Haricots Verts, Red Potato and Cucumber Salad

<p>Welcome to my page! It's a good place to start looking if you need to find me since I come here nearly every day for inspiration as I pursue the noble occupation of feeding family and friends. <br /><br /><img src=http://www.recipezaar.com/members/home/353579/half%20marx-brothers-a-night-at-the-opera.jpg alt= /> <br /><br /><img src=http://www.recipezaar.com/members/home/353579/2640.jpg alt= /> <br /><br /><img src=http://www.recipezaar.com/members/home/353579/kaiserklan.jpg alt= /> <br /><br />My family moved across the country to southern California&nbsp;7 years ago. The first time I ever set foot on California soil (or anywhere in the West, for that matter) was the day I moved here. I experienced a form of culture/environment shock for about a year&nbsp;- even the air is different out here! For the first year, I would look at the roads and driveways that wind steeply up and down the foothills and think, Man, how does anyone drive on those in the winter? Then I would remember&nbsp;- they do it the same way they do in the summer&nbsp;- with their windows down, wearing shorts and flip-flops. I love the fact that we are near a large city, near the ocean, near the desert, near the mountains&nbsp;- what more could I ask for? And yes, even though I swore it wouldn't happen to me after living for more than 40 years in places with many weather extremes&nbsp;- I now get chilly when the temperature dips below 70 and can barely bring myself to go outdoors if it's raining. However, I do NOT wear a parka and mittens when it's 65 degrees&nbsp;- a sweatshirt or light jacket will do. <br /><br />My husband and I met while attending seminary (I dropped out before finishing one semester but he got a Master of Divinity) and we got married after knowing each other for 6 months. We are quick to tell other people that we do not advise this course of action, but we celebrated our 27th anniversary this year, so I guess sometimes rash decisions work out quite nicely. So with my husband's MDiv and my undergraduate degree in religious studies, we now both work in pharmaceutical marketing research. Just what you would expect, right? I telecommute to the east coast for work each day; I'm primarily a writer/analyst. When I was in college, writing so many research papers and unable to decide what I wanted to do when I grew up, I used to jokingly say that I should find a job writing research papers. More than 20 years later, that?s basically what I do. Cool, huh? <br /><br />Our wonderful son was born when we were married just one year and a mere 15 years later our bright-eyed redhead came into our lives (okay, so she was totally bald till she was nearly 2, but she's definitely red now). My kids are my best and constant reminder that perfect timing is something determined by God and not by me, since I wouldn't have dreamed up such a family-planning scheme, and yet it works just right for us. Here are some pics of the family, most of them taken while we were camping and hiking in the wilds of this beautiful state! <br /><br /><br /> <object width=360 height=240 data=http://w207.photobucket.com/pbwidget.swf?pbwurl=http://w207.photobucket.com/albums/bb103/pattikay_inla/11d18738.pbw type=application/x-shockwave-flash> <param name=data value=http://w207.photobucket.com/pbwidget.swf?pbwurl=http://w207.photobucket.com/albums/bb103/pattikay_inla/11d18738.pbw /> <param name=src value=http://w207.photobucket.com/pbwidget.swf?pbwurl=http://w207.photobucket.com/albums/bb103/pattikay_inla/11d18738.pbw /> <param name=wmode value=transparent /> </object> <a href=http://photobucket.com target=_blank><img src=http://pic.photobucket.com/album/slideshow/wrapper_logo.gif alt= /></a><a href=http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb103/pattikay_inla/?action=view?t=11d18738.pbw target=_blank><img src=http://pic.photobucket.com/album/slideshow/wrapper_viewshow.gif alt= /></a><a href=http://photobucket.com/redirect/album?action=slideshow target=_blank><img src=http://pic.photobucket.com/album/slideshow/wrapper_getyourown.gif alt= /></a> <br /><br /><br /><br />Cooking is a great joy to me ? I constantly marvel that God gave us so many things to eat and so many ways to prepare them! We could have been like cattle or something, eating pretty much the same thing, in the same way, every day for all of our lives. What a privilege to be in charge of feeding our families (and ourselves, of course), and also being able to express our creativity and knowledge of nutritional needs at the same time. (Dessert is a nutritional need, right?) I stumbled on this site when I was searching for recipes that might use up some ingredients I had in the house ? I don?t think I?ve left since then, and I?m happy to have met and shared recipes with so many nice folks around the world. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><img src=http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y53/DUCHESS13/Zaar%20World%20Tour%203/ZWT3-Participation.gif alt= /> <br /><br /><img src=http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y53/DUCHESS13/Zaar%20World%20Tour%204/ZWTAB-tg.gif alt= /> <br /><br /><img src=http://www.recipezaar.com/members/home/353579/2640.jpg alt= /> <br /><br /><br /><a href=http://www.biblegateway.com/usage/votd/votd2html.php?version=31&amp;jscript=0>View Verse of the Day</a> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><img src=http://www.recipezaar.com/members/home/353579/2640.jpg alt= /></p>