We are getting into the Valentine’s Day mood over here at Farmer K’s Kitchen with the next three posts focussing on L.O.V.E. I thought I’d take a walk down memory lane and fill you in on how I met my favourite person – Kirk, my husband.

Part One: The Beginning: The scene for this love story is Port Macquarie in New South Wales. I was 17 years old and finishing Year 11 at one school, and my future husband was in Year 12 at another – opposite sides of town.

Kirk on stage singing rap with his sexy pants.

It was Christmas time 1998, as we both headed off to a local Christian concert called ‘Reclaim’. I had only just become a Christian and had heard of the concert through the church I had started to go to. I was dragging one of my girlfriends along for the night. We didn’t know anyone, just that I had heard there would be good music and loads of youth.

At the concert there this was this guy (Kirk) who was busting out some pretty fancy moves in front of us. He really stood out to me – not in a ‘my gosh, he is so hot!’ way, but more of an intriguing attention-grabbing way. I’m not sure whether it was because of his curly, floppy hair, bright blue pants that he had made himself (with fluro green and fluro pink cargo pockets sewn on), or the fact that he had jumped up on stage to sing “O Come All Ye Faithful” in his own little rap version….whatever it was, he had made an impression.

During the concert I went to get a drink and randomly bumped into a friend who I had not seen since we were in Year 3 together from when we used to live in Sydney! She quickly introduced me to her group of friends and Kirk happened to be one of them. Being a new Christian and looking forward to meeting some people with the same new-found views on life, I began to mix with this group of friends who called themselves ‘mob’. It was such a great time in our life. Mob were always up to something fun!

Fun times with mob. Yes, the boys have drawings on their nipples. Long story.

Over the next few months Kirk and I discovered that we had a lot in common and started to hang out together: photographing the lions at the local circus, going to the movies as mate-dates, learning rock’n'roll dancing together, heading out to waterholes, etc. Of course, this all lead to us eventually dating (awww).

Young Love

My 18th Birthday

My entire Year 12 was spent head over heels in love with Kirk. I am surprised I managed  to get good HSC (test) marks and graduate well.

My Year 12 Formal

What my first car looked like. Two people could pick it up and carry it.

I was given a little red Subaru Sherpa (2 cylinder 800cc beast) for my 18th off my parents. During a very serious and important moment in my young life (HSC exams) I would often come out from an intense exam to find my little red beast had been lifted somewhere weird with a present on the windshield and a note written on bakery wrapping to say that he was thinking of me. Such a romantic.

Once I finished High School (Kirk was studying at TAFE) I applied to many universities in NSW and QLD to study Graphic Design and Marketing. I was so excited for what the future would hold! Kirk and I had been together for a year at that stage. After receiving a uni placement offer in the mail, I now had to tell him that I had been accepted into a uni on the Sunshine Coast…in another state…..I’d be moving. Would we ever see each other again…?

To be continued in Part Two….

To celebrate Kirk’s awesomeness, I found a great little recipe from Tie Dye Files which involves his favourite food group – COFFEE. I slightly adjusted the recipe to  suit our tastes, and I am stoked with how it turned out.

Coffee Crunch Love

• 1 1/2 Tbs rapadura sugar
• 1/2 cup (80g) raw almonds
• 1/4 cup (30g) raw walnuts
• 120g dates
• 2 tsp extracted coffee (you can use ground coffee, but extracted coffee has more flavour)
• 1 Tbs cacao nibs, or some good quality chocolate cut up finely

1. Mix the almonds, rapadura sugar, walnuts and dates in the Thermomix or food processor.
2. If the mixture is not sticking together when you squeeze a bit between two fingers, then just add some more dates.
3. Add in the coffee beans and cacao nibs and mix.
4. Push the mix into chocolate moulds or roll into truffle balls.
5. You can eat straight away or put in the fridge or freezer for a cold treat.

These are wonderful at room temperature, but if you like a chilled treat, they’ll also keep well in the fridge or freezer in a sealed container.