Marriage Advice & a Recipe

You know you're getting old when.....
A friend from high school writes and asks for something for her daughter - who is getting married!
This is where I am.
And this is what I said:

Dear C,

I know you don’t know me. I am one of your mom’s friends from high school. Your mom sent an email asking for a favorite family recipe and marriage advice.

While I don’t claim to be a marriage expert in any way, my husband and I are well into our 21st year and going strong. We’ve had some wonderful years together along with some very rocky and unpleasant ones. The wonderful ones are much more enjoyable. I hope you have many of those.

Here are a couple of the most important things I’ve learned along the way:

Let your spouse grow & change. Allow yourself to do the same. We got married pretty young. I would say that we are both probably on the third or fourth incarnation of ‘who’ we are. I’ve found time and experience changes people. If you don’t fight it, treat each other with respect and compassion, you will look back together and be amazed at how far you’ve both come as both individuals and a couple.

I hope you are marrying your best friend. Keep him number one in your heart & life. After you make that marriage promise, no other man belongs there (with exception, of course your own father and God –who isn’t really a man). We all have acquaintances and associations with other men, but for me, defining and keeping healthy personal, professional and social relationship boundaries has kept my most important relationship strong.

And last, you have no idea what you are getting yourself into. It’s like one of those totally dark roller coasters. You think you know what will come, but really life together brings lots of surprises. Hang on and enjoy the ride. Enjoy the nice times and don’t let the really bad parts scare you away from each other. (Hopefully you two won’t ever have any bad parts.)

Wishing you the very best!
the mrs.

A very vague Stew recipe

(from the the mrs.- originally from her dad)

about a pound of stew meat

2 medium potatoes (about 2 cups worth)

carrots (about 3 or 4 cups worth when they are cut up)

onion

one can tomato soup

½ a can of water (sometimes-makes it more soupy)

salt & pepper

Cut the veggies up about the same size as the meat.

Put it all in a roasting pan.

Here’s the weird part:

Pour in some pickle juice (we use dill). I think I end up pouring in about a cup or less.

Then, if you have it and you want to, add a 2 or 3 beef bullion cubes.

Cook it in the oven at 275 degrees for about 3 hours.

**I like to add different vegetables. You can really just add whatever & it will taste pretty good. The veggies below usually don’t need to get put in until about an hour before it’s done-but if it’s in the oven while we are at church, I just add the zucchini & squash at the beginning with everything else. Then I’ll just microwave the corn & peas and stir them in before we eat.

zucchini

summer squash

corn

peas

sometimes I throw in a can of tomatoes (makes it less thick, more soupy)

Make this a couple of times & you’ll see what works for you—sorry it’s so vague, it’s really just something I learned from my dad.