Our Culinary Stories

Shauna Niequist's book, Bread and Wine moved me. It moved me because she has some of the same struggles with her food relationship that I have. She loves people the same way I {hope I} love people. And to combine the love for food and the love for people...is her passion. And it makes me passionate.

I realized that so much about my relationship with Ryan has food in it somewhere. From our first date's picnic in a park and big ole burger at Round Robin to our nightly coffee dates to our occasional breakfasts out to celebrate special occasions.

And I realized that I want a chronicle of our culinary journey. Something that tells the story of our adventures eating out. Not adventures like spilling a glass of iced tea..but adventures like the heart of what happened during a meal to make it memorable.

And I want a chronicle of what we loved to make during this first year of marriage. What meals did we go to time and time again? What did we change up to make it ours? What sort of culinary dance did we create as we worked together in a tiny kitchen, creating memories along with food?

So I am making a scrapbook.

A book that chronicles our culinary stories from the first year of marriage. Is it okay if I share with you a peek into our book?

I thought I'd share the text I wrote for our first ever meal together as a married couple. {I'm including the pictures I included on the scrapbook page.}

And it all began with breakfast. We awakened December 3, 2012 full of joy and wonder from our wedding the day before, and our love-butterflies had been replaced by hungry rumbles, Ahead of us lay a day of honeymoon memory-making, yet more than that...a lifetime of memory-making...that began with a meal. We drove to The Broken Egg, a local restaurant in the Village of Siesta Key. A restaurant whose claim to fame is that basketball hall-of-famer and ESPN announcer Dick Vitale eats there every time he's in town. He even has his own table. We began day one of marriage by finding OUR own table, on the patio, overlooking a cloudless blue sky, and ordering our first breakfast together as husband and wife. We ordered breakfast quesadillas and ate while catching sideways glances at one another, scarcely able to believe that we were indeed married. And so it began. The love of eating outside...the love of breakfast. The love of discovering new places together and sitting back to just enjoy this wondrous thing we call love.

I Dare You Not to Cry

I had a lovely post all dreamed up for today...and then Ryan checked his email and found a preview of our wedding video.

We cried all the way through it...more tears than we shed on our wedding day, I think!

I can't really say much to top this, so this may go down in history as my shortest post ever...but watch the video below.

{An enormous THANK YOU to Seth Cohen, our videographer, who did an amazing job capturing our day and went far above and beyond what his contract said to stay and capture pieces of our reception. I can't wait to see the full version.}

Bless the Lord oh my soul...oh my soul...worship His Holy Name. Sing like never before...oh my soul..worship His Holy Name.

Rebekah + Ryan from Visual Effects by Seth on Vimeo.

Ryan's Vows

Ryan and I wrote vows to each other...and the day after the wedding, I shared mine with you. Ryan sent me his and I saved and saved them so I could pair them with some photos....and then I put up all the photos and failed to post the vows!!! Good night, Irene.

But I love these words SO MUCH. I had to share...hope you love. {And hope you love the now-repeated pictures.}

Thank you, Bekah for saying YES to life with me. I am amazed to see God’s hand at work through us in such a short amount of time and I love it. During our courtship and engagement I learned with every situation that you were exactly what God intended for me after such a difficult change in my life. I saw in you the qualities that I desired in a wife and fell in love with the woman behind them.

 Not only do I see a Godly woman in you, but also a woman who wants to be a wife in every meaning of the word. I see in you a desire to love, to cherish, to adore, to respect, and to treasure the husband you have prayed and waited for ever so patiently.

Thank you for accepting me for the man that I am, not trying to change me but work with me to become a great team. You see my faults and love me anyway. You have seen my struggles and helped me work through them. You see the differences between us and embrace the excitement of trying new and great things that may be just a little bit out of your comfort zone. Through these things you have shown me love without limits and that is very hard to find.

I continue to be amazed that this is my life. After all I have faced I never dreamed I would be rewarded with you and so quickly. As you know I have tried ever so fervently to live out John 14:15. I love the Lord with all my heart and in all I do I want to be obedient to Him. I want us to work thru that together however life leads. As your husband I plan to lead you and be as Christ has called me. I also want to love you like His word says and for us to live as God planned. I am nowhere near perfect, but I do know that I will always love you and will work thru any struggle that we face.

Marriage can’t be done alone, it takes both of us. God calls marriage to be a lifelong commitment and together with Christ there is nothing that can’t be accomplished. Today I fully commit myself to you and intend to live life with you that way. Thank you for taking me as the man you want for life too. I love how you light up the room every time you walk in, I love how you take nothing for granted and I love you how you embrace life with me. Let’s always live life this way and to its fullest never forgetting what it took for us to get here.

A Honeymoon Friday

Friday morning, we had to face...going home. Sigh.

We'd packed up the car the night before so we could maximize our morning...one last trip to the beach. Our wonderful, precious beach, where we were married.

One last walk through the sand where I became Mrs. Shaffer...

One more look down the shore line...one more morning coffee while the sun came up....

We also had one last breakfast from the food cart guy who fed us so well all week! And then Ryan really had to say goodbye to the sweet little bike. We had to return her.

Then we crawled in our car and prepared to drive north.

I tried to cheer us up by pulling out another round of travel games. First up? Movie trivia! Ryan answered questions about How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and I answered questions about You've Got Mail. We won't talk about who won. {Cause it wasn't me.}

I entertained myself by writing our Christmas letter. {I'd ordered the cards poolside earlier in the week.}

And then...oh be still my beating heart...S.O.N.I.C.

Even Ryan was impressed with the strawberry cream slush. How he ever lived a full 33 years without having one is truly beyond me and mine.

Ryan's demonstration of my car dancing.

We stopped for our first Starbucks as a married couple. A moment that deserved no less than full documentation.

I really appreciate so many things about Ryan and the way he loves me. And one thing he does so well is that he always does everything he can to make me feel loved. He wanted the trip home to be special, so he surprised me with reservations at a B&B out in the middle of nowhere in Georgia. We arrived kind of late (8ish)....

...and checked into the most darling room...little gas stove in the corner...big comfy bed...

...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! A hot tub!!!!!!!!!!!!!! {I love these so so much.}

And he even ordered dinner to be served in our room so we could relax and eat. We added the sparkling grape juice his parents gave us for our honeymoon...

...and I said if we had to come home...this was a pretty perfect last stop to our trip. That's for sure!!!

A Honeymoon Thursday

So I think you might get a chuckle or two out of this post. Hang with me!

Thursday was our last full day in Florida {sigh of deep sadness}, so we started as anyone would: drinking coffee.

Okay just kidding. I mean not about the coffee. But about that coffee maker. We borrowed that from our church so we had a way to make coffee for our guests at the reception. We thought it would be funny to have our picture taken with it. :)

And then...you know...went down to the pool for a while. It was seriously such a rough life.

And I actually got IN the pool. This was major for me. I wasn't really in to getting all frizzy headed in front of people I didn't know.

As we left the pool for the last time, we read the rules for the first time. Let's go through them, shall we? #1. Shower before entering. WOOPSIE! #2. No food, drink or glass. WOOPSIE, WOOPSIE and no problem!

We did manage to leave our animals at home and as far as we know, the pool itself did not break the rule of becoming hotter than 104. {Seriously - how is that a rule?? Do people pour great quantities of boiling water in the pool while laughing the evil laugh and watching the temp climb over 104??}

After we left the pool, we headed back to the store where we'd rented our kayak earlier in the week.

And oh my dear people...this time...this time...we fulfilled Ryan's dream of tandem bike riding.

Read: RYAN'S dream.

This man was so happy in this particular moment that you just can't even possibly understand. See that smile on my face?

I really meant this:

See, I broke my leg falling off a bike when I was 11. I did not get on a bike again until a year before the wedding, when I rode my sister's bike very slowly around her neighborhood for about 20 minutes. I'd never been on a tandem bike. And I. Was. Freaked. Out.

We took a few laps around the parking lot to get the feel for the thing. It's weird to be on the back of a bike when you can't see much in front of you except the back of another person. Then we got in a bike lane {and let the record show, I think my PERSON was wider than the lane} and rode right next to the cars.

I had a literal death grip on those handlebars and as we pedaled down the road {much faster than I would have liked} I was chanting "What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee. Psalm 56:3." Anytime I quote Scripture WITH REFERENCE, it's serious. Ryan called back over his shoulder, "What are you saying?" I said "I'M QUOTING SCRIPTURE."

They say opposites attract. They would be right.

En route, we found some decorations for our first yard together.

We rode our bike down to the Siesta Key Village {about 3 miles away from our hotel} and had a late lunch/early dinner together. Then we took a tour of town, where we found this:

WHY, OH WHY didn't we stay there??? Why are we back in the snow??

It was almost time for the sunset, so we rode the bike down to the beach and walked through that amazing sand for one last sunset....

We. Were. Here.

Just thought I'd throw this one in so you could see that self-portraits don't always go well for us.

We'd failed to bring our tripod, so some nice lady took pity on us and took our picture.

Ahhh....waterfront sunsets...how we miss thee.

After the sun went down, we headed back to the road and so carefully followed MORE rules.

And if you're going to break one...why not break them ALL?

We rode back to town and found a little local coffee shop to have a date. Parked our bike. {Cracks me up.}

Very yummy date and then we had to leave....

On the way home, we decided to ride the bike on the beach. The bike didn't have reflectors and our clothing wasn't bright, so we hated to be on the main road. But let me tell you about riding on the beach after dark.

There were NO people on the beach AT all. And that beach was really, really dark. Not a lot of stars, no moon...and the tide was much higher than we expected. We were trying to see how much space we had...avoid holes in the sand...and worst of all...

...I had watched Sleeping with the Enemy right before we left. The worst thing for after-dark beach riding is a recent exposure to that storm scene. I was very nearly in tears by the time we arrived back at our resort.

So to console me...we walked around to enjoy the sights one more time.

And this is how we felt about saying goodbye to our precious wedding/honeymoon trip.

And it's also how Ryan felt about saying goodbye to his tandem bike.

A Honeymoon Wednesday

I promise. One day we'll be done with the honeymoon - but I really really really wanted to tell you about the rest of our trip!!

Wednesday morning, we got up early {like before sunrise} and fixed coffee {of course} and went for a sunrise walk on the beach:

We looked down the beach...looked at each other...and said, "Yeah, that looks like about a mile...why don't we walk to the farthest point and back? We can do that and then get some breakfast."

Sounds good, doesn't it? And it was such a lovely walk. We saw dolphins:

We had our Baywatch moments:

We walked in the water:

We visited snowmen....

....and something like 2 hours later when we got back, limping from water-logged sandals, we discovered it had actually been three miles out to the far point. So rather than walking 2 miles, we'd walked six. In water shoes. Before breakfast. Obviously we were in love. :)

So we spent a few hours lounging by the pool to recover from that. {Read: we both took our computers to the pool and spent time blogging and paying bills. HA!}

And then that night, we had the chance to do something I've LONG wanted to do. Take a sunset dinner cruise.

My friend Christi recommended it to us, and we decided to treat ourselves and do it. We got all dressed up and headed out, mid-afternoon, to the marina in Sarasota:

We went early on purpose, so we could walk around the waterfront and look at the skyline, the bridge, and the boats in the marina:

We walked for quite a while and then we got in line for our cruise on the Marina Jack II!

When we got on board, we asked if it mattered where we sat. {One other couple got on board ahead of us.} The crew told us only 8 guests would be on board that night, so we could sit wherever. The other couple found a table downstairs right at the front of the boat, so we went upstairs. Here's our little table!

Shortly after we found our table, the remaining four people got on board.  Two couples...one couple was made up of the parents of the wife in the second couple. They had a table across the way from us, and obviously they were very important, because they had a reserved sign on it. {That just straight up cracked me up since there were EIGHT PEOPLE on board.} Someone came on board to greet them, further proving their obvious importance, and I heard the younger wife say to the person greeting her, "Now will they serve us up here, or do we need to go to the boo-fay?"

1. Boo-fay? This is Florida. It's just a regular buffet.
2. There are EIGHT PEOPLE on board. Really, how much is it going to tax you to walk down the stairs and stand in the boo-fay line?

I managed to not snort out loud and instead, turned my attention to the boat we considered purchasing:

Both boats, actually. {Insert big fat HA!!! here.}

The cruise took us by some magnificent homes and the sunset was {again} uh.ma.zing.

And speaking of uh.ma.zing....the boo-fay was so good. My first time ever to have prime rib. Spoiled now. Wow.

{That would be the boo-fay lady's mom coming up the stairs behind me.}

After dinner, we decided to really enjoy the views of the homes with their gorgeous Christmas lights, so we went out on the open-air deck and watched as we sailed past the huge, huge houses. It was so lovely out there...

We even drank some coffee out there...

They were playing Christmas music over the speakers, so Ryan held out his hand and asked me to dance. The boo-fay party stared at us, but we didn't care. Dancing after dark on the deck of a sunset cruise - surrounded by Christmas lights - YES PLEASE!!

I was walking away from the boo-fay party and I heard one of the husbands say, "Well, SHE got to take pictures and dance and make out." Well...you could have too, sir!! I had much fun with it! Too bad they didn't join in!

And before we left the boat...a quick kiss at the very front of the thing...

After we left the boat, we walked over to a little park we'd not seen earlier in the day. There was this really cool dolphin waterfall, so we stood there for a while, just soaking in the gorgeous evening. The main Marina Jack restaurant was right there, and they were having live entertainment. The music was such fun so we danced, right there in the dark in the middle of a park. Perfect end to a perfect day.