As you may or may not know, Matt and I have been getting assaulted by four dozen eggs a week from our ducks and every day brings with it the challenge of trying to figure out what to do with them. We did the dyed easter eggs. We did the smoked salmon deviled eggs. We regularly have eggs in a nest. Our classic egg salad has become a staple in our fridge. Hell we even read them like tea leaves to tell that day’s fortune. But nothing puts eggs to work quite like a big hearty quiche does. It’s also one of the only ways I really want eggs in my dinner—quiche and a light salad feels very French (I ..read more

One of the first times I ever had my own money I walked into Lakeside Mall and felt like God. I had cash! I had no responsibilities! The world was my oyster and I was hungry for a seafood platter! I declared to myself I was there for a “shopping spree” (I smelled a lot of cologne, bought earphones for my iPod at Macy’s, and walked around the food court (???) with my one friend). There were two stores I was intimidated to go in to (this sounds insane, but, here we are): Abercrombie and Hollister. The models. The mannequins. The smells. The darkness. Was that any place for a chubby gay 13 year o ..read more

Hi!! If you’re anything like me, I’d first like to apologize to your friends and family because that sounds terrible. And second, it means you’ve been seeing natural Easter egg dying tutorials online for years and itching to give it a try yourself! With our ducks in full blown egg factory mode it seemed like the perfect season of life for me to give it a whirl. We loosely followed this guide from The Kitchn and altered it slightly, mostly just limiting the ingredients to stuff we could find at Walmart. Overall I’m pretty happy with the results, but I don’t think I’ll always want to do natural ..read more

The cottage does not look like I had originally imagined—thank god. If you haven’t yet, read the first post introducing this project before coming back over to this page for the update! So, yeah, what the cottage has ultimately become is not what I was originally planning way back in the summer of 2023 when we first started toying with the idea of converting our two-car garage into a home. I imagined a petite cabin that didn’t sprawl out much beyond the existing borders of the garage, totaling about 500 square feet. As we approached our first meeting with our contractor, I had a little voice ..read more

I’ve written my fair share of Valentine’s Day blog posts in my day, and if you look back over the years, they typically share two themes: “I hate Valentine’s Day, it’s DUMB” or “Valentine’s Day is a fun way to celebrate love and if you hate it, you’re DUMB.” I may be paraphrasing.  Point is, I’ve wavered in my feelings toward Valentine’s Day. Not because I hate the celebration of love, but very specifically, I hate the cultural notion (and accompanying commodification) that romantic love is be-all and end-all.  We assign so much value to romantic relationships while ignoring what I ..read more

This is the kitchen! The frame behind us is the window :) Hello and welcome to the second installment of our series all about building the cottage here at Benwood Gardens! If you missed the first post, we dive into what we’re building and why we’re building it—you can find it right here! Today I’ll be going to be going over the floor plan and layout, and sharing some of the logic behind our decisions. Throughout this post I’ll be referring to everything included in the graphics above, so use them as reference if you get kinda lost… floor plan talk can get confusing and I’m not the best at ex ..read more

Week 1: the before (front exterior)—turning our two car garage into a cottage! Week 1: the before (future kitchen)—turning our two car garage into a cottage! Week 1: the before (front exterior, site of future bedroom addition)—turning our two car garage into a cottage! Week 1: the before (future rear entry wall)—turning our two car garage into a cottage! When we decided to build an extra dwelling on our Tennessee property, we weren't sure about the details—what we wanted, where we wanted it, or even why we wanted it. Pro tip: don't start building a house without a clear reason (and we didn ..read more

A brandy milk punch is very easy to make, but capturing the essence of fig? Not so easy. Not gonna lie, it took a few attempts to perfect this recipe!  As self-proclaimed fig lovers, we wanted to find a way to really bring home the fig flavor in this cocktail and quickly discovered it was going to be a bit of a challenge. Matthew, our fearless cocktail conqueror, was up for it. After some tinkering, Matt concluded the best way to get a figgy flavor would be with an infused simple syrup. Fresh figs don’t really provide a punched up fig flavor, so we opted for dried!  Besides providin ..read more

In our stocking stuffer gift guide, I talked a bit about the pressure of gifting. Close friends, the ones who held you while you cried over some traumatic life event but who have grown to have different expectations around gifting from your own, the hardest to shop for.  We’re so close, and I want to get them something so meaningful, but it would be weird if I got them anything too nice. Sometimes those of us who enjoy showing our love through gifts can quickly overdo it, which isn’t all that generous to the gift recipient.  Instead of guessing, I recommend communicating directly if ..read more

Everyone’s got their own weird and, at times, emotionally charged viewpoint on gifting for the holidays. Just within my own tiny constellation of best friends, opinions range from, “do not get me a gift” to “if I’m not given a gift, I will assume the worst.” Presents can represent so much, and the pressure can get to your head.  That unnecessary pressure that can come with gifting? I think it’s the reason I love the idea of stocking stuffers so much. They take the pressure off. By nature, stocking stuffers are meant to be just a little something extra, but they can be as superfluous or a ..read more