There’s nothing quite like fresh. Vegetables from a summer garden are a wonderful way to love healthy eating. I’m not even a fair gardener, but my dad, who was running a farm by the time he was 17, is always successful. It’s great when someone’s success makes up for your lack of it.

My daughter and I tried a new recipe a few weeks ago and ate nearly the entire thing in one sitting. Please don’t tell her I said that. I will not, NOT, I repeat, own the entire bean affair. Ah, well. The nice thing about eating vegetables is that there’s no guilt. I tweaked the recipe a little, to tame it. The squash and walnuts cool down an otherwise spicy dish. However, if you like hot, hot, hot, have at it and add more heat-inducing seasonings like pepper or ginger.

1. Heat skillet. Snap ends from 1 lb. green beans and add to hot skillet along with 1/4 c. water. Cover and cook 3-4 min. Uncover, and cook until water is evaporated.

2. Add: 1 Tbsp olive oil and 2 Tbsp minced garlic. Stir for 1-2 min. until garlic is lightly browned.

3. Combine and Add: 2 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar, 2 tsp. sugar, 1/4-1/2 tsp. hot pepper flakes. Bring to boil and cook while stirring for 2-3 min and sauce coats beans.

4. Transfer to serving dish.

5. Add: 1 yellow squash, peeled and cut into 1 in. chunks and 1 or 2 handfuls of chopped walnuts.

Serves 8 – 10 unless you eat it all at one sitting, in which case please confess here. I’d rather not be the only one.