It was just an e-mail, sent out to the Tukwila Police Department, wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving.
Dave Lawrence, a radio dispatcher at Valley Communications, just wanted to share a positive holiday vibe in 1993.
Fate had other plans for him.
Dave received just one response back to his cheerful note: an equally cheery note from a records clerk named Trish, at Tukwila P.D.
The two started corresponding, and a month later, they met for their first date. They went to watch Christmas lights, drinking coffee to ward off the chill. Trish’s cup started to leak, soaking her mittens. Dave, in gallant fashion, gulped his coffee down, so he could give her his cup.
“I drank my coffee down real fast – and burned my throat,” said Dave.
But it didn’t take Trish and Dave long to realize they had something special.
“We talked about everything,” Dave said of that fateful night. “It was then that I could see myself living the rest of my life with her.”
That summer in 1994, they did just that, tying the knot – although as Trish explains, Dave had to really work to convince her about getting married again. They blended their family of his three girls and her boy.
Today, many years later, Dave and Trish Lawrence are still happily together, their children grown up and out of the house.
Their chemistry extends even to the kitchen. Both of them like to cook, and they break down the labor pretty easily: Dave likes to cook the main entrees, and Trish enjoys making the gravies and the dessert.
Their knack for cooking isn’t a secret among their friends.
Trish calls their breakfasts “legendary,” with all kinds of entrees whipped up from scratch.
“Our friends are paying us,” she said, grinning about the money they sometimes find stuffed under plates, after the meal is over.
The couple also likes to whip up soups to ward off the chill of the rainy Puget Sound weather. They’ve selected one of their favorites to share, which appears here.
Just as the beans and the seasoning bring this delicious soup together, so too do the ingredients of the Lawrences’ life: jobs they love; a beautiful home in Sumner that they share; and the loving attention of their five devoted dogs, all of them rescues.
“It’s a lot of fun and we try to work together,” Dave said of their cooking and their lives.
THE RECIPES
Italian-Style Turkey Sausage
1 pound lean ground turkey
1 tsp whole fennel seed
1 tsp crushed fennel seed
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic
Mix all ingredients together and set aside. Could be made ahead and left in refrigerator to blend ingredients.
Sausage Pizza Soup
1 pound turkey sausage
2 medium zucchinis, sliced
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 chopped onion
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes (we used Italian stewed tomatoes)
2 cups water
2 cups chicken broth
2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp pepper
1 each green, red and yellow peppers, chopped
2 cans black beans, drained
Minced fresh basil and crushed red pepper flakes
In large saucepan, cook the sausage and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add zucchini, mushrooms and peppers, mix with turkey sausage mixture; cook for 5 minutes. Add diced tomatoes, water, broth, dried basil and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh basil and pepper flakes to taste.
