dishes*

Side dishes such as salad, potatoes and bread are commonly used with main courses throughout many countries of the western world. New side orders introduced within the past decade, such as rice and couscous, have grown to be quite popular throughout Europe, especially at formal occasions (with couscous appearing more commonly at dinner parties introduced by many Middle Eastern attributes).
When used as an adjective qualifying the name of a dish, side usually refers to a smaller portion served as a side dish, rather than a larger, main dish-sized serving. For example, a "side salad" is usually served in a small bowl or salad plate, in contrast to a large dinner-plate-sized entrée salad.
A typical American meal with a meat-based main dish might include one vegetable side dish, sometimes in the form of a salad, and one starch side dish, such as bread, potatoes, rice, or pasta.

Picking the right Side Dish to accompany your main course can make or break a dinner.  These are some of my favorites and I hope they will be yours too...

*Green Beans Provencal*

According to the great writers on Provençal cuisine, there are three foundations to the cooking of Provence: olive oil, garlic, and the aromatic herbs, such as herbs de Provence or aromatic condiments such as pissalat, a purée of anchovies blended with olive oil. Jean-Noël Escudier, the author of an important book on Provençal food, La véritable cuisine provencal et niçoise, said that the king of Provence is the olive tree, the essential element to Provençal cuisine. There is no good cuisine without good oil and there is no Provençal cuisine without garlic.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 lb haricots verts, end trimmed

1 tbs olive oil

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

2 tomatoes, diced

15 Kalamata olives, pitted and halved

2 tbs basil leaves, chopped

1 tbs red wine vinegar

freshly ground black pepper

1. Prepare an ice water bath

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add beans and cook until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes..  drain well and place in ice water bath

3.  In same pan, heat olice oil over low heat.  Add beans, garlic, tomatoes, olives, and basil.  Drizzle in vinegar. Toss and adjust seasoning.  Serve hot, warm or cold.

*Macaroni & Cheese w/ Potato Chip Gratin*

Macaroni and cheese, also known as "mac and cheese", "macaroni cheese" in British English,, or "macaroni pie" in Caribbean English, is a casserole consisting of cooked macaroni and cheese sauce.  Macaroni and cheese is sometimes prepared using a packaged food mix.
There is a similar traditional dish in Switzerland, called Älplermagronen (Alpine Herder's Macaroni), which is also available in boxed versions. Älplermagronen are made of macaroni, cream, cheese, roasted onions, and potatoes. In the Canton of Uri the potatoes are traditionally omitted, and in some regions bacon or ham is added.  Thomas Jefferson, who called all pasta "macaroni", is known to have had a pasta maker as early as 1793 and to have served a macaroni pie at the White House in 1802.

*Roasted Potatoes*

*Sweet Potato Salad*

INGREDIENTS

3 medium sweet potatoes, diced

1 apple, cored & diced

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp lemon peel, grated

1 tbs lemon juice

2 1/2 tbs honey

1/2 tsp Kosher salt

1/8 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

1/4 tsp tarragon

In a medium bowl, combine sweet potato with apples and pecans.  In a small bowl, combine rest of the ingredients.  Add dressing to sweet potato mixture.  Blend thoroughly.  Chill.

*Crispy Onion Rings*

The exact origins of the onion ring are unknown, but in 1933 a recipe for deep-fried onion rings that are dipped in milk then dredged in flour appeared in a Crisco advertisement in The New York Times Magazine.
A recipe for French Fried Onions may have appeared in the Middletown, NY Daily Times on 13 January 1910. It does not claim to be the originator of the recipe.
One claimant to the invention of the onion ring is the Pig Stand restaurant chain, founded in Oak Cliff, Texas, in the early 1920s. The once-thriving chain, whose heyday in the 1940s saw over 100 locations across the United States, also claims to be the originator of Texas toast.



*Beefy Baked Beans*

The beans used in baked beans are all native to North America and were introduced to Italy in 1528 and to France by 1547. Beans, squash and maize were grown together by Native Americans using the Three Sisters method of farming. Baked beans are commonly described as a sugary tasting brown bean once baked.
According to alternative traditions, sailors brought cassoulet from the south of France, or the regional bean stew recipes from northern France and the Channel Islands. Most probably, a number of regional bean recipes coalesced and cross-fertilised in North America and ultimately gave rise to the baked bean culinary tradition familiar today.
While many recipes today are stewed, traditionally beans were baked in a ceramic or cast-iron bean pot. Bean hole cooking as practised in Maine's logging camps used stone-lined fire pits where the bean pots would be buried to cook overnight or longer.
Canned beans, often with pork, were among the first convenience foods. Canned salt pork and beans with stewed tomatoes was supplied to the US Army during the American Civil War in the 1860s.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration stated in 1996 that "It has for years been recognized by consumers generally that the designation 'beans with pork,' or 'pork and beans' is the common or usual name for an article of commerce that contains very little pork."  This is typically a piece of salt pork to add fat to the dish.

INGREDIENTS

1 lb lean ground beef

2 16-oz cans pork & beans in tomato sauce

1 15-oz can kidney beans, drained

1 cup ketchup

1 3/8-oz envelope dry onion soup mix

1/2 cup water

2 tbs dijon mustard

2 tbs cider vinegar

2 cups frozen unsweetened tart cherries

1. In a skillet over med-heat, cook ground beek until browned.  Drain fat

2. Add beans, ketchup, soup mix, water, mustard and vinegar, mix well.  Stir in cherries.

3. Pour mixture into a 2 1/2-quart baking dish.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

**Butter Beans**

Phaseolus lunatus is of Andean and Mesoamerican origin. Two separate domestication events are believed to have occurred. The first, taking place in the Andes around 2000 BC, produced a large-seeded variety (Lima type), while the second, taking place most likely in Mesoamerica around AD 800, produced a small-seeded variety (Sieva type). By 1301, cultivation had spread to North America, and in the sixteenth century the plant arrived and began to be cultivated in the Eastern Hemisphere.
The small-seeded wild form (Sieva type) is found distributed from Mexico to Argentina, generally below 1600 meters above sea level, while the large-seeded wild form (Lima type) is found distributed in the north of Peru, between 320 and 2030 meters above sea level.
The Moche Culture (1-800 AD) cultivated all of the lima beans and often depicted them in their art.  During the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru, lima beans were exported to the rest of the Americas and Europe, since the boxes of such goods had their place of origin labeled "Lima - Peru", the beans got named as such.
The term butter bean is widely utilized for a large, flat and white variety of lima bean (P. lunatus var. macrocarpus, or P. limensis).
In the Southern United States the Sieva type are traditionally called butter beans, also otherwise known as the Dixie or Henderson type. In that area, lima beans and butter beans are seen as two distinct types of beans.
In the United Kingdom, "butter beans" refer to either dried beans which can be purchased to re-hydrate or the canned variety which are ready to use. In culinary use, lima beans and butter beans are distinctly different, the former being small and green, the latter large and yellow. In areas where both are considered to be lima beans, the green variety may be labeled as "baby" (and less commonly "junior") limas.

*Pan Fried Butter Beans*