Classic Green Bean Casserole

Editor's note: We get this recipe for using frozen green beans from Gwen E, who advises us she's no canned food junkie, and that this soup label classic works with fresh beans as well.

My college roommate once made this with four times the amount of black pepper by accident - and the flavor stuck with me forever. Since then I've been imagining making it with fresher and healthier ingredients.

I started with the Original Green Bean Casserole recipe which one finds on the back of the French's Fried Onion can, but I used 2 cups of previously blanched, trimmed and uncut frozen green beans. The long beans gave a very different look then the traditional frenched canned beans. I also added a carrot peeled and cut into coins- steam or blanch before adding to the rest of the ingredients. (I added the carrot solely for color. )

Then I cooked the casserole as described in the original recipe. If you do not want to use cream of mushroom soup or fried onions, I've seen (but not tried yet) recipes with sautéed mushrooms and cream instead of cream of mushroom soup and sautéed shallots instead of fried onions.

We're grateful to Gwen. Let's keep those recipes coming!