string beans for snacking

This is going to be a stupidly simple post, but it might help Maryam and I have confirmation from Marcos that string bean made this way are delicious (he had some of mine and asked how I prepared them). At any rate, here's how to make a pile of string beans that you can tote around all day and snack on, so you can feel like you're getting some vegetables even when you're on the run.

• start heating a big covered pot of slightly salted water on the stove
  
• wash a bunch of string beans and break off the stem ends
  
• when the water is boiling, add the string beans, and then immediately....
  
• cover the pot, and turn off the heat
  
• set a timer for 2 minutes
  
• when the timer goes off, drain the beans in a strainer
  
• rinse the beans in cold water until the beans are no longer warm (about 1 min.)
  

That's it. I follow this plan precisely because it results in beans that are cooked just enough so that they have a little snap but aren't too raw (I hate raw vegetables). I have a gas stove, so if you have an electric stove, you might have to decrease the hot-water-soaking-time.