Kindred

When I first discovered Ashley Rodriguez through her blog, her then-current post was a recipe for bacon caramels.  I instantly fell in love.   Her writing is impeccable, her photos dreamy, her children adorable, and her recipes perfection–with salt, in Seattle even.   What’s not to love for this West-Coaster, sojourning on the east coast, who likes food, and coffee, and photography, and salt (and bacon (and caramel))?

And her most recent post is no less amazing.  She and her husband fell in love and married young and have grown up together.  She says, “This is what happens when you marry young. You know one another before you really know yourself. People warn you to live your life first, to discover who you are before the marriage seed is planted in your mind, and for some, that is probably a wise decision, but we were a different story.”  So true, Ashley. My husband and I were like that, too.

I had to chuckle too as she describes her husband’s love of coffee, because I know from experience exactly what she’s talking about, as he’s “jotting down scribbles such as ‘shoe leather, fermented blueberries, and tobacco.’  He liked that particular cup,” she says.   And I nearly laughed out loud when she described his “journal that is in existence solely for the purpose of recording coffee flavors.”  From her pics, looks like Taylor has the same ones: 33 cups of coffee.  These guys take their coffee very seriously.

If time is running short in the morning, there is no time for Taylor to make coffee because it does take him 20 minutes to brew one cup.  But again, Ashley has it spot on: “I love him BECAUSE it takes him twenty minutes to skillfully brew his morning cup.”  Also, he enjoys it so much.  So very much.  It is the delightful little eccentricities of my husband that endear him the more to me.  And growing up with mine on the way, I have come to love and appreciate the things he loves and appreciates even more.  It’s wonderful.

We labor together to accomplish goodness in the things we Love most.  Not only things like coffee (and the necessity of salt), but also Love itself, our marriage, and all our relationships.

Even blogging relationships.  I’ve so enjoyed getting to know Ashley’s kitchen and family through her writing.  You should go meet her.  I think she’s awesome.