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Green beans are great for stocking in the fridge because they don’t go bad easily. Plus, they’re very quick to cook. Just a quick saute and you’re done. Aside from the usual Filipino-style Ginisang Bitsuelas where green beans are sauteed with pork and shrimp paste, I also like giving green beans a quick saute in olive oil and garlic, with a dash of balsamic vinegar for a pseudo-Mediterranean feel. I tried green beans marinated in balsamic vinegar before at some Greek restaurant and I really enjoyed it, hence this attempt.

This is a pretty easy dish to cook. I simply start off by washing the green beans, draining them, then pinching the ends off. Then, I pull the threads from the side. I snap them into shorter 2 to 3-inch pieces, pulling out additional stray threads if there are some left.
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May has brought on its showers but I’m sure that the summery days will still be back, bringing with it the bright sunshine and the scorchingly hot weather that calls for copious amounts of refreshment. The amount of sunshine streaming through our windows the past couple of weeks had me toying with all sorts of iced tea experiments. One of my favorite ones is brewing tea under the sun. Interesting? You bet it is. Solar-powered tea sounds so hip, doesn’t it?

I can extoll the values of sun-brewed tea, or as a lot of people call it, sun tea. How it’s more economical because you don’t use fuel to heat up the water. How it’s greener since as it uses the sun’s natural energy to brew. How the flavor is nice and subtle because of the slow steeping. But truthfully, the best reason is because it’s so easy! It’s mostly a dump everything in a jar affair, and unlike traditionally brewed iced tea, you don’t have to worry about the tea going bitter from over-steeping because the slow-brew gives you more leeway when it comes to time.
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