Until 3:30 pm yesterday, I had had a colander of yellow string beans sitting on my counter since Tuesday evening. Every time I walked into the kitchen, I'd look at them and send them a little unspoken promise that soon I'd turn them into something wonderful. Yesterday afternoon, I decided that they'd been patient long enough. I fired up a pot of water and gave them a quick blanch. I ran them under cool water to stop the cooking and returned them to their colander home, but this time only long enough to run to my local Trader Joe's in order to pick up a few things for the salad I was imagining.
At TJ's, I grabbed a container of perlini (the tiny ones) mozzarella balls, some fresh basil and a couple of ears of corn. I brought it all home, pulled out a few ingredients I already had, did a little chopping and threw everything together. When it was all done, it tasted like I had captured summer.
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