Two of the contributors to this site, Epluribusunum and Pariahdog, came over to our house for dinner Friday. And they brought with them a dozen eggs that had been laid by their very own chickens that very day. The eggs were things of beauty, all different colors and sizes. Most of them were a pastel blue. And Stevens and I and our son ate our way greedily through most of them over the weekend (as I write this there are 5 left).

Honest-to-goodness fresh eggs from real chickens.

This is what I did with three of the eggs.

I mixed them with flour, yeast, salt, honey, and milk into a dough. Then I set the dough into a greased bowl to rise.

Letting the dough rise

When it had risen for two hours, and was doubled in size, I punched it down, divided it in three equal portions (yes, I weighed it, I’m a geek), made them into balls and let them rest for 15 minutes.

Then I made each ball into a long rope and braided them together.

Dough braided together.

Then I let it rest for another thirty minutes while the oven preheated to 375.

I brushed it with a mixture of egg yolk and water, and put it in the oven for 40 minutes.

When it came out of the oven, it looked like this:

Beautiful Challah Bread

Looks delicious, doesn’t it? And the picture doesn’t do the flavor justice. YUM.

Better than the bread, better even than the eggs, was the intense, fun, and unfailingly interesting conversation that we shared Friday night over dinner, and late into the night.

My dear friends, I am so grateful for the eggs, but way more than that, I am grateful for your friendship.