why kitchen chalk boards are rad

 because they allow two ghosts in the same house to tie one on without the hassle of looking for the sour mix... word.

barley water? say what now?

i get that gross boiled cereal water isn't necessarily a great topic of interest, but i feel the need to share this discovery: gross boiled cereal water is delicious. really, really delicious. 

the cereal in question is in fact barley, champion of the brewing world but ugly stepsister to more sought after breakfast delicacies like oatmeal or gritz. now oatmeal and gritz are great, but i wouldn't take gin with either one of them. this is where barley shreds the competition:

  

barley water with gin!

1 cup pearl barley

8 cups water 

juice of 1-2 lemons

juice of 1 orange

1/4 cup honey 

lotsa gin (i used tanqueray 10)*

1. bring the water and barley to a boil. reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 30 minutes

2. strain out the pearls and either toss them (but why?) or set them aside

3. mix the warm barley water with the citrus juices and the honey

4. put the barley water in the fridge and get the gin ready

5. ice + barley water + gin. drink up that golden honey flavored goodness. yay! 

*if you don't enjoy copious amounts of booze, fine. don't put booze in your barley water. you'll still have a refreshing beverage treat. but you won't be as cool.

now what to do with all that barley you cooked and forgot about? well, you can put it to it's most common use and feed it to some cows. or goats. or whatever.

or you can be awesome like me and eat the pants off that cereal! i went the savory dinner route and made a pasta free risotto with barley pearls, roasted acorn squash, grated parmesan, bacon bits and arugula. don't forget the butter, heavy cream, salt and pepper.

bomb.

chicky débutantes

well, we've finally managed to name the little buggers, and just in time, it seems. they're quickly abandoning their "adorable downy balls of fuzzy goodness" phase for the less pleasant "gangly awkward lumps of stinky feather/frizz mash-up" phase. plus their learning to fly, which really translates into a lot of wing flapping and crap flinging in their too-small rubbermaid paradise. 

nevertheless, all hail the ugly, awkward teenagers. introducing, in no particular order: 

Clementine (aka Fatty) 

Pot Pie

Harriet 

Duckie

 

i wanted to name them after adorable old ladies, but they all seemed a little too conspiratorial and ornery to really do justice to names like Posy, Olive or Hazel. Clementine was as close as i could get, but since we call her Fatty all the time, it doesn't really count.  Harriet i suppose got off easy. it's a fairly normal name; perhaps i'm the only one who assumes the connotations of a slightly stupid, bitchy valley girl-esque type personality. you know, the kind of chick who ends every sentence with a question mark? 

it remains to be seen if Harriet will wallow in her name or rise to the task of owning it. for now, she just keeps getting beat up by Pot Pie, the giant and overbearing bully of the brood.  at least Fatty has taken to her name with zeal, eating constantly and with an obvious enthusiasm. the fact that she remains the smallest of the bunch doesn't stop her from cramming into her gullet every piece of flotsam that gets near her face. 

Duckie at least comes off as the only civil creature among the cretins, and i can't help but be reminded of John Cryer as Duckie in Pretty in Pink, one of my personal favorites out of the great mind of John Hughs (we can all ignore Maid in Manhattan and Beethoven's 3rd, 4th and 5th...) our Duckie is a bit of a loudmouthed loner, always dressed to the nines in her finest 80's stripes and bolo tie. she hasn't fallen for any crazy selfish redheads yet, but she is only a month old. give it time. 

and that, folks, sums up my flock of bitches, as i so lovingly refer to them. 

enjoy.

this is an incredibly romantic moment, and you're ruining it for me.

 

screen printing is the bomb

i enjoyed my first screen printing class today with the AS220 print shop. and it was the bomb. really. here's my very first print:

sheep ectoplasm

you want one? $500. 

ok $250.