Company Beef Ragout

My name is Karen. I love to cook. I collect cookbooks, my favorite being ones you can get from churches or schools that have peoples personal favorites in them. Whenever I visit out of state I try to find 1-2 of these kinds of cookbooks. My hobbies are painting, cross stitch, scrapbooking and spending time with my 3 children. Megan 21 years old, Jeremy 16 Years old, and Clayton 8 years old. People love my pizza Swirls. I love all foods. I love to try complicated recipes for fun and I make alot of my own breads. My kids love to help me cook I think its a great time to get to communicate with our kids especially when life can get so crazy with school and such, this is a great habit we have gotten into, cooking and chatting LOL. We now have a smoothie night where we make an assortment of smoothies as a dessert, and on occasion we have had smoothies for dinner but that is a rare occasion. Its kids choice and they have fun on recipezaar because I have dedicated a cookbook just to smoothies. My daughter is getting creative in her smoothie endeavors and coming up with some incredible ideas! In Jan 09 I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and have just began the treatments to get myself back up to speed. *UPDATE* November 2009 I have finished my radiation and chemotherapy and am on the mend. Chemo caused nerve damage in my leg so I am unable to walk without a cane and a brace but otherwise doing great!!!!!!!! <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/bb/viewforum.zsp?f=2">Cooking Q & A Forum Host</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/bb/viewforum.zsp?f=27">Desserts Forum Host</a></li> In september of 2009, The Pink ribbon tour came through Wickenburg. The pink ribbon tour are 2 Pink Fire Trucks with the firefighters wearing pink. I had the honor of being one of the people that got to sign my name on the firetrucks as it was beginning a long tour of the United States. It was such an incredible expierience, I could feel the love and healing in the air (Even thought it WAS raining lol) For more information on these incredible people: Here is their web site http://www.pinkribbontour.com/ <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" allowNetworking="all" allowFullscreen="true" src="http://w18.photobucket.com/pbwidget.swf?pbwurl=http://w18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/86e0af4e.pbw" height="300" width="400"> Family Pictures. <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://w18.photobucket.com/pbwidget.swf?pbwurl=http://w18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/6fc6ef61.pbw" height="360" width="480"></embed> Some photo's I have taken here on Recipezaar. <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://w18.photobucket.com/pbwidget.swf?pbwurl=http://w18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/6cf5c900.pbw" height="180" width="600"></embed> <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://w18.photobucket.com/pbwidget.swf?pbwurl=http://w18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/7d72c0d6.pbw" height="180" width="600"> These are some of the fun events here on Zaar that I have participated in and had so much fun with!! <img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/adopted_1_1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"> <img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/beartag_1_1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"> <img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/projects/untitled_1.jpg" border="0" alt="Image hosting by Photobucket"> <img src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y53/DUCHESS13/FFF/completedbanner.gif"> <img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/Banners/AnimationStellaMaris.gif"><a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"> <img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/projects/chef3.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a> <img src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y53/DUCHESS13/World%20Tour/ZWT2.gif"> <img src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y53/DUCHESS13/World%20Tour/AnimatedHostChallengeBanner.gif"> <img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/Banners/Animation3.gif"> <img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/untitled-2.jpg"><img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/200_artistrichardneuman-art-prints_.jpg"> <img src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y53/DUCHESS13/Zaar%20World%20Tour%203/ZWT3-Participation.gif"> <img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/ZWT-ChallengeHostBanner.gif"> <img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/ZWT4-ChallengeHostAboutMe-Small.gif"> <img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/amy.jpg"> <img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/stacky5.jpg"> <img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/RedRose_FSsticker.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"> <img src="http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a132/tgifford/Game%20Room%20Banners/AM%20Banners/KBparticipation.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"> <img src="http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b280/carolinamoon21/Ingredients/BANNERS/BellywarmersSTKR.jpg"> <img src="http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b280/carolinamoon21/Ingredients/PropitUpSTKR.jpg">