Monday, November 12, 2012

...across the room for a recipe of sorts....

Oh I do wish I would remember to take more pictures!  I wish I had taken a picture of my beautiful noodle dish I cooked last night.  Not only was it beautiful, it tasted so good!!

This was another dish that just simply evolved.  I had no idea the chicken I had defrosted was going to morph into a noodle dish last night.

I looked at the pieces of chicken breast and decided they needed a sprinkling of the roasted garlic and peppers spice in my pantry, along with some freshly ground salt and pepper.  For some reason it seemed this chicken would be happiest in my bright red dutch oven along with a good amount of chopped celery, leaves and all, an onion, two cloves of garlic, minced fresh ginger (never TOO much!) and a chopped up carrot all getting close in there with a certain amount of canola oil.  I chased it around in the dutch oven until the chicken was browned and then I bathed it in a cup of chicken broth and 1/2 cup water and just left them to party at a slow simmer for about 1/2 hour.   This seemed a good time to toss in a good hand full of cilantro, parsley and a squirt or two of lime juice.  They were having such a great time I just covered them up again and cooked the thinest noodles I had in my pantry and then ladled the soupy chicken mixture into bowls and topped them with a decent amount of noodles and ate until I could eat no more.

And that is how my concoctions become recipes of sorts.   Of sorts, because it will never taste the same again because I don't know how much of anything I use but that's OK as far as I'm concerned.   I call this simply, Noodle Bowl!

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

...across the room with nothing between....

...there’s nothing between us but love anymore
Nothing to be sorry for
No excuses
No regrets


I came across these lyrics recently (sorry I don't know who wrote the song) and have to say they resonated with me immediately and have been on my mind for awhile now.  Lately I've heard a number of people talk about the marriage relationship and how different the actual marriage ends up being from what we may have thought it would be before we married.  I'm sure that is true for most.  How could we possibly know this.  However I do think that there are some things we can decide ahead of time and know what the outcome will be.

Last month my husband and I ended up traveling together but in separate vehicles for approximately 10 hours.  It reminded me a lot of when we travel on our motorbikes....he is in the lead position most times and I follow him.  When we travel on a four lane road I follow so close that nobody can get between us.  On a busy two lane I allow people to pass me first and then wait until it is safe to pass him as well.  I do not like them staying in that space between our bikes for long periods of time when they could be passing him.  I always feel like they ought to know we are traveling together and should allow us to do that.  We do not want to lose sight of each other when we are traveling on our bikes.

So here we were in separate vehicles traveling a four lane highway and wouldn't you know some drivers seemed to think they had to pass one at a time and try and get between us.  I'm sure you could guess what my response was!  I did not think there was any reason for them to get between us and closed the gap so they had to pass both of our vehicles.  Even though they signal to enter "our space" I chose to close the gap between us so they'ld have to in essence see us as one vehicle rather than two.  

As I chuckled at these poor drivers who I imagine just do not have the confidence to pass two vehicles before getting back in the right lane (they really find it difficult to drive in the left lane!) I thought how much our marriage is and has always been just like the way we drive!

We have always been careful to not allow a space between us that can be taken over by anyone else.  Or anything, for that matter.  Nothing and no one gets to come between us.  We guard our "couple space" all the time and always have.  We talked about this early in our marriage and it is one of the best conversations we ever had about our relationship.  Throughout our married life together we have had to occasionally close that gap just a little tighter and take note of our surroundings.  We had to guard that space and stay alert.

Rather than being flattered at any outside interest it disgusts us when someone might think either of us could possibly be interested in that type of disturbance.  And that is exactly how I see it .... someone trying to disturb our peace.   It is a kind of disrespect that angers me instantly.  In our relationship we have peace and harmony because.....there is nothing to be sorry for; no excuses; no regrets; just like the song says.