Week 27: We Just Keep Repeating Ourselves
And why that’s a VERY good thing…
Each Sunday, my wife and I prepare, cook and eat a meal together — intentionally. Every Friday, I’ll be sharing our experience here in this space. I want to see the growth that will come in our marriage because of this. I hope you enjoy our story. You can find last week’s post here.
Another weekend looking for a Sunday dinner recipe. We both threw out ideas of what we could cook. Nothing sparked our interest. That’s when Sarah found a recipe for creamy chicken carbonara (gluten-free!!!) and our usual routine ensued.
Go grocery shopping. Come home and start meal prep. Cook together. Snap a few photos. Eat. Enjoy one another’s company.
Pretty awesome to-do list, huh?
I talked about this idea in a recent post, but I thought it needed a closer look. This cooking tradition has become our routine. Notice I didn’t say that it has become routine. It’s become OUR routine. I think there’s a big difference. But, woah, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get back to the cooking, shall we?
We happened to be up at Sarah’s parents’ house the night before. When Sarah chose the recipe, her mom graciously gave us most of the ingredients we needed. We love you, Dale Susan Schoettle! You’re the best!
But there were still a few things we needed at the store, so Sarah started compiling the list. She said that we’d substitute almond milk for cream.
Now, look, I have nothing against almond milk. I actually like it! But I had a hunch that there was some other kind of cream we could use. I did a little digging of my own and found that heavy whipping cream was the go-to. Sarah had some reservations at first, but when I showed her all the recipes that called for it, she agreed.
SCORE!!!
I had a smile on my face when I placed the heavy whipping cream in my shopping cart, visions of that creamy pasta floating in my mind. I had no idea what was coming!
Shared Experience
By now, you’ve undoubtedly realized the emphasis we place on shared moments. That’s the core focus of Cooking With Sarah — the idea that simple moments shared together can have great impact.
This week went on like the others before it — we cooked together, laughed together and tried new things together. Sarah cut the chicken while I sliced up the spinach. Then Sarah got the tomatoes ready and we put it all in the pot. Later we added the cheese (lots of cheese!) and the cream. The apartment smelled amazing!
We were both getting antsy waiting for the food to cook. We shared that too. If you can face the smell of creamy chicken pasta when you’re hungry together, you can do just about anything together.
Finally, the food was ready…
The Best Yet
It’s become a bit of a running joke between Sarah and I, but it seems like every week we say that this is the best thing we’ve cooked so far. But…this week really was the best!
I guess that’s what struck me — we keep repeating ourselves. Just when we think it can’t get any better, it does. Have we been perfect? No, of course not. Will we have a not-so-good week sometime? Sure. Do we have fights? You betcha.
But I’ll never regret spending quality time with my wife. It’s always so rich. It’s so good. Better than the creamy chicken carbonara, even!
And this week also highlights another common theme of our publication — you can’t do it alone. Sarah and I are a team, yes. But we both have amazing families who support us. Sometimes that means giving us ingredients, other times it’s an encouraging word or two. The bottom line is that we couldn’t do this without them.
So, it doesn’t really bother me that we keep repeating ourselves. I’ll play this track on repeat for the rest of my life.
