fof: fresh green beans

I will cop right away to this being a complete and total cop-out food-on-Friday post. I spent most of yesterday in the woods with a bunch of 14-year-old boys wielding paintball guns. And I did not have a paintball gun, just a camera and a very active threat to make anyone who "accidentally" shot me walk home. This is but a representative sample of my afternoon:

My son -- impossible to tell with those masks -- is on the right on the bottom picture.
Again, impossible to tell, but he is wearing a t-shirt he scored at the thrift store,

which says "US Army" on the front, and "An Army of One" on the back. Gah.

The boys had a blast, pardon the pun, because what boy does not want to be in the woods on a very hot day, hiding behind fake walls and shooting paintballs at his closest friends?

So I have been lying with a cold compress on my forehead all day today, or rather wishing that I could in fact spend a day doing just that, and then panicking around 5 pm at the thought of dinner plus an extra 11-year-old boy joining us. I sent Secondo into the garden, and much to my amazement and delight, he returned with all of these:

Lightly steamed and lightly tossed with this (seasoned rice vinegar, my non-butter go-to for veggies):

Served with grilled chicken and new red potatoes, they were a welcome taste of the bounty to come. And also a welcome break from the sight of my baby toting a gun.