farm

we're married!!!!!!!!!!

the big fat snow flakes that fell from the sky,

the cake with our smiling eggs, a marzipan heart, halva, and gold,

my new family, 

my old one,

the lace from stoopie's wedding dress tied to my bouquet with a bracelet from mia,

a crab brooch from china and a cuff from mum's mum as my something blue,

the sound of the fugue as we walked down the aisle through a sea of love and rosemary, to eggboy with his egg tears. 

john's perfect speech, the cell phone soundtrack to our vows, the smooches, the sprinkles, the shawls that kept my bridesmaids warm,

eating all of the challah and prosciutto for the buffer for all of the aquavit that fueled the chorus line, the conga line, the hora, and cyndi lauper sing along,

the perfectly timed dinner bell, the late night grilled cheese covered in tons and tons of ketchup, the later night papa john's soaked in garlic butter, the smiley faces and the dancing, the perfect cake, the perfect pies, the perfect soup, the big big hugs,

and my husband.

hehehe.

my husband.

-yeh! (hagen!)


thank you to our amazing photographers, chantell and brett for these photos!!! more photos to come :)

a gingerbread farm

here is what our farm looks like! for the most part. it's not totally to scale and it's actually a vision of what the future will look like because there is a hot tub and a few ponies romping around, and with the exception of the pink tractor, it is all edible! there are za'atar trees and matcha trees and heart-shaped jolly rancher windows... even a shameless gingerbread buick lesabre. 

i spent more hours that i'm willing to admit on this, and if i had a dollar for every time eggboy conveyed that i was a lunatic in the process, i'd have enough to buy a real pony, but it was 100% worth every second just to see the looks on all of the eggs' faces when they saw it. eggboy's lucky that i didn't set this in the middle of our living room and scatter coconut flakes all over the floor to represent the wheat fields and sugar beet fields. i will save that for next year.

i'd like it to be known that i did not throw one frustration-induced tantrum during this whole process. that's probably a given because technically i am a grown-up, but i've got an awful track record (which in past years has resulted in having to construct a house of cardboard and glue through a sea of tears), so i am very proud of myself for this. 

do you want to have a tantrum-free gingerbread house building experience? i have secrets for you over on food52! follow along this week with a series of three gingerbread house posts that cover: how to make rock hard walls that won't collapse, how to make icing that will dry like cement, and how to make fun little accessories like a blue raspberry hot tub and cylindrical pieces of gingerbread wall for a grain bin or silo. and you'll get a little tour of our farm in the process :)

go check it out!

-yeh!

lefse!

the other day, i was at the town boutique trying on a sprinkle sweater when britney spears started singing from my phone and, mostly as a reaction to my embarrassment and wanting that ringtone to stop (eggboy, please change my ringtone, ok thanks!!!), i picked it up immediately. on the other end was his jolliness sam sifton, who said something to effect of, hey! i was thinking i'd come over to make some lefse! and i thought holy poopcakes!

what followed was one of the most memorable weeks of my life, but only after i could annoy poor miss ethel a few times because contrary to what you'd think based on her perfect performance on camera, she had been adamant about not even being in the presence of a reporter. and i was a pushy patty.

(it all worked out in the end because that sam can really charm.)

for a few days, we covered ourselves in flour and rolled in potato fields and it was all so unreal because when i lived in new york, i'd sit at my little desk and count the seconds until sam's restaurant reviews would come online, and then i'd savor every last word. i may have moved on to marilyn's turf, but sam will always be one of my favorites :) 

i loved having him and the amazing sweet video crew from the times here, they were my first visitors from brooklyn! after our shoot, we celebrated with venison and hotdish, and then eggboy and eggdad took the crew on a workshop tour. they got a little welding lesson and at some point i think sam drove a tractor, which was practice for when we hire him for beet harvest. hehe.

anywho, i've received the sweetest messages from so many of you guys about the video and i want to hug all of you!! if you haven't seen it, here it is! the recipe for ethel's lefse is here. happy lefse season, everyone!!

-yeh!

some of these photos were taken by one of the wonderful crew members, eric moran. check out his site, his photos are amazing!!!!!

 

brisket tacos + an end of harvest party

this year's end of harvest party was extra special. it was eggboy's first one as a man in charge, alongside eggdad, and it was our first gathering in the space where our wedding reception will be! the space is typically used for tractors and tools and welding, but we cleared it out, put up string lights all hipster-like, and set out the baddest taco bar in the history of midwestern taco bars. 

eggboy contributed about 12 kinds of salsa and i spearheaded some brisket, even though i was nervous about cooking for a bunch of big burly hunter men. because, i mean, preparing meat does not come as naturally to me as, say, baking a cupcake. i did not grow up eating red meat and when i was little i did not even really like any meat unless it was (turkey) baloney or (turkey) salami. so tell me to host a high tea or afternoon cake club and i will do it in a jiffy, but inform me of a dinner that i need to cook for 16 people that probably kill a majority of the meat that they eat and i will be a nervous nelly. very nervous nelly.

so i hyperventilated a bit and stressed out but in the end i chose brisket for the centerpiece of our tacos because in the past few years, brisket has wiggled its way into my life by way of the jewish holidays and i invited it to stay a while because of its earth-shattering smells and perfect next-day sandwiches. brisket might actually be my comfort meat, my entryway into the world of non-lunchmeat meat. each time i make it, it gets easier and i think why don't i make this more often? maybe when i'm a real married minnesota lady, one of those who has a slow cooker, i'll make brisket on the reg and you can all come over for brisket tacos every other tuesday.

here was our menu:

for noshing // chips, a butt load of guac, and every single kind of salsa that eggboy could get his hands on

for the taco bar // zinfandel braised brisket (recipe here), a light cabbage slaw, and all the fixins you could ever want

on the side // roasted sweet potatoes

for sipping // kendall-jackson vintner's reserve zinfandel

for dessert // eggsister's coconut cream pie!


happy taco-ing everyone!

-yeh!

thanks so much to kendall-jackson for sponsoring this post!!!! all opinions are my own!