Green Beans & Thanksgiving

Dorcas Reilly was one of the first full-time employees in Campbell Soup Company's Home Economics Department in Camden, Jew Jersey, in the 1950s when she experimented with green beans and Campbell's cream of mushroom soup. Her creation? "Green Bean Bake."

To this day, Reilly's Green Bean Casserole only calls for six ingredients, and the online recipe is viewed 4 million times each Thanksgiving Day: cut green beans, condensed cream of mushroom soup, soy sauce, black pepper, milk, and French Fried onions. Reilly initially developed the recipe as an everyday side dish, and her daughter reports that it never occurred to Reilly to serve the recipe at home because she considered it a work project.

The original recipe card for "Green Bean Bake" now belongs to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the Campbell's graph paper-style recipe card includes Reilly's 11 varied experiments with such additional ingredients as Worcestershire, soy sauce, water, celery salt, and sliced ham.

Reilly (1926-2018) was one of the first members of her family to go to college, and she earned a degree in home economics from Drexel University in 1947. During her time in the Campbell's test kitchen, Reilly created hundreds of new recipes using Campbell's soup products, including tuna-noodle casserole, porcupine meatballs, sloppy joes, and tomato soup meatloaf.

Whether you are a green bean casserole connoisseur or not, I pray that Thanksgiving Day is a day of rest, peace, and joy for you. If life feels heavy, begin with Paul's reminder in Philippians 4:6-7: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

And once you have released your worries at Christ's feet, let Psalm 100:4 be your mantra for the day: Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

Blessings on your Thanksgiving celebration,

Jennie