Blah Blah, Valentine's Day, Mush Mush

If you were expecting a beautiful, mushy Valentine's Day post, you're not going to get it.

Sorry.

This is for those of you - like me - who are 'alone' for Valentine's Day.

I say 'alone' because you're not really alone, and here's why. 

Do you know the story behind Valentine's day?

The real story?

Well, I do.

And while I don't remember the specifics, I can tell you the gist of it.

There was a man named Valentine (Italian, probably) who was going to be hanged at dawn, at the first ringing of the bell.

Don't ask me what for, but I think it was murder.

Dawn came, and he was led to the scaffold.

Per the order, the executioners waited for the ringing of the bell.

They never heard it. 

One of the officials went to the bell tower and demanded to know why the bell hadn't been rung yet.

The bell ringer explained that he had been ringing the bell, but it hadn't been working. 

They went to examine it, and when they looked up at it, they saw Valentine's young wife clinging to the clapper: her body had silenced the ringing.

By the time they got her out, she was half dead. They asked her why she had done that, and she replied simply that she loved her husband. She died not too long afterwards.

Deciding the debt owed the state had been paid by one life, the official released Valentine, who - I assume - went on to become a saint somehow. 

Does that story ring a bell?

It's a terrible pun, but the question stands.

Valentine's Day isn't about roses and cutesy poetry and chocolate and sheepish grins and Cupid and pink hearts and dates.

It's about sacrificial love.

It's about laying one's life down for another.

And hopefully, that sounds familiar to all of us.

And that's why you're never alone.

I understand that it can hurt to be without a significant other during Valentine's Day: I didn't think I would be 'alone' this year, but I am.

And that's okay.

I'm not really alone.

And neither are you.

We are loved beyond measure by One who will never let us go.

We are loved by One who took our place of punishment and death.

So Happy Valentine's Day.

For God so loved the world

that He gave His only begotten Son

that whoever believes on Him

should not perish

but have eternal life.

John 3:16

My (Mis)Adventure in the Realm of Cuisine

This summer, my mom, sister, and brother went on a mission trip to Ukraine.
That left me and my dad home alone.

Um, no, really, it wasn't exactly like that.

The two main issues were laundry - which I can do - and cooking, which I can also do.

Here's the problem with cooking, though:

I really like food.

Japanese food . . .

Mexican food . . .

American food . . .

Italian food . . .

You name it, chances are I might like it.

We had tacos some nights. Went fine.

We had stir-fry. Perfect.

We had spaghetti with alfredo dipping sauce like Olive Garden's . . . Um . . . PROBLEM.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize my error in its entirety until about . . . oh, I don't know, four days ago.

So, soon after they left, I started looking for recipes online.

That's dangerous, just sayin'.

I looked in my mom's bookmarks first, and I saw she had bookmarked Olive Garden's recipe for their alfredo sauce.

I was shocked.

Why had she never made this before; we love their alfredo sauce!

I decided to rectify this "wrong" and set out to make it.

My dad and I thought it turned out pretty good. It was, well, white, and Olive Garden's isn't, but I figured they probably used butter in the restaurant version, even though there was none called for in the recipe I saw.

It tasted almost exactly the same, though, so we just forgot about it.

A few days ago, we went to Olive Garden and me and my mom inspected the dipping sauce.

Then she asked me a question.

"Did you use egg whites or egg yolks?"

"Egg whites."

"Em . . . are you sure that's what you were supposed to use?"

"Yeah, I think so. I mean, I printed it out and was looking at it the whole time."

"That's just weird, because usually you use egg yolks in sauces."

We sorta forgot about that . . .

. . . Until a few days later.

My mom was looking for a recipe and chanced upon the alfredo sauce.

"Hey Sis?"

"Yeah?"

"Um . . . that alfredo sauce?"

"Uh-huh?"

"It calls for egg yolks . . ."

. . . Oops . . .

However!

This calls for a second shot!

And THIS is why I love OPERA . . .

^-^

Yay!

Really makes you want to go see Lucia di Lammermoor, doesn't it?