Linguine with Frenched Green Beans and Parsley Pesto

I have repeatedly searched for this recipe in my own blog, in disbelief that I haven't written about it previously: "Linguine with Frenched Green Beans and Parsley 'Pesto'" (Food & Wine Best of the Best Vol. 10) is a foolproof, elegant recipe that gives you veggies and carbs in one delicious dish, and I have made it many times.

It's tons easier to make if you have this handy gadget for "frenching" the beans:

I served it with lobster tails, because in keeping with my philosophy on "meat as a treat," I had actually envisioned eating this meal as a Christmas Eve special treat. But then I realized I had ordered my lobster tails too early and would need to cook them before Christmas. 

Today, one of the two middle schools in my backup dancer's school district announced that it is going virtual for the remaining three days before the holiday break, because there have been so many COVID cases. Deja vu all over again, right? It is a bitter irony that my family waited 21 excruciating months until she was fully vaccinated before letting our guard down a little, and now the omicron variant has us anxious again. 

But we're not sure how anxious to be, of course. That's part of the ongoing nightmare: the uncertainty. Are we all just going to get COVID now, and count on our vaccines to help us weather it? That sounds tolerable, I guess, until you consider how easily it could spread to someone whose immune system isn't robust enough to withstand it (or someone too young to be vaccinated), and how one of us could end up incubating a new strain against which vaccines are ineffective.

I hope I look back on this post in a couple months and smile at what will then seem like overblown December worries.

Meanwhile, masks and distancing and outdoors when practical and vaccines with boosters, please.

This was an accidental selfie and I love its artistic blurriness.