Why didn't I think of that BEFORE????

When I was young (and I'm talking too young to wield a sharp knife....) it was my job to 'snip' the beans. Mom would give me the wooden pig shaped cutting board, a table knife (safety first!) and a whole mess of fresh picked green beans from the garden. It was my job to snip off the ends with my knife. Phew! that was a LOT of beans!!

Much later in my life, probably after I was married (although we all know I married when I was twelve....) my neighbor showed me how her family snipped beans ~ just the stem end. No need to snip off the little blossom end of a tiny tail. Geesh ~ how come we never thought of that before???

Well, now, here I am in my mid-60's. And I've got to snip the stems off the beans. Laying on the countertop is a pair of kitchen shears. I pick up a handful of beans, stem ends all in the same direction, and I start to snip off the stems. Easy. Quick.

How come I never thought of that before????

I learned from my mom to just break off the ends with my hands. That was if there is a string, it comes out too.

This might work for the ends of green beans.

http://www.designtoscano.com/product/code/SP0427.do?code=PDINCLUDE&code=DTPLAS12

too funny....

Well, it has indeed gotten easier over the years as the strings were pretty much bred out of most varieties of beans.  

A couple years ago I saw a tip in a magazine to just line up the stem ends and cut them off with a sharp knife.  Brian is the "bean boy" in this house and always volunteers to "snap" the beans for me.  When I told him about lining them up and cutting them, he liked that idea.

We still buy "regular" green beans but I love the bags of haricots vert that the stores sell now -- no waste, no "snapping" or cutting and they last longer than the regular beans do.  Plus they cook quickly and look so pretty on the plate, especially a bunch wrapped with a piece of bacon.

FYI The can opener wasn't invented until 48 years after the invention of the can.