The Big Annoucement

So I waited a long time to make a purchase at Macy's today. Seemed almost fitting that I should have to wait so long to pay for something that I have waited so long to have occasion to wear.

I'll just say its for my trousseau...

This is my somewhat backward way of announcing: I am getting married in April!!!

That's right folks Walter proposed and of course I said yes. It made for a very memorable 34th birthday -much better than last year!

It hardly seems possible when you look at where I was this time last year. God has been faithful. Each day it hits me softly or suddenly, sometimes like a wave sometimes like a breeze that there is hope for women in their 30s to find godly men or should I say be found.

Don't give up hope. I thanked God today that He had me wait as long as I did. It makes this time all the more special and romantic. In all the world, he had Walter find me. And he was worth the wait!

Lizzy's Ascolane Fried Olives

Bite size pieces of savory bliss - that's what fried stuffed olives are.

This recipe is particular to Ascoli Piceno where my great grandparents are from. I have been there twice now and they always serve up this speciality item.

My family usually has them for Christmas, but I was never really crazy about them until I tried them in Italy. And I loved them. Somehow being in another country, makes trying new things easier... I even learned to like fresh figs in Italy too.

So no one ever tells me when they are making the stuffed olives so I don't know how to make them properly but the Internet provided me with 2 decent recipes. (#1 and #2) which I altered to suit myself (took out the Parmesan cheese). I have heard that you have to cut the olive in a spiral to remove the pit and then you get a little ball of meat and wrap the spiral olive around the meat. So it returns to its olive shape and then you bread it and fry it. (You can read the recipes if you want more details.)

But when I actually opened the jar of olives to begin the process of cutting the olive like a spiral. I realized why everyone says, "It really hard work and its an all day project." NO JOKE. And when you don't have a decent knife around... well you have to cut some corners somewhere... or in this case cut some curves.

So I decided to follow through with an idea I had had before. I cut the olive off the pit. Put the olives in a food processor and diced them up a little then mixed the olive bits in with the meat concoction. Then preceded to bread them. I fried a couple to sample. And they were good! Not the same as the authentic Ascolane Olives but a nice twist (or lack of twist/spiral). It still took a good long time to cut up 80+/- olives, but certainly less time than spiral cutting them.

Perhaps next year I will have better knives to work with and I will try this recipe the traditional way... until then... the family can feast on Lizzy's Ascolane Fried Olives.

Happy Squatter

Yesterday was the baby's birthday. One year ago yesterday, I got to see the little "feisty peanut" come into the world. Wow hard to believe the year has gone by already. She is a joy to watch. This is a picture of her squatting. Something she may have learned from me ;-)
I have the ability to squat. My old roommate Jenn called it my "Haitian Squat" because while on a mission trip in Haiti she saw so many women squatting in the water to wash clothes. I find squatting good for gardening, cutting out fabric and other things...

Its a great ability to have. Glad to see the baby can squat with the rest of us.

Fully Committed Part 2

This is the TV Cabinet Walter and I hauled up the stairs. I have thought a lot about that adventure. One could say it was a real relationship builder.

While mulling over what it means to be fully committed, I recalled a conversation I had with a Christian woman recently about a time when she and her husband were experiencing a lot of tension and she considered getting a divorce. The fact that divorce was threatened added more pressure to an already ugly tension.


But then, like me pushing up the rear of this TV cabinet, she made the conscious decision that divorce was not an option for her after all. She would stick it out no matter how difficult. She told her husband, "I am in this for the long haul. Divorce is not an option." That decision made all the difference in the marriage and relationship.


I hear marriage is work and you have to be fully committed... to making it work. Otherwise you might be left holding the TV cabinet or end up with one on your head!