A Perfect Panini: the Sixth Love Language

 When Carter and I were engaged we read Gary Chapman's "What I Wish I had Known Before I got Married" and within it was a recap of his famous "love languages". We took the test to discover what our "language" was and discussed our results. Mine was a toss up between words of affirmation and physical touch and Carter's was acts of service and physical touch. Carter felt comfortable with his results but I questioned mine. Don't get me wrong, I am a SUCKER for genuine compliments---tell me why you love me and I'm all yours. But the truth is, I like all the other languages too. I'm multilingual. Now you're probably thinking--well that's great! She'll be pleased with anything! But the kicker is that, yes all the languages work for me, but only at various times. Sometimes, a couple flowers would make my day, and other times I really need a hand with the housework, and sometimes I would most appreciate an hour of quality time. Basically, I'm an unpredictable mess.

 Now I PROMISE I recognize that this is unreasonable--I do NOT expect anyone (especially my husband) to cater to whatever my current love language is. That would just be silly. There's no way to predict them. So I signed myself as a hopeless case and moved on. Until I found a language that seems to always do the trick.

 Carter is many things: handsome, kind, hard working, patient...he's also a total sandwich snob. No simple sandwiches for that guy. I used to think a sandwich was merely putting a few tasties in between bread, but apparently its much more than that, in fact there's a whole art to it. He never complains about whatever lame sandwich I make him, but over our year+ of marriage I've noticed that when he makes himself a sandwich its always a very carefully executed masterpiece. One day, after incorporating some tricks introduced to us by friends, Carter created what would immediately become my ever reliable sixth love language. The perfect panini. A cheesy, delicious, crispy, full of flavor panini,. Mmmmm mmm mmmm that language always conveys love and appreciation. We've since become panini maniacs and usually eat at least three a week. They've become such a significant part of our lives that I felt like I needed to share some pictures so our posterity would know why the little $8 DI george forman grill comes up so often in my journal entries. So here posterity: this is what the hubbub is all about. And if you're ever feeling like none of the love languages consistently apply to you, put together one of these puppies and remember me :)

cheese, turkey, lettuce, tomato, avacodo, and caesar dressing in between sour dough bread...mmmmm