Simple, classic, yet full of warm November flavors...Green Bean Almondine provides a great
accompaniment to your Thanksgiving dinner.   Steam up 2 lbs. of cleaned and trimmed fresh
green beans.  You can do this ahead of time if you'd like.  Steaming will lock in the flavor and
color of the beans.  Drain them and plunge the beans into a bowl of ice water.  The color stays
bright and verdant...see the picture above?  Remove the beans to a dry bowl.  Salt and pepper
them.  Now, take 1 cup of slivered almonds, heat a large skillet with 1 stick of unsalted butter.
Add the almonds, and season with salt and pepper.  Keep on low heat, and keep turning the
almonds.  They take a little time to start browning, but once they start, the process moves
quickly.  When most of the pan has turned to a golden brown, hit the pan with 2 tsp. of Amaretto
diSaronno...it will pop and sizzle, briskly stir the pan to coat the almonds well with the butter and
Amaretto.    Cook for only 1 minute. Pour the almonds over the beans and coat them well.  Now
you are done, this should feed at least 4 people or more as one of your sides.  To serve, reheat
the beans in an oven for about 20 minutes.  If you want to step up the butter flavor in the dish,
purchase any European style butter (Plugra), or European butter in the supermarket.  A deeper
buttery flavor comes from those brands.http://www.plugra.com/?ref=kellerslead. 
     This was the usual green bean dish at my childhood Thanksgiving dinner.   The shot of
Amaretto flavor I learned while I was working in the late 80's for a catering company in Lincroft,
New Jersey.  It just added that warming toasted almond flavor, and didn't sweeten the dish
too much.  Try this as an alternative to the green bean casserole from the pages of Better Homes
and Gardens...ok, maybe you can't break with your tradition....go ahead, try it anyway.