winter wonderland

our chickens work!

after much squawking and anticipation, jonathan went out to the coop saturday morning to find this in the laying box:

i was one proud lady and tore through the house squealing with delight while trying to tug on my boots to run out and see it for myself. jackie o is the one responsible for this and she lays a beautiful--albeit a tad small--brown egg.

she had been acting a little funny recently: squatting down submissively if i moved my hand to pet her, squawking (and sometimes gobbling) a lot and very loudly, and isolating herself from the other ladies. she also didn't seem to mind jonathan and i as much and took to exploring the backyard--presumably looking for a better option for her eggs than the laying box we've had up for a while.
we weighed the egg (thanks mama and papa!). a perfectly small one. and then slow poached them (by this time we had TWO eggs) for our brussel sprout and bacon salad (more on that later).

jackie's eggs are a bit smaller and has a lighter hue than the grocery store eggs we buy. for now we keep them in the fridge w the other eggs. but once we start getting more--when the other hens decide to do their job--we'll be keeping them in an egg crate in the pantry. no need to refrigerate them since they are so fresh!

nashville comes for a visit

my dear college friend, christian, who is exploring nashville after living in syria for a year, came to visit the sisters and jonathan and i (and grace, though a blizzard foiled our plans for camembert and scotch). we ate. we drank. we laughed a lot.

he settled in nicely w lady bird.

the stage is set. and complete w a bottle of laphroaig courtesy of christian.

'twas a nice cozy night for lounging and conversing on the couch.

jonathan started us out w homemade scallion and cream cheese wontons and a tomato and silken tofu salad garnished w some asian basil-y thing and a sesame oil dressing

things soon got cheery. and a little rowdy.

we were happy bc we were together and eating homemade pork belly kimchi.

slurp.

whoa. we are full.
which means it is time to take out (bring in?) the chickens.

eleanor settles down when i give her some loving.
lady bird wonders why everyone is freaking out.
too. much. fun.
i did not drink nearly as much of this as the men. but it was peaty and yummy.
"just one more little one," the men kept saying. until it was ALL gone.
love you, christian.

p.s. come back tomorrow (or soon thereafter) to see the process of making the kimchi.

p.p.s. my posts are way behind. expect to see news about thanksgiving sometime around christmas.

just another lazy saturday morning

complete with hulu.com

from the vault: pre-interview emily

needless to say, i got the job.

boys brewing night

i came home from olivea and head cheese to this:mark, jonathan, brandon and zach drinking nice whiskey and brewing spicy beer in the back.

ying and yang

or black spoon, white spoon.

whatever suits.

venturing into the world!

jessica gets a job and we celebrate,with champagne, pizza, and thursday night television on TiVo.

puppy play

i don't mean to rub it in

but this is how we spend our mornings together.

breakfast at moe's

hike at chautauqua

and lunch at larkburger

for the most part, jonathan and i both work nights for the restaurant industry. so that means our mornings can be really productive. meaning, hikes and greasy food in boulder.