Green Beans and Bad Dreams

I had such a nice weekend. Last week I went to Atlanta (using up some frequent flier miles) to visit Craig and David and their lovely friends. Sunday I was home and napping and waiting for Zach to get home by 10:30 a.m. I passed the time by shopping with Meg, getting groceries and baking chocolate chip cookies. I made dinner: One of my favorite pasta dishes and these vinegar-mustard green beans straight out of the latest Gourmet. Zach and Meg and I sat around in our sunroom/dining room until we had to clean up. Then we watched a movie. Eventually Zach went home and we went to bed. Then Megan woke me up at 3:30 in the morning. Or maybe something else woke me up just before. For whatever reason it's more frightening to write about what happened than to tell it. But the cold fact is that someone broke into our apartment. Someone climbed up on our deck, opened our unlocked kitchen window and crawled in. The someone didn't take anything and left when Meg woke up. Here's a link to the story on the news: http://www.action3news.com/Global/story.asp?s=10881380 (keep in mind this station is notorious for dramatizing events).

But green beans and pasta and chocolate chip cookies and cold beer all happened before the night. It had rained all day and the sun was just barely peaking through the clouds. The green beans were all that I love about vegetables, which is to say crisp and vinegar-y. Though they weren't as good as the green beans at Marta's last week or the green beans from Africa. But good enough.

Green Beans: from Gourmet 1 pound haricots verts 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 1/4 cup green onions, finely chopped salt pepper fresh parsely leaves In a medium bowl, mix vinegar, mustard, onions, salt and pepper and marinate in fridge for at least 10 minutes.

Bring a pot of salted water to boil on the stovetop. Boil green beans for 6 to 8 minutes. Drain and run under cold water to stop from cooking. Toss with vinegar dressing. Garnish with parsely.