Hello! If you like playing tabletop games with friends and/or baking I’d like you to know about the Kickstarter for this amazing book, the Edible Games Cookbook. The whole idea is that you make and play and eat the games. This book is a thing I very much want to exist in the world.

I’m lucky enough to know Jenn Sandercock and to have gotten to play a few of the games and they were great fun. She’s taken care to include suggestions for savory, sweet, gluten-free, nut-free, sugar-free, vegetarian and vegan substitutions where applicable (whew). There are store-bought suggestions for those who don’t want to bake. The recipes include weight and volume measurements (yay!).

If you’d like to know more there is a downloadable sample chapter on the Kickstarter page as well as all the information you might want.

The Kickstarter for the Edible Games Cookbook is in it’s last week and the book is nearly funded. Go be the one to get this funded all the way!

Cranberry Shrub and Cranberry Shrub Cocktail at David Lebovitz. Note: He uses pumpkin spice bitters. I’m no lover of the PSL but I could get way into these bitters.

Salt-Wilted Brussels Sprout Salad With Hazelnuts and Goat Cheese Recipe at Serious Eats. Better than driving somewhere with stinky hot Brussels sprouts. Trust me on this one.

Cranberry Brie Bites at Delish. Looks pretty and easy.

Mama Stamberg’s Cranberry Relish, at NPR. Will this year be the one where I make The Relish? This recipe calls for being fully frozen and thawed so it’s perfect for those who prefer to plan ahead.

How to Make Stuffing in a Bundt Pan at Baking Bites. I think I miiight just be more delighted with a bundt-shaped stuffing being offered to me rather than a bundt-shaped cake.

Pumpkin Creme Brulee, at Munchies. I wonder how much trouble it would be to make a lot of smaller versions of these.

I think about this photo from Shutterbean’s My Everyday Life series every time my cookbook club is dividing out leftovers. Getting a stack of cheap to-go containers from a restaurant supply company would make me feel very smart, if only I could remember to get them ahead of time.

Also: If you can beg to bring home extra stuffing so you can make these Stuffing Fritters with Cranberry-Jalapeño Sauce, from The Kitchn.

Brave Tart’s amazing gingerbread house in pretty intimidating but she shares a huge amount of information on how to get everything looking just spooky enough. The page includes recipes, templates and instructions on assembly.

Ann Reardon shows us how to make a Gravity Falls themed jar of eyeballs and a horrifying gelatin hand. Her video has all the tools, instructions and recipes you’ll need. Also, her remake of the bleeding Taylor Swift heart cake would work really well for Halloween.

Here is a collection of Christine McConnell’s Halloween party food including this amazing Jack-o-lantern cake, with recipes and assembly instructions. Also check out the caramel spiders, I jump a little every time I see the pictures. Yikes.

Christmas Crack | Culinary Hill. Planning ahead for Christmas pot lucks parties.

Dill Pickle Soup | Noble Pig. The Polish Community Center in Seattle has weekly dinners and their pickle soup is amazing, I hope this recipe will be as good as that version.

Bon Puf Cotton Candy (NOTCOT).

How to Stock Your Home Bar on the Cheap (Yes, We’re Naming Bottles) | Man Made DIY. Very useful list, some of these are brands I’m not familiar with and the others are choices I strongly agree with.

Popcorn Polenta w/ Mushroom Jus – Lady and Pups – an angry food blog.

Ricotta Goat Cheese Polenta Bake with Mushrooms, Greens, and Caramelized Onions, at Gather and Dine.

Air Delight Aero Chocolate Bar Recipe – HowToCookThat. She works through a few methods for making bubbly chocolate and finds the best one.

Egg Florentine In Pullman “Bowls”, for Cynthia – Lady and Pups – an angry food blog. Grilled bread boxes!

The Fourneau Bread Oven, via Swissmiss. This is a cast iron cave that you heat in your regular home oven and use to make spectacular bread.

1 Technique, 2 Very Different Cauliflower Purées | Serious Eats.

A Truly Traditional Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie That’s Baked Right Inside the Gourd, at Laughing Squid.

Watch: Amaze Your Guests With Buttery Candles That Double As Sauce – Eater.

Rethinking Swiss Meringue: Lighter, Fluffier, and More Stable | Serious Eats.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Peppers – Food Fanatic.

an easier way to make cookies – smitten kitchen at Smitten Kitchen. This is how I make my gingerbread, pull the excess dough away from the cut shapes and you don’t get any distortion. Also, it’s way, way easier to roll out your dough when it’s still room temperature and chill it afterwards. Ahh, so easy and clean.

Tabletop Moonshine Still | Cool Tools. Table. Top Moon. Shine. Still. Hell yeah.

The Hottest New Variety of Pepper Is Not Hot at All | MUNCHIES. As somebody who loves shishito and padron pepper season I’m happy to see we’ll be getting more non-hot pepper options.

broccoli pizza – smitten kitchen.

See also: union square cafe’s bar nuts and homemade irish cream from Smitten Kitchen. I’m thinking of an Irish Cream vs. Eggnog event. Yes? No?

How to Make Your Sugar Cookies Taste Better – Chowhound.

Lottie + Doof » Lottie + Doof Gift Guide 2016.

The 2016 kottke.org Holiday Gift Guide.

Might Girl always has the most amazing Where Did You Find That? style gift guides.

The 2016 Good Gift Games Guide – defective yeti. Your annual infusion of which tabletop games are worth it.

Steel Thumbnail | Cool Tools. Considering how often I find myself using my real thumbnail to pry things I’d definitely get use out of this small key chain tool. I suspect it would make a great little present for those very practical people in your life.

My only gift recommendation for this year is the Riedel “O” series Coca-cola glasses because they are the most perfect object to drink a can of sparkling water out of and also they are on sale for 50% off right now. (Note: affiliate link.) I have one of these glasses in my house after attending a Reidel tasting event last year where I came home with a set of six glasses and this is the only one I use on a daily basis. It makes drinking sparkling water an outright elegant experience and as a result I drink a lot more water than I normally would. May I suggest it as a good gift for the La Croix lover in your life?

Love Old Fashioneds? This Spicy, Strong Whiskey Cocktail Is for You | Serious Eats.

Unusual Geometric Cake Designs by Dinara Kasko | Colossal. These are so pretty.

What’s the Difference Between the Bubbles? – Lucky Peach. Seltzer vs. sparkling water vs. club soda. Via The Wirecutter.

Giant Gougeres: French cheese puffs. David Lebovitz.

Barrel Aged Vanilla White Russian | Baking Bites. Something to do while you are aging that nog anyhow.

Hong Kong’s Most Famous Cocktail Is a Tower of Foam and Faux Caviar | MUNCHIES.

Chopped Kale Salad with Peanut-Chili Vinaigrette | Little Broken. Via Brit&Co.

Recipe: Vivian Howard’s Sunday Morning Pancakes – Eater. Made with a mixture of regular and buckwheat flours. I grew up eating buckwheat pancakes and I still prefer them.

Risotto Tips From John Podesta | Epicurious.com. “The most important revelation yet from Hillary’s hacked emails.”

The Mezcal Tour of Oaxaca, The New Yorker.

Spiced Pumpkin Rum Toddy Cocktail  | Mighty Girl.

Spooky Worm Halloween Jello – A Spicy Perspective. This is creepy and very simple.

BraveTart’s House of Horror: How to Make a Super-Spooky Halloween Gingerbread House | Serious Eats.

Olive puff pastry bites recipe – All recipes UK. The look like eyeballs and also look delicious.

DIY Hanging Spider Balloons for Halloween, at Studio DIY.

Gooey Monster Eye Cookies at Lil’ Luna. These are simple and suitably creepy.

‘Leggo My Eggo!’ and More Creative Pancakes from The Pancake Project | Serious Eats. Eeek.

Amazing Banksy “Flower Thrower” Costume, at Make.

Red Velvet Cinnamon Roll Guts | Kitchen Overlord.

Monster Popcorn Balls | Sprinkle Bakes.

Pretzel Broomstick Appetizers for the Etsy Blog! | Sprinkle Bakes.

DIY Giant Balloon Ghosts, at Oh Happy Day. These don’t use helium so they are an affordable giant balloon option.

Chocolate Skull Cake, at Inspired By Charm. This is excellent, and uses my favorite cake pan.

How To Make A Negroni — Cocktail Chemistry. They also include the recipe for a Boulevardier, a drink I’m very fond of but have found few bartenders know. Help me change that, let us make the Boulevardier as commonly known as (but easier to make than) a Margarita, yes?

How to Make a Beautiful Galaxy Mirror Cake Using Reflective Icing, at Laughing Squid. So shiny.

How to pick the perfect watermelon: 5 key tips from an experienced farmer, via Inner Vision.

Someone Probably Revealed KFC’s Top-Secret Chicken Recipe, at Grub Street.

The Best Way to Freeze Pesto Is Not What You Think — Preserve 2.0 | The Kitchn. Yes, more support for freezing things flat and thin for quick access later.

The Legend of the Choco Taco – Eater.

Best Burgers in Seattle, Washington – Burger Quest – Thrillist. The best burger on this list is from an out of the way bar that I was introduced to by the owners of Spinnaker Bay Brewing when I was working there. To this day when I have something small to celebrate we head to Loretta’s Northwesterner for burgers.

The Weirdest Things to Eat at the 2016 State Fair of Texas – Eater. “That’s right, in America we use mac and cheese AS A DIP.”

Crazy Crust Cranberry Sauce Pie | Baking Bites. This looks delicious.

Recipe: Rainbow Veggie Noodle Salad — Recipes from The Kitchn | The Kitchn.

I’m A Grown-Up Disney Kid — Obsessed With Hidden Mickeys?. The hidden mickey in the corndog here is adorable.

Bon Appétempt: Video: California Roll Salad. Also see: Bon Appétempt: Video: Beet and Goat Cheese Terrine.

The Cocktail Every Man Should Be Drinking This Summer | Man Made DIY | Crafts for Men. Spoiler: a real daquari.

A How-To Guide to Making a Silicone LEGO Candy Mold, at Laughing Squid.

How To Make Frosé — Cocktail Chemistry.

How to Combat Soggy Pie Crusts With Epsom Salt | Serious Eats.

Spiralizer Hack: Spiralized Cocktail Garnishes | Inspiralized.

I’d pour you all champagne if I could!

The Jealous Curator /// curated contemporary art /// kurt pio. Gorgeous paintings of giant diamonds, I really dig these.

Wood Rails 36″, at Parabo Press. For hanging really big posters, perfect for an Engineer Print. Via Swissmiss.

The mudroom: It begins! | Door Sixteen. An excellent list of all the products Anna uses, this is one I’ll refer to before our next house project.

Stud Thud Magnetic Stud Finder | Cool Tools. “Dual magnets create a “thud” when passed over a screw or nail”. Our house is old and has any number of mysteries behind the drywall. We once hit a water pipe trying to put up a curtain rod.

This Graphic Shows the Best Air-Cleaning Plants, According to NASA, at Lifehacker.

The Best Plants for Bedrooms and Bathrooms, by The Sill | Parachute Blog. Via The Wirecutter.

How to Make Vinegar Cleaning Spray (That Smells Good!) | The Kitchn.

Star Wars Recipe: Rey’s Portion Bread | StarWars.com.

A Four-Story Leap Day Birthday Cake at Food 52. This is delightful.

Banh Tieu Recipe: The Vietnamese Donuts You Never Knew You Loved · i am a food blog.

Toasted Almond Cake, Stewed Rhubarb, Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting – Not Without Salt. The rhubarb rosettes on this cake are really charming.

Beer is Good For Your Health | Wellness | Purewow. “Even more interesting, the hops and flavonoids in beer can actually slow the release of calcium from the bones.”

The Best Easter Traditions Come from Germany | The Kitchn. This is a reminder to myself to make braided breads like the glorious chicken in the last photo.

Chewable Coffee Is Your New Morning Pick-Me-Up | Brit + Co. Gummy coffee cubes, count me in.

The Amazing 4 Corners Project / Boing Boing. A planet sized work of art, amazing.

My Uncle Works for Nintendo — The Campo Santo Quarterly Review — Medium.

What smells like almonds in the forest? | Ask MetaFilter. Millipedes?! Millipedes!!

The latest His Dark Materials spin-off is a dark and mysterious audiobook | The Verge. I encountered the His Dark Materials series only in audiobook format and fell in love, so I’m enthusiastic to hear that the newest spin-off is audio only. (And narrated by Bill Nighy!)

An Hour With The Solus Project, A Survival Game With An Actual Story, at Kotaku.

TouchArcade Game of the Week: ‘Love You To Bits’ | TouchArcade. Tiny Thief is broken on iOS 9 (RIP) but this game is it’s spiritual successor, and shares a few devs.

Obduction, The Spiritual Successor to Myst, at Laughing Squid. I. Am. So. Happy.

The Gallery, VR and a fear of falling | Polygon. This game looks pretty ideal.

15 Tricks Every iPhone User Should Know How to Do | Apartment Therapy. These are pretty helpful.

Hidden Folks is a Hidden Object Game with Interactive Scenery – Gamezebo.

What is the plot of Lost, like what happened? | Ask MetaFilter. Some good concise explanations, should anybody ever ask just what happened on that show. Answers from “the writers painted themselves into a corner” to a patient explanation of the bifurcated timelines.

The Latest Nail Art Trend Is Apparently Only for People Who Don’t Have to Use Their Hands for Anything But Modeling Nail Art, Must Be Nice. I’m waiting for Nails by Faberge.

Filmmakers Make an Interesting Discovery Made Behind a Loose Brick in a Pub in Norwich, England, at Laughing Squid.

Shamrock Shakes, and their cult following, explained – Vox.

Extremely convenient keychain key holder from brown by TIZART and the Corder Leather Bottle Hook that hangs off a belt loop. Bot via Ask Metafilter and courtesy of my friend Phixion.

What can I wear under a sheer blouse that won’t make me miserably warm? | Ask MetaFilter. More and more Uniqlo seems to be the answer.

Seriously, These are the Best Affordable Ear Bud Headphones You Can Buy | Man Made DIY. I go through earbuds pretty quickly too, these are a solid recommendation.

Lighthouse Lounge – Ladies T-shirt | Last Exit to Nowhere. This shop sells goods using the logos of fake businesses from movies and television, this one is from Goonies. See also: Winchester Tavern from Shaun of the Dead.

“30 Rock – Music Band” T-Shirts & Hoodies by Skulltech | Redbubble. A joke from 30 Rock.

This Irish Store Is About to Become Your New Forever 21 | Brit + Co. Primark is coming to the US! I have my own favorite Primark moment.

Cool Tools – Tom Bihn Travel Tray. I’m getting one of these for Scott, the detritus that he scatters around hotel rooms makes me grumpy.

Meet the Designers Crafting High End Undergarments for the Transgender Community | GOOD.

Giant Ravioli with Egg Yolk, Spinach, and Ricotta. Recipe lookup inspired by Salty Seattle’s Instagram. Yum.

dubosc | Colossal. Edible zoetropes!

Orangette: While you’re not looking. A technique for cooking dried beans, I’ve got to try this because my previous dried bean trials weren’t worth the time put in.

Scientists Say Psychopathic People Really Like Bitter Food | MUNCHIES. Uh oh.

Cooking with Manuela: Rose Shaped Eggplant Parmigiana.

The Politics and Cultishness of Hops – The Sauce – The Stranger. A primer on Washington hops.

Best Value in Booze: What’s the Best Single Malt Scotch Under $30? | Man Made DIY.

Why Cookbook Clubs Should Be the New Way We Entertain | Serious Eats. Yes! (Also, full disclosure, my trusty red dutch oven can be seen in one of these photos.)

The Cocktail at the End of the Universe – Eater. “In search of the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, an imaginary 1970’s cocktail from space.” A delightfully thorough look at bars then and now.

This Coconut Cake Is Better Than Your Grandmother’s Recipe | MUNCHIES.

Pulled Pork and Cornbread Make This Slow-Cooker Chili a New Favorite | Serious Eats.

ChefSteps Guide to Pike Place Market – Eater Seattle.

The Cool Way to Brew Good Coffee – The Awl. Oh gosh I had nearly forgotten about Clover machines! Anyhow, this is a good history of coffee hype from pre-aughts to now. Via Kottke.

The Food Lab: Introducing Vegetables Wellington, the Plant-Based Vegan Roast Even Meat Eaters Will Want | Serious Eats.

IDEAS IN FOOD: Sandy (Pretzel) Sticks.

Lumberjack cake: tartan batter? / Boing Boing. This is neato.

15 Edible Cocktail Garnishes to Snack on During Happy Hour | Brit + Co. Some good ideas in here, I like the pretzel stick as an option.

A Cadbury Creme Egg Cafe is Coming to London | Nerdist.

The Crazy History Of Your Cocktail Cherry – The Daily Beast. I got to watch as Scott discovered the superiority of Luxardo cherries this year.

The Best No-Carb Cloud Rosemary Bread with only 4 Ingredients. While I’m not looking for a no-carb thing, these do look good as a party appetizer for my celiac friends.

spaghetti pie with pecorino and black pepper | smitten kitchen. This is perfection.

Smoke Signals – Bon Appétit. All about Tara Jenson and her amazing pies and loaves of bread.

A Dozen Rose Cupcakes | Sprinkle Bakes. A cookie cutter that makes creating a sugar rose more like assembling a paper flower, very clever.

The Ringer Cast Iron Cleaner | Cool Tools. It’s a square of chain mail!

Play Food « bakerella.com. I’m bookmarking this because the recipe doesn’t need to be chilled before rolling, but also because the tiny cookies are absolutely adorable.

Make Matchstick Cookies This Valentine’s Day | The Etsy Blog.

Valentine’s Magic Heart Dessert – HowToCookThat. A hidden heart in the lid, really clever. Does anybody know where this idea originated?

Happy 20th Birthday To This American Life, Which Is Way Darker Than You Think. Via The Morning News.

The clog post — Medium. “I’ve fallen off sidewalks from Brooklyn to San Francisco, disappearing mid-sentence wherever I go.” One of my internet Old Ones is posting on Medium every day through December and it’s making me giddy.

Hatton Garden robbery drill-hole necklace | The Guardian. A fine pendant in the shape of the hole drilled to pull off a multi million pound heist in London.

Establishing a Peace Accord Between Parents and Their Childless Friends – The Everywhereist.

The 24 Most Insane Theories About Who Rey’s Parents Are. #24 is the author’s crazy theory and it’s awesome.

Hired Hand — The California Sunday Magazine. Via The Morning News.

Beyond ‘Serial’: The 50 Best Podcast Episodes of 2015 – The Atlantic. See also: additional 10 Great Podcast Episodes from 2015 from Matt Thompson.

Waiting for Serial? Try Some of These, Our Favorite Podcasts | WIRED.

Nathan Grayson’s Top 10 Games Of 2015.

Take a Video Crash Course in Beginner Electronics, at Make.

Data Atsume. Tons of data for the Neko Atsume game on what to use to attract the rare cats and get the greatest fish return. Via Waxy.

Stick a pin in it! — Postlight Posts — Medium. The Pinterest Chrome plug-in is taking over your website, but only the users can see it so you might not know. If you manage a website you should know this is going on, and they offer code to stop it.

Steam VR Stealth Game Looks Like A More Violent Portal, at Kotaku. I got to try the Vive last year and part of that was a Portal demo. Scott and I spent some time wondering how you’d make a Portal game for the Vive played at home and our theories were a lot like the way this game is described.

What’s the Right Way To Make A Hot Toddy? | Mental Floss.

Cocktail Party Gingerbread Folk | Sprinkle Bakes. They include little foil wrapped booze filled chocolate bottles, what a splendid idea. See also: Gift This! Santa’s Candy Bark.

Brunch Cocktails- Cranberry Ramos Gin Fizz – Craft and Cocktails. Via Design Crush.

SANDY OLD MAN ON X’MAS | Lady and Pups – an angry food blog.

eggnog waffles + a few favorite kitchen things | smitten kitchen. I’m bookmarking this for #4: a deeply dark Dutched cocoa that has an Oreo taste. Interesting!

The Best Cut-Out Sugar Cookies Recipe | The Kitchn. See also: Roll Out Sugar Cookie Dough Before Chilling It.

Everything Bagel Bombs, at the Amateur Gourmet. I used Adam’s instructions for Momofuku’s bagel bombs last year and it became an instant tradition. You can freeze these before baking and put them into the oven right from the freezer, perfect for a low fuss fancy breakfast option when the focus is on opening presents.

How to: Hanging Twig Christmas Tree » Curbly.

NORAD’s Santa Tracker Began With A Typo And A Good Sport : NPR. This is an amazing story.

Tetrobot and Co
I am very, very obsessed with this game. This is a cute and stylish puzzle game that hits all the right spots – the controls are easy to pick up, there aren’t any Running Against The Clock levels, there is a rewind button that will take you back one step at a time, and the puzzles are just difficult enough to make you feel like a GENIUS when you solve them but never quite get frustrating. There are plenty of elements to make completionists happy including some play-it-again challenges that make early levels that much more challenging. In Tetrobo and Co. you pilot a tiny robot through each level moving and arranging blocks to make your way to the exit. The blocks have different properties (magnetic, reflective, impervious to fire, stick to the walls). These are all very familiar game concepts but the levels here are especially clever, often requiring a bit of extra discovery on your part to solve. As you go along new physics are introduced so the puzzles never get repetitive. I found the clicky/whirry/buzzy sounds in this game particularly appealing and the soundtrack changes for each set of levels. There is a sweet little background story that is revealed as you solve things that is safe to ignore if that’s not your thing, it’s a continuation of story behind Swing Swing Submarine’s previous game, Blocks That Matter.

What else? The main protagonist in this game, the one who built the tiny robot, is a girl. The game is completely safe for kids (but please don’t tell me if your seven year old found the whole game really easy, my ego will be crushed). It was originally built for PC and is available on Steam, but it was clearly designed with touch screen in mind. I’ve played the predecessor to this game, Blocks That Matter, on my laptop and found the levels just as clever but occasionally more dependent on frustrating time elements (for example, a series of crates catching on fire, a constantly oncoming boss monster). I was able to get through all of the main levels without rage quitting and can definitely recommend playing it.

I’ve been trying to describe to friends why I like Tetrobot and Co so much and I’ve been comparing it to the Portal games because of how smart it makes me feel when I solve a level. I’m currently giving this game a rest in the hopes that I forget all the tricks and solutions so I can play it all over again. Save for kids? Yes. App Store/Steam/Google Play/Humble Store/GOG.

Oceanhorn
Reviewers compare this to a Zelda game (Wind Walker era) and they aren’t wrong. In this game you play a young boy who explores islands, swings a sword, shoots arrows at monsters, finds hidden caves and, yes, defeats a few boss monsters all in the effort to save the world and find his long lost father. I’m not partial to console-like games on the iPad but this one won me over in a big way and I’ve played all the way through it twice. The monsters that you encounter as you explore the world aren’t difficult to defeat (though they do respawn the moment you leave each area) and I had less trouble with the boss monsters than I feared (with a little help from some walkthroughs, I admit, because ugh boss monsters ugh). While you do encounter plenty of monsters the game is well balanced with lots of time for exploration on each new island, and a few towns where you can stock up. There are lots of hidden areas, completionist elements and reasons to revisit old areas (like magic boots that allow you to cross gaps). Despite the usual meters for health/money/arrows/bombs I never found myself stuck. There has been a nice update to the game this year so I’m ready to play through it again. Safe for kids? Yes. App Store/Steam/GOG/Humble Store.

Broken Age
Disclosure: I played this on PC because I was a Kickstarter backer and that was the option available. Having played it and carefully scoured reviews for the touch screen version of the game I’m pretty sure that you won’t miss having a mouse and keyboard when playing this game.

Broken Age is a brand new retro style point and click adventure game of the sort I grew up playing. It’s more about the story and a bit less about the puzzles and I absolutely loved it. The graphics looks like watercolors, the characters are all voiced incredibly well (and by lots of names you’ll recognize) and I absolutely fell in love with all the characters. There is humor and heart and randomness and a little bit of “I have a bucket, a skirt and a mirror and I need to convince a sentient vine to let me jump into the pit” that you’ll recognize if you’ve played these sorts of games before.

The world of the game is split between two characters/worlds that you can switch between if you are feeling stuck with one storyline or the other and I bet you’ve already guessed that at some point the storylines cross. For as much as I love the world that Doublefine has created and I love this sort of game, there isn’t a lot of puzzling or defeating going on here and after a while it becomes clear that no matter how many amusing conversation threads there are you’ll eventually be lead towards the only one that counts. This didn’t make me love the game any less, but if you’re not a fan of the King’s Quest era games this isn’t one that will change your mind. Safe for kids? Yes. App Store/Steam/PS4/PS Vita/Google Play.

Murder Files
Everything about this game seems geared towards a younger version of me but it managed to completely delight my old self. It’s a little bit cartoonish and it’s interspersed with the style of logic puzzles that I remember being given to pass the time during long car trips. (Kids, this was before we had iPads or even, shudder, portable DVD players. Car trips were boring, grim and probably account for 95% of my lateral thinking ability.) The real star here is the narrator who manages a humorously dramatic tone and does all the character voices. Half of the game are the aforementioned logic puzzles and half is listening intently to the answers that possible suspects give which I found surprisingly tricky since my brain is so likely to tune out at the wrong moments. This whodunnit/logic puzzle combination is something I’ve seen in a few games but it’s executed perfectly here and I recall the story as fondly as the puzzles. Safe for kids? Yes. Except, you know, it’s about murder. Kid safe? Yes, but murder is a thing. App Store/PS3/Steam/Kindle Fire/Google Chrome.

The Trace
This is a murder scene investigation game with controls similar to The Room. You can move around, zoom in, make observations and collect clues, find codes and open drawers and uncover some hidden areas. At the end of each case you answer a series of questions and uncover the guilty party. Safe for kids? No, there are some dead bodies lying around. Not gruesome but definitely grim. App Store/Google Play/Kindle Fire.

Agent A
A stylish point and click adventure where you play a secret agent who needs to work her way through the hideout of a villain, Ruby LaRouge. The game is full of tropes – keys and locks and passcodes, hidden panels, getting a clue out of a fish tank that contains sharks, trying to get the cat to move. The game play felt slow at times (go all the way outside to get that thing, now come all the way back, now go outside again) but the puzzles and storyline kept me entertained the whole way through. Bonus points for both the secret agent and the villain being female. Safe for kids: yes but violence is implied. App Store only.

Tiny Bang
I’ve been a little hesitant to recommend this game here. The game has beautiful Samorset-like hand drawn visuals, a relaxing soundtrack, and a charming story. The elements of the gameplay involve hidden object hunting, logic puzzles, jigsaw assembly, some Simon Says (ugh), a couple of constantly moving 8-bit style mini games (which I find frustrating and overly long) and a few puzzles that just require that you put the things in the right place that are somehow simple and difficult at the same time. I don’t find any of these elements particularly swoon worthy on their own but they’ve all been brought together into a game that is (most of the time) relaxing despite all my protestations. Kid friendly? Yes. App Store/Steam/Google Play.

Games I’ve got to carve some time for but love so far: The Wolf Among Us, Seek (swivel chair is helpful, go try it out), Lifeline, Walking Mars, Heroki and The Room 3. What have you been playing? Let us know if you have any gems!

A 3D-Printed Chess Set Made of Pieces That Are Individual Mini Planters, at Laughing Squid. This is pretty darn charming.

Alison Bechdel Would Like You to Call It the “Bechdel-Wallace Test,” | The Mary Sue. This comes from an interview with Alison Bechdel on Fresh Air.

Emily V. Gordon’s book Super You is available for preorder! She is a hero of mine and I’m so looking forward to her book.

Disney’s Artemis Fowl adaptation moving forward with Kenneth Branagh · Newswire · The A.V. Club. The Artemis Fowl books are great because of the secret code running along the pages, but I listened to the audiobooks and was impressed with how cinematic they were. I like the names attached to this movie so here is to hoping it’s great.

The 100 TV Dramas Everyone Should Watch — Vulture. I love that all the Bryan Fuller shows are high on this list. On Dead Like Me: “it’s one of very few coming-of-age stories about a girl that isn’t a story about falling in love.” Yes.

Here’s what one year in space does to your body | The Verge. “Your feces will not be shooting stars.”

The Problem With Trillian: Hitchhiker’s Guide and Me – The Toast.

Jerry the Bear – Off Topic – Cooking For Engineers. A plush bear that teaches kids how to manage their own chronic health conditions by caring for Jerry the Bear. This looks pretty amazing.

Remove Odors from Your Entire Home by Simmering Vinegar, at Life Hacker.

The One Podcast to Start With, Across 24 Topics — Vulture.

VR Interface Design Pre-Visualisation Methods on Vimeo on Vimeo.

Music to Sleep By – The New Yorker. “The composer Max Richter has written an eight-hour-long piece that he hopes listeners will sleep through.” I lived in a noisy apartment in college and would put on an album by The October Project. Training myself that way was incredibly effective, I still get heavily drowsy at the second song on that record.

Ermahgerddon: The Untold Story of the Ermahgerd Girl | Vanity Fair. I dig meme origin stories.

SunsetWx. A sunset quality predictor, via Kottke.

Sorry Ello, the Real Anti-Facebook Is Good Old Email | WIRED. They call out the old fashioned newsletter, specifically Tiny Letter, here and I have to agree — I’ve signed up for a few newsletters in the past months and it’s like getting my journal-blog days back.

TouchArcade Game of the Week: ‘Dust: An Elysian Tail’ | TouchArcade.

Little Inferno creator’s new game is about programming people | Polygon. Tablet version coming soon. Yes!

The 50 Best Free Games On PC | Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Knytt is in the top ten!

Cool Tools – The Best Factual Podcasts.

At last, a handy storage solution for your phone! | Sugru. Easy, cheap, removable DIY for an iPhone holder, awesome. Via Swissmiss.

A few years ago I made Trick Or Treat Cookies for Halloween and back then I noted that I’d love to do an all-coffin version. And look! It only took me three years!

I decided to imprint the tops with wood grain using a mat meant to imprint on clay, something I first spotted on Martha Stewart (video, there with Jeff Daniels on an April Fools episode). Doing a little research I found Haniela’s (video) has also created these, and her instructions are wonderful. She’s got a lot of great videos for Halloween baked goods, check out this Monster Eye Cake.

I bought my wood grain mat from a local pottery supply store, it’s the wood grain mat sold by Chinese Clay Art. There is a larger wood grain impression mat for fondant on Amazon. (I would have bought that one if I’d had time, also note: affiliate links.)

When you’re cutting out the cookies roll to 1/4″ thick. Roll the dough between two layers of parchment paper, this will keep the chocolate cookies nice and dark. I have a tiny kitchen so I roll dough on my dining room table using a medium sized Roul’pat. It’s pricey but I adore it, it grips the table and the parchment nicely so things don’t slide around, it gives me plenty of space to work on and I can roll it up to store away.

You’ll need one woodgrain top, one flat bottom and two layers of hollow sides for each cookie. I made these with two hollow layers in the middle, instead of the single layer from my original Trick or Treat Cookies, to allow for more room for candy. I used round cutters to cut out the insides because it was far easier than trying to trim out the middles and laziness ruled that day.

I used dark chocolate candy melts to use as glue because it sets faster, but if you have the time real chocolate would taste better. Use a plastic bag with a very small corner snipped off, no need to get out piping tips or a decorating pen for this one.

Gathering candies to go inside was a lot of fun, I wandered around a particularly well stocked candy shop long enough for the employees to get curious and start suggesting spooky candy for me. Here I have:

• Autumn colors mini gummy worms
• chocolate coated popping candy (There are also apparently Chocolate Pop Rocks out there somewhere!)
• dark chocolate crisp pearls (These come in other flavors and are insanely good sprinkled on ice cream.)
• gray colored Milkies (silver M&M style candies.)
• walnuts coated in chocolate and rolled in cinnamon, which look dusty and spooky but taste amazing
• Wilton candy eyeballs (They also make a red veined version.)
• Wilton skull and bones sprinkles

I wish I had bought the salted licorice black cats because it would make for an interesting good/bad surprise depending on who gets it inside their cookie. I’m pro licorice myself. The wrapped chocolate eyeballs shown here didn’t actually fit in the cookies so let’s all just ignore them. La la la. (Note: affiliate links above.)

Here is the best thing I learned from doing this project: clay art or pottery supply stores are excellent places to get interesting baking supplies. Wandering around Seattle Pottery Supply I saw a whole bunch of tools meant for fondant or baking and I was stunned by the amount of plunger cutters
that allow you to make teeny tiny cookies. Next time I have some creating baking in mind I’m planning to head to the pottery supply store first.

Click more for the recipe:

Chocolate Cut-out Cookie Recipe

This dough takes like brownies and it keeps it’s shape really well. It was adapted from Haniela’s.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 sticks (226 grams) room temperature butter
• 1/2 cup (140 grams) brown sugar
• 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 2/3 cup (70 grams) cocoa powder
• 3 cups (450 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

INSTRUCTIONS

Put sugars and butter in your mixing bowl.

Combine the eggs and vanilla and beat just until mixed.

Put the flour, salt and baking powder in a larger bowl and stir or sift to combine.

Beat the butter and sugar until it is fluffy.

Add the egg mixture to the butter mixture slowly.

On low speed add the cocoa powder to the mixer bowl until it’s all well combined.

Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl in three or four additions, using low speed.

Scrape the dough onto a cutting board and knead to get rid of any flour streaks until the dough is a uniform dark brown color.

Divide the dough into three pieces, flatten each slightly and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours or up to overnight.

Roll the dough between two layers of parchment to 1/4″ thick.

Bake cookies at 375 degrees for 5 to 8 minutes depending on the size. (The narrower center pieces will bake much faster.)

This image is here for use on Pinterest. Pin it if you’d like but, you know, no pressure:

FOOD

Eyeball on a brownie created by Christine McConnell. She’s made a candy eye look so much more threatening than simple sugar. Also take a look a the other treats she created. And the house she decorated. And basically everything else she’s done, it’s stunning.

Prosciutto Wands at Martha Stewart. I first encountered these back in the summer but they instantly made me think of Halloween. Very simple and easy to interpret as ghastly when set on a darkly decorated table.

Bleeding Heart Cake (video) by Ann Reardon at How To Cook That. This is a recreation of a cake in a Taylor Swift video but this entirely edible construction for holding hidden goo until you cut into it deserves to be used for Halloween.

Halloween Witch Hat Surprise Cookies at It’s Always Autumn. Easy to make and very cute, bonus points for mixing some candy eyes in with the other treats inside.

NAILS

Creepy 3D Ghost Face tutorial from PiggieLuv (video). This uses gel polish built up in layers, creepy. Via this Halloween nail art round up at Brit+Co.

Halloween DIY Googly Eye Manicure at Design*Sponge. Silly and simple. If you’d like something even simpler take a look at the VandalEyes nail stickers at Espionage Cosmetics, both types glow in the dark!

GAMES

Dark Echo. You can’t see the monsters but you can hear them. I played a demo of this at PAX this year and even standing in a large room filled with people I was frightened when I would finally encounter something that was stalking me. (Mobile on the App Store, Google Play, Amazon Apps and on Steam.)

Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon. This is the second Spider game and this one is larger and tells a much darker story. You maneuver a spider around an estate and it’s grounds and find clues as you explore. If spiders freak you out you can play as a tiny walrus instead, which is hilarious. (Available in the App Store, Google Play, Humble Store and Steam, later for Vita and PS4.)

LISTEN TO

All In Your Head at the 99% Invisible podcast. They detail how the sound designer behind the television show Hannibal made sounds that make us uneasy.

Caitlin Doughty of Ask A Mortician on the Explain Things To Me podcast. A great interview on how she got started in the death business, how embalming became common and what she wants done with her body when she dies. Also listen: Another interview on the Nerdette podcast.

Charles Manson’s Hollywood, a twelve part series on the You Must Remember This podcast. Karina Longworth follows the series of events and the who, how and what sort of society of the time led to the Manson murders. There is meticulous research and in depth stories of the people surrounding Manson’s time in LA. It’s worth looking at the webpage for each episode to see photographs from the time.

Two Halloween playlists for your party needs: at Oh Happy Day and the Marloween 2015 at The Amber Show.

QUESTION FOR YOU

Has anybody tried those lace temporary tattoo masks? Do they stay on for the duration of an evening? I want to try out the various temporary tattoos that are out for Halloween (zombie bites, spiders, masks) but I’m afraid they would flake away after only an hour or so.

maple-candied bacon – The Clever Carrot. It’s so beautiful. Via The Wirecutter.

DIY Gelatin Confetti Sprinkles | Sprinkle Bakes.

A Chocoholic’s Dream – Seven Different Kinds of Chocolate in One Wonderous Bar | Nerdist. They are only making 50 of these. I think it’s time for a DIY right here.

Geeky cake pan will turn you into a Mother of Dragons – CNET.

How to Make Rainbow Unicorn Piñata Cookies That Poop Star Sprinkles at Laughing Squid. This is a very smart mashing together of geeky/crafty worlds.

Adorable and Edible Panda Tapioca Milk Tea | Nerdist.

How to Line a Baking Pan with Aluminum Foil | David Lebovitz. Clever!

Easter Eggs! | Flickr – Jen Cooper. Chocolate Faberge! These are fantastic.

Orangette: June 26. Delicious watermelon popsicles.

A Quick Way to Make an Oreo Ice Cream Sandwich, at Laughing Squid. Simple and smart.

IDEAS IN FOOD: Rice Krispy Treat Lace Cookies.

HOW TO MAKE CRUFFIN WITH PASTA MACHINE | Lady and Pups – an angry food blog. I’ve made a few attempts at this an my results have been varied, it’s fun to eat the failures though.

This Waffle Recipe Will Change Brunch Forever – Eater.

Roasted Cabbage Wedges Recipe | Martha Stewart.

Yogurt Worth Waiting For – Edible Seattle. On how the best yogurt in Seattle came to be.

A brief history of yarn in video games – Boing Boing.

Portal Stories: Mel Released Free On Steam | Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

The first episode of King’s Quest, A Knight to Remember, arrives July 28 | Polygon.

Royal with cheese: A King’s Quest primer | Polygon. We weren’t allowed to have a console as kids (I had to sneak in Mario time at a friend’s house) but we did have a PC so I grew up playing King’s Quest and Space Quest games. Me and Sierra were besties.

‘Blossom Tales’ is “A delightful mix of ‘Zelda’ and Princess Bride,” Coming this Winter | TouchArcade.

Fantastic Contraption for the Vive. 3D in VR. Wowzers. Via belong.io.

Whispering Willows Review: Riddles in the Dark – Gamezebo.

Gamasutra – Game Design Essentials: 20 Open World Games.

Your Super Mario Maker level has no chill – Offworld.

games « Indie Fund. This is a note to myself to check out more of the games that Indie Fund has supported.

How to Have Your Drink and Drink It, Too | A Cup of Jo. On session beers and session cocktails for lazy summer afternoons.

Hazy Whiskey Cocktail – Gather Journal. Using smoke created by lighting cinnamon and cloves.

Cocktail IN an Ice Sphere | Molecular Recipes.

Meet the Flower That Naturally Colors Drinks Blue – Eater.

Ginger Beer Business Is Booming in Seattle | Seattle Bars | Seattle Met.

A Menu of Gin Tonics & A Feast For Juniper at Cask Strength. This is how other countries do gin and tonics right.

Make Perfectly Clear Ice Balls Using Insulated Mugs – Alcademics.com. I found this on Facebook somewhere, if it was you let me know!

Welcome to Booze Science, Our Drunkest Video Series Ever | WIRED. The first video is about ice and dilution with Jennifer Colliau of the Interval at The Long Now who shows off some ice with less surface area than an ice sphere. Yup.

Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur Cocktails | Chilled magazine. The first cocktail here looks great, it includes Lillet Rouge and Hendricks.

We Experimented With Powdered Alcohol So You Don’t Have To | WIRED.

Jim Meehan’s Cocktail Primer: Terminology, Essential Equipment and Recommended Reading | Food & Wine. I added one kind of shaker and two types of ice after reading this, a concise breakdown of the how/why of cocktailing.

The Only Reason Why Your Scotch Doesn’t Taste Like Meat And Bad Eggs, at io9.

Spiked Watermelon Popsicles – Lulus.com Fashion Blog. Clever and easy.

Ardbeg’s space whisky tastes “noticeably different” from Earth-matured whisky | Ars Technica. It spent three years ageing on the ISS.

Club-Mate: The Favorite Drink of German Hackers and Club Kids Is Here – Eater.

The Delicious Secret Behind Your Favorite Whiskey: The Best Spirits from MGP | Serious Eats. Your small batch artisanal spirit might come from a huge warehouse, but that doesn’t mean it tastes bad. While I’d love to say that small batch is always better there is a growing distillery business in Seattle and I’ve had plenty of bad whiskeys from them.

How to Make a Pizza Decorated to Look Like Captain America’s Shield at Laughing Squid.

Compact Charcoal Grills — Shoebox Dwelling.

crunchy cabbage salad with spicy peanut dressing | Scaling Back. Yum, via Whoorl.

How to Cook Spanish-Style Pimientos de Padrón | Serious Eats. I’m excited for Padron pepper season to return.

Genius Kale Salad Recipe – 101 Cookbooks.

Heirloom Seeds – Vegetable Seeds and Plants, Melon, Charentais. This is a note to myself to plant these in our garden next year. We had one of these melons from a local market and it was absolutely delicious. Wait, maybe it was the Vedrantais. In any case, it’s worth seeking out.

Roasted Broccoli Rabe with Lemon Vinaigrette and Grilled Chicken – Not Without Salt. After a trip to Vegas we had a few weeks of dinners with lots of deep greens, this option looks delicious.

10 Easy Molecular Gastronomy Recipes :: Paste.

19 Easy, Travel-Friendly Bean and Grain Salad Recipes We Love | Serious Eats.

Discovering The Small Miracle Of The Soup Dumpling | KUNC. I think the first time I heard about soup dumplings it was from Megnut and since then I moved to Seattle and Din Tai Fung has two (always packed) restaurants here. My favorite, though are at Long’s in Vancouver, BC. More tasting needs to be done!

The Food Lab: The Best Way To Grill Sausages | Serious Eats.

Chopped Asian Zucchini Salad – iFOODreal | Delicious Clean Eating Recipes.

French Mushroom Lentil Paté – Vegetarian Foie Gras, at David Lebovitz.

15 Homemade Fast Food and Takeout Favorites (That Are at Least as Good as the Originals) | Serious Eats. Shamrock Shake! Also, beef and broccoli and a Double Double Animal Style.

takeout-style sesame noodles with cucumber | smitten kitchen.

The Essential Cyberpunk Reading List at io9.

Aladdin: When Chaos Comes Calling Episode Trivia – TV.com. Under “allusions” here they describe a scene with a whale and a bowl of petunias which is a reference to Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The moment lasts seconds and it’s over and when I saw it as a kid I nearly thought I’d imagined it. Glad to finally have confirmation that it was real.

Inner Vision for the weekend of July 10, 2015 | The Wirecutter. I enjoy their weekly collection of links but for whatever reasons all of the links in this set were worthy of sharing.

How To Clean Silver Jewelry Without Buying Silver Cleaner | Apartment Therapy.

The Enduring Paint-on-the-Face Mystery | Best Of MetaFilter. A while back somebody posed a question to Ask Metafilter which was essentially: do you remember the opening credits of an 80s/90s sitcom where Person A ends up accidentally rollering paint over Person B’s face? And yes, everybody remembers that. I remember that. But collectively we cannot find any proof of this actually existing. It’s fascinating!

Check Out This Steel Maze at a Belgian Coal Mine — Design News | Apartment Therapy. Incredible!

Spaghetti in a cone: a miracle of physics, a genius food delivery system | The Guardian.

The Donald Trump Republican Presidential Debate Drinking Game | The Everywhereist. I went to a local bar that had it’s own drinking game going on but I’m sure I’d have been a lot drunker if I’d brought these rules with me.

Podcast: Mystery Show: Case #6 Kotter | FanFare. Metafilter user maxsparber gives us a history of knotting the arms of shirts as a prank.

Why You Should Wear the Same Outfit to Every Meeting – Racked. Solid advice. Via The Working Closet.

Ceiling Hook — Shoebox Dwelling. A clean way to reposition that pendant light that hangs in the wrong spot, I need this for my own dining room.

Easy Houseplants – Easy To Care For Indoor Plants, at House Beautiful. Via The Wirecutter.

28 DIYs You Need for Your First Apartment | Brit + Co. I love the suggestions for cheap, giant art treatments here.

14 Ways to Decorate With Air Plants (aka the New Succulent!) | Brit + Co. Having killed a few non-air plants I might be reconsidering my choice of interior plants.

A Box-Like House is Full of Surprises on the Inside – Design Milk. This is gorgeous.

Upgrade Your Headboard with Peel-and-Stick Wood Boards | Man Made DIY | Crafts for Men.

I’m wondering if anyone knows where the title for “The Breakfast Club” film came from. | Ask MetaFilter.

Seven Of The Most Beautiful Botanical Mazes On Earth at io9.

Flexible, Fluid ‘Revision’ Bounces From Rom-Com To Sci-Fi : NPR. Huge congratulations to Andrea on the great reviews in her first book, I cannot wait to read it!

The Price of Nice Nails – NYTimes.com. I recently found a nail place whose owner is the sole employee as well. It’s popular and can be hard to get a same day appointment there but it makes me feel good knowing that I’m not unknowingly participating in any unfair trade.

7 Pre-Vacation Life Hacks, and The One Thing You Should Never Do | The Everywhereist.

Popular Exercises To Avoid At All Costs—Unless You Do Them Right at io9.

Volunteer work for loners | Ask MetaFilter. Lots and lots of options for making the world a better place while not, you know, dealing with other humans. I will say that I worked as a page in my local library system when I was in high school and it was both a decently paying job and one with minimal social contact. I find myself cringing at the idea that somebody who can work for free could have taken away that job from me, while at the same time my high school self was a listed volunteer with the local parks department. I’m kind of conflicted right now – ?

WIRED Binge-Watching Guide: Scrubs | WIRED. Last winter I watched all eight seasons of Scrubs (I fear that season 9 will throw all my happy fuzzy memories off so I avoided it). It was the perfect comfort watching for when you feel nostalgic for not that long ago.

The Frisky Recommends: Podcasts For Everyone! – The Frisky.

How to Make an Awesome Death Star Piñata | Make:.

Watch these plants explode – Boing Boing. Touch me nots grew along my daily route to school and getting to make them pop open was one of my favorite things.

In Space, Even A Single Grain Can Lead To Catastrophe, at io9. I just finished reading Seveneves which deals a lot with collisions like this in space.

The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor: Tiara Thursday: The Ocean Tiara. This video briefly (around 2:35) shows how tiaras can be detached from their frames to become necklaces. Thanks go to phix for finding the video after I wondered out loud!

Game of Thrones Finale Recap: Death Is a Gift | WIRED. This is all spoilers, you’ve been warned. This is a great summary of what happens at the end of Season Five of the Game of Thrones television show compared with the where the story lines are at the end of the fifth book. It’s great if you consume one but not the other and are curious about how they are diverging.

Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves: five thousand years of apocalypse and rebirth – Boing Boing. I absolutely loved this book and spent a few very late nights reading because I couldn’t not know the fate of, well, all of humanity. A lot of reviewers don’t like the amount of technical explanations but I like those here as I liked those in Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon and in Andy Weir’s The Martian. Of all the reviews of Seveneves that I’ve read Cory Doctorow’s here sums up a lot of what I think. Added I also love the perspective of Laura Miller at Salon who wrote of one aspect of surviving in space: “I enjoyed it as the aerospace version of all those how-to passages about maple sugar boiling in “The Little House on the Prairie” books.”

The Internet is looking for who designed this cup. What does Springfield have to do with it?. Tracking down the designer of the Jazz pattern shown on disposable Solo cups and plates and the fanbase around the design.

#1: Sexy tumblers. There is a restaurant near us, Bar del Corso, that serves wine in low, wide tumblers. I’ve always found them very pleasing so I was happy to find similarly shaped glasses at Ikea recently and they’ve become my default vessel for sipping rose wine out of. Two things: at $3 for a set of six glasses they are ridiculously affordable, and if you buy them pay attention to how the packaging they come in unfolds into a single rectangle of cardboard, it’s a remarkable feat of engineering.

We’ve also been using these for cocktails but they aren’t necessarily ideal as lowball/Old Fashioned glasses, especially if you’re really into your ice and are using ice spheres. The average ice ball is taller than these glasses which makes for some awkward sipping. We’ve been using the ice sphere molds from Tovolo recently which are 2.5″ in diameter and they are definitely too large in this particular glass, but the ice from the King Ice Cube Tray fit nicely.

These also work great as little serving dishes and are shown here with a few of my current favorite snacks from Trader Joe’s: Crunchy Curls and Dark Chocolate Almonds with sea salt which aren’t pretty but they are unstoppably delicious. I can’t stop eating them send help. Back to the tumblers, I recently spotted the same size/shape of glasses at West Elm that had thinner walls, they were definitely finer glassware. Looks like CB2 carries some of the same style as well.

#2: Big bowls. We live in a part of town with lots of pho restaurants, it’s far easier to find great pho than a burger. Pho is best eaten out of nice big bowls but we didn’t have those so we were using two different sized glass mixing bowls, it looked kinda silly. I somehow convinced myself that the healing powers of this soup were diminished by lack of proper bowls so I set out to find ones that would work. It’s summer now but hey look, I finally found the perfect bowls! They are also great for nights when you need a Really Big Salad for dinner. Or a Really Big Bowl Of Pasta. You know.

These are 9″ serving bowls that are almost half spheres, a very pleasing size and shape. According to the description these are made from a porcelain that is lightweight, strong and will hopefully stand up to my clumsy handling. If the price on these seems a little high to you the Skack serving bowl at Ikea is the exact same size and shape but it’s made from stoneware that is a little thicker and heavier.

I’ve shown the bowls here filled with popcorn because it was 84 degrees the day I took this photo and hot soup just didn’t seem that appealing. I added the chopsticks for scale and also because I’m really terrible at using chopsticks and I’ve been using popcorn to train myself. Someday I will be able to get through an entire meal without needing to ask for a fork.

update: We use these bowls so often I went back to buy two more and discovered that they aren’t quite the same as the ones we originally purchased. The new batch it’s quite as bright white, they are a significant bit heavier and they lack the incredible glossy smooth finish. Subtle differences but somehow all the charm has been sucked out of the final product. Still, a nice big bowl has become an important part of making a big salad into a particularly fine dinner option.

Shades Review | Touch Arcade. A Tetris-like game for the iPhone, with a free trial version of the game in case you’d like to test it out.

GLaDOS and The Sniper: A Voice Acting Love Story | Motherboard. Via Gamefilter.

What Happens When There Are No Boys in the Room: A Report from Robyn’s Tekla Conference | The Pitch | Pitchfork. Via the Two Bossy Dames newsletter.

Get ready to blindfold your friends in this neat local multiplayer game – Boing Boing. I’m not a huge fan of their earlier game Spaceteam but this looks like it could be a lot of fun.

25 Best Puzzle Games Ever Made For PC | Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers | Computerworld. Via The Wirecutter.

Could this beautiful game signal the end of our dystopia fetish? – Offworld.

The Makings of Beecher’s Amazing Flagship Cheese | Serious Eats.

The Food Lab: For the Best Sichuan Dry-Fried Green Beans, Ditch the Wok and Turn on the Broiler | Serious Eats.

Sprinkle Bakes: Rainbow Spiral Cookies.

How to Make Uovo in Raviolo: Showstopping Runny Egg Yolk Ravioli | Serious Eats.

The Session Beer Project: SESSION BEER DAY 2015. I am all for this proliferation of lower alcohol beers, keep bringing it on.

magic chocolat flower dessert – YouTube. It’s a chocolate flower! That opens! Ohmigosh! Thanks to juv for pointing it out. That page on YouTube suggests a whole lot of great edible amazingness.

Orangette: Doing it right. An excellent recipe for an easy to throw together cake made with frozen raspberries.

The Seven-Minute Egg | SAVEUR. Article by Molly Wizenberg, aka Orangette.

Snazzy 3D Printer Creates Stunning Works of Pancake Art – Eater.

Sweden’s Attempt to Preserve the Pastry That Could Break Your Teeth | MUNCHIES. I am fascinated by spettkaka.

How to: Make Your Own DIY Smoked Cocktails | Man Made DIY.

Stir-Fried Beef With Chinese Broccoli | Serious Eats : Recipes.

“Guardians of the Sexy” Was Freaking Phenomenal | Nerdhole. Also see Nerdhole’s highlights of ECCC’s celebrity panels.

Sophie McDougall brilliantly explains the problem with “Strong Female Characters” – Boing Boing.

Best credit card for traveling outside of the U.S. | Ask MetaFilter. I like to keep an eye on updates to the best options.

[BB-Blog]: Which doll would you rather play with?. Tree Change Dolls remakes dolls, just have a look at her “after” of discarded Bratz dolls! Via Swissmiss.

You Can Get Your Name On A Pendant In Gallifreyan | The Mary Sue.

A 24 ‘Carrot’ Cake Packed With Baby Carrots and Shaped Like a Gold Bar.

8 Nonalcoholic Drinks That’ll Satisfy When You’re Craving a Cocktail | Serious Eats. These all go far beyond fizzy lemonade.

How to Make a World-Class Cocktail Out of Berlin’s Convenience Store Booze | MUNCHIES.

Freeze Fresh Herbs for Long-Term Storage | Serious Eats.

The Food Lab: The Easiest Way to Make April Bloomfield’s Ricotta Gnudi at Home | Serious Eats.

Bon Appétempt: Upside-Down Lemon Meringue Pie.

The Food Lab: Why Chicken With Pan Sauce Is Always Better at Restaurants (and How to Make Yours Just as Good at Home) | Serious Eats.

57 Best Cooking Tips of All Time | Epicurious.com.

The “Food Babe” Blogger Is Full of Shit – Gawker.

Make Powdered Nutella for Snack and Dessert Toppings with Maltodextrin, at Lifehacker.

How Do I Butter Popcorn Without Making It Soggy? Includes another maltodextrine hack, via Lifehacker.

Use Liquid Nitrogen to Make Modern Ice Garnishes – Eater.

These Are Probably The Most Exciting Ice Cubes You’ll Ever See, And It’s Thanks To 3D Printing. Well, sort of, it’s more of a super detailed 3D router.

Meet the Man Behind ‘Solarized,’ the Most Important Color Scheme in Computer History | Observer. Via The Wirecutter.

Explorable Explanations. Via Waxy.

A word on the iPhone 6/6 Plus and third-party headphones | The Wirecutter. What to look for to be sure your headphones will fit, and if not a few DIY solutions.

Something Has to Change in Videogames: Everything & Everyone | Unwinnable.

Replacing an inkjet printer with a laser printer | Ask MetaFilter. I recently noticed that my current inkjet printer is nearly a decade old, which means that despite zero signs of something going wrong it’s going to brick itself due to the extra attention. So, laser is what I’m looking at next as well.

Next iPhone game for a Monument Valley lover | Ask MetaFilter.

Weekend Getaway: Telltale Games’ Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent | The Mary Sue. I love this game and it’s sequel.

Remember last year when I went a little manic over dyeing eggs in an effort to get juuust the right colors? Yeah, me to. All the instructions and tips are over here.

Cool Tools – Google URL Shortening Service. If I’m forced to shorten links this is the one I use, it also keeps stats for you on how many times the link was clicked on.

Internet slang meets American Sign Language — Hopes&Fears.

The Web’s Grain by Frank Chimero.

50 Wonderful Things From 2014 : Monkey See : NPR.

Prayer Nuts, Small 16th Century Wooden Spheres That Conceal Incredibly Ornate Carvings.

Cool Tools – Kadomaru Pro Corner Cutter. This would be great for all those people who print or order their own cards for tabletop games.

How Not To Get Swatted – Digg. Good resources here and they have the Reply All podcast on swatting, which you should listen to.

A Poem Composed Entirely of SXSW Panel Titles.

‘La Linea’, An Italian Animation Series From the 1970s and 1980s Starring a Man Drawn With a Single Line. I used to watch these, but where would I have seen them? Nickelodeon maybe?

My Shining Maze Build Notes – Tested. Adam Savage built a model of the hedge maze in the movie The Shining and there are lots of great facts in his build notes here.

How to Fix a Torn Nail at Millihelen.

This Archer easter egg was seriously, deeply hidden · Great Job, Internet! · The A.V. Club. Wow, that is some dedication on part of the finder as well as the people behind Archer who hid it all.

The title of this post is mostly a lie. You see, I love Liege style waffles so much that I basically dedicated an entire weekend to eating them in Belgium but I had to figure out a way to make my own at home that ultimately involved as little work as possible on a weekend morning.

Spoiler: we froze them.

The shiny bits are sugar that has melted and covered the outside. It’s a crunchy, candy coated waffle. It’s excellent.

I tested a few ways to get the waffle from the freezer to my mouth quickly while still keeping as many of the desirable features as possible intact. Those desirable features are: delightfully crackly sugar coated exterior, steamy yeasted layers inside, and overwhelming sense of all being right with the universe.

Between the carefully nurtured yeast and the pockets of melted sugar the inside of the waffle has some delightful layers.

The recipe from a site conveniently located at liegewaffle.wordpress.com is outstanding, it is perfection for the home waffle maker really, and got thumbs up from friends who also have fond location-specific waffle memories. The recipe takes a number of hours spread over two days and while it’s definitely A Project it’s a project I’ll happily take on.

The trouble is that it calls for a last 90-minute rise before putting the dough on the waffle iron which, to be honest, isn’t how I want to find myself eating the waffles. Which ideally is about ten minutes after I’ve woken up on a Saturday morning. And so, here is what we tested, including a few deliveries to willing friends who reported back with great information:

Idea #1

Freeze the dough directly after the last rise and later waffle it right out of the freezer. Downside: still a little bit of work to do upon waking up, waffle iron to wash. Upside: makes the kitchen smell amazing. Result: while the exterior of our waffles were very satisfying the interiors showed signs of not quite being cooked all the way through, the dough was a little mushier than it should have been. Not unpleasantly so, mind you, just not the best.

Idea #2

The Winner. Fully cook the waffle and freeze it. Downside: it’s just not as magical to simply defrost something. Upside: no waffle iron to wash later that day and makes frozen waffles giftable. Result: this is my pick for the way to go. The waffles were a bit chewier than just-cooked and never-frozen Liege waffles but an acceptable alternative which retained all the crunchy candy shell, yeasty goodness and feelings of universal ok-ness that were required. Heat in the oven at 275 degrees for 6 to 8 minutes (more on this below). I was honestly surprised that this worked out better than cooking frozen dough in the morning, pleased though because you can take a batch of ready-to-go frozen waffles to a friend with the reheating instructions.

Idea #3

Do some parbaking, or parwaffling if you will, and cook the waffles just to the golden stage, then freeze. In the morning take the formed waffles and put them back on the waffle iron and finish cooking them. Downside: you’ll end up washing the waffle iron twice. Upside: as it turns out, nothing. The texture of the waffle was the worst of the three trials. Result: it was a fun experiment but skip it.

I don’t want to take away from my aforementioned opinion of perfection for the Liege Waffle recipe that I used but considering my impatience-based needs I did make a few changes. Since all of the early tests produced overly chewy and too dense waffles I switched from bread flour to all-purpose flour. Since I was intending to freeze them I doubled the recipe and I also adjusted the amount of dough allowed to each waffle (basically from ten waffles to twelve waffles).

A note on pearl sugar: If you only have the energy to fuss over one thing with this recipe I suggest you fuss over getting the right sort of sugar. The Lars’ Own brand Belgian Pearl Sugar shown here can be found in grocery stores or ordered online (you’ll need two boxes, or just over 10 ounces total). (Also note: affiliate links.) If you’re in Seattle I’ve found Lars’ brand Belgian pearl sugar for sale in Metropolitan Markets and Red Apple Markets and it’s sold in bulk at Big John’s PFI. (Thanks for that tip, Gastrognome!)

A note on the time you’ll need to allow: This recipe includes some long stretches of letting the dough rise so I’ve called out the waiting times in the recipe below. The first day of work will need at least 6 and a half hours (most of this is waiting time) before you get the dough tucked into the fridge for an overnight rest so plan accordingly and don’t start this recipe in the evening.

Four hours later.

A note on protein content in the flour I used: I made my first three test batches with the King Arthur Bread Flour called for in the original recipe and found that our freshly made waffles were a bit more dense than the waffles we ate in Belgium, but our frozen waffles were very chewy. Too chewy. I switched to King Arthur All-Purpose Flour and while the frozen waffles were still a bit chewier than are ideal it was far closer to the waffles we remembered. King Arthur flours have a less than .2% protein difference between batches, their bread flour is 12.7% and their all-purpose flour is 11.7%, which is pretty high. Most brands of all-purpose flour fall near 10.5% so if you’re using a different brand you might consider subbing in a small amount of bread flour to boost the gluten amount.

A note on the waffle iron: I bought myself a stovetop waffle iron specifically because I wanted something that would be easy to clean. (Conveniently it also takes up less storage space in my tiny kitchen.) Friends who have made Liege style waffles report back that cleaning up after making them in an electric iron isn’t too much work, any sugar that melts out will harden when it’s cool and your waffle iron won’t be much harder to clean than usual. I bought the NordicWare stovetop waffle iron that is nonstick and made of cast aluminum but I’ve also had my eye on a cast iron stovetop waffle maker sold by Waffleburger (scroll down). I’ll report back if I get my hands on the cast iron one.

A note on the thermometer: Since I am, as you might have noticed, a little bit obsessed with getting these waffles right I found that an infrared thermometer was essential in getting the temperature of the waffle iron to the correct range. I bought a midpriced one (it’s nicely sturdy) at a hardware store and it’s worked great. It’s also really handy when you temperature of things around you house to try to figure out why your bedroom always seems ten degrees colder than the rest of the house.

This is step #3, its pretty dramatic.

Liege Waffles for Freezing

Recipe adapted from the Gaufre de Liège Recette Blog, which is excellent.

Makes 12 waffles.

Ingredients

• 3 tsp. (8 g) active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup (120 g) whole milk at 110-115 degrees F (43-46 C)
• 5 Tbsp. and 1 tsp. (80 g) water at 110-115 degrees F (43-46 C)
• 4 cups (480 g) King Arthur all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature and lightly beaten
• 2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. (40 g) light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. (9 g) salt
• 17 Tbsp. (240 g) room temperature butter (just over two sticks)
• 2 Tbsp. (30 g) honey
• 4 tsp. (20 ml) vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup (300 g) Belgian Pearl Sugar

Directions

1. Put heated milk and water in the bowl of a stand mixer, sprinkle yeast over the top and stir to moisten.

2. Add the eggs and about 1/3rd (160 g) of the flour, mix to blend.

3. Sprinkle the remaining flour over the top of the mixture but don’t stir it in. Cover the bowl and let it stand for 75 to 90 minutes at room temperature. You’ll see the yeast mixture bubble up through the flour.

after 90 minutes

4. Add the brown sugar and salt, mix on slow to combine everything in the bowl. (I just go ahead and use the dough hook.)

5. With your mixer on low speed add the honey and the vanilla. Add 2 Tbsp. (60 g) of butter at a time. Mix everything for 4 minutes at medium-low speed, scrape down sides a few times. Let the dough rest for 1 minute and mix again for 2 minutes. Do this again a few times until the dough starts to want to stick mostly to the dough hook.

6. Transfer the dough into a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let this rise at room temperature for 4 hours.

after 4 hours

7. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. This step is for yeast respiration, it will slow it down which you’ll need to do before the next step.

after 30 minutes

8. Using a silicone spatula press down on the dough to deflate it. Scrap this onto a piece of plastic wrap, stretch into a long rectangle and then fold into thirds. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and weight it down with dinner plates. Refrigerate overnight.

after an overnight rest

9. Divide your pearl sugar in 12 equal piles, about 2 Tbsp. (25 g) each. Divide the dough into 12 pieces (about 88 g each). Mix the pearl sugar into each part of dough, I usually flatten the dough, sprinkle sugar on top and fold it over a few times.

10. Shape each waffle into an oval lump, cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 90 minutes.

after 90 minutes

11. Spray your waffle iron with cooking spray. Heat until it registers at 365-370 degrees F (185 – 187 C). (Hotter than this and it will burn the sugar.) Cook until the waffle is dark golden brown and you can see the sugar melting and coating the outside. If you’re using a stovetop waffle iron I recommend turning it over every 90 seconds or so to keep the temperature on both sides up and allow for as much sugar to coat the exterior as possible. Carefully transfer the waffles to a wire rack to cool — be aware that the hot sugar will drip and can burn your fingers (ask me how I know) so use tongs and a flat spatula or small plate to help you move them. When cool tuck each waffle into some parchment paper and freeze in an airtight container. When you are ready to cook them preheat an oven to 275 degrees F and place the waffle directly onto the wire rack. Heat for 5 to 7 minutes, carefully transfer to a plate, maybe line the plate with that strip of parchment paper.

I recommend the oven over a reheating in a toaster because I don’t want hot sugar to drip into your toaster. A friend reported that even at the lowest heat setting the waffles burned in her toaster oven. So, regular oven it is.

12. If you are freezing the dough to cook later: Transfer the sheet with your dough directly into the freezer and let the dough chill for at least half an hour until set. Wrap each lump of dough in plastic wrap and place together in an airtight container in the freezer. When you are ready to cook follow the directions above for cooking. I remove as many ovals of dough as I want to make and place them onto the hot waffle iron, pressing the iron down slowly to flatten them out as they thaw. If you freeze the dough on parchment you can cut around them and use that parchment when you wrap them up, it will peel off cleanly before putting them in the waffle iron.

Enjoy!

Hack Together a DIY Cold Smoker Gun for Less than $20 at Science Fare. I feel like I’ve linked to this before and if so please forgive me.

Melissa Clark’s Braised Beans with Bacon and Wine – The Wednesday Chef. Via Orangette.

A bottle of wine, a pot of ragu « Tea & Cookies. I have had this experience with the annual block party that Tea talks about here. Seattle can be weird and isolating if you let it so bravo to Tea for disrupting the norm.

Biang Biang Noodles – The GastroGnome. I had the pleasure of learning how to make dumplings at the dining room table in this video. These noodles look like a project but a very worthy project. And Naomi? That girl knows her noodles. I’m going to try these very soon.

Lifesaver Noodles – With Cabbage & Carrots » delicious:days. I’ve already made this three times and it’s become a recipe I’ll keep around, and it makes very yummy cold leftovers. If I buy cabbage and an onion I can manage to make it with a bunch of those Dorot frozen herbs I’ve talked about before. Napa cabbage is a good substitute for the pointed cabbage in the recipe if you, like me, cannot find pointed cabbage in your usual grocery store.

Fuchsia Dunlop’s Sichuanese Chopped Celery with Beef – The Wednesday Chef. I chose this as a simple option when my cookbook club did a Fuchisia Dunlop book and it very quickly became a go to weeknight dinner in my house. After I had the fancy vinegar and the Sichuan chili bean paste in my pantry (so so good) and some cooked rice in my freezer it turns out that a very tasty dinner is as easy as picking up fresh ground beef and celery at the market. It’s like magic.

Giant Creamy White Beans with Kale – at Food 52. This recipe is from Heidi Swanson’s first cookbook Supernatural Cooking and it remains my favorite recipe worthy of seeking out and soaking gigante beans. Yum.

Friends of mine have created a new game called Bring Your Own Book, the game of borrowed phrases. They debuted the game at PAX South this past weekend and currently have a Kickstarter up (and they’ve already made the goal, yaaaay!). I was lucky enough to get to play the game in a beta version and it was really fun. Go have a look!

winter hibernation cooking | Ask MetaFilter.

13 Food World Predictions for 2015 From Andrew Knowlton – Bon Appétit. Bookmarked for the Mae Rose Cocktail recipe.

Behind the Bar: Leela Cyd’s Grapefruit Spritz | Design*Sponge.

Why are Some Croissants Straight, and Others Curved? | The Everywhereist. France has laws about this, laws!

Giant Creamy White Beans with Kale – Genius Recipes. This continues to be one of my favorite bean recipes from 101 Cookbooks. Via Bean Month at Ciao Samin.

Chocolate glue gun | Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

Frappato From Sicily: A Great Dinner Red Wine – Jameson Fink.

Bring Your Salad to Work Week – the Ugly Green Chair. A simple, delicious salad that you can prep a week ahead.

The other day I found myself caught between being hungry and lazy. (You know how to know when you’ve become an adult? When you no longer have foodstuffs that don’t require thirty minutes of cooking and other ingredients to make them edible. That’s how.) We had almost nothing to eat in our house but I just couldn’t get myself to put on pants that were respectable enough to go to the grocery store. And then (!), accompanied by rays of sunlight and angelic music, I found a jar of homemade tomato sauce in the back of my freezer. Suddenly (or with ten-ish minutes of effort) I’d gone from So Hungry to eating delicious tomato sauce on polenta (always stock corn grits for times like this) topped with an egg. I ate this again for lunch since new food hadn’t magically appeared in my fridge. Having this tomato sauce in my freezer made me feel like a genius. Or at least somebody who is occasionally able to feed myself with dignity.

This sauce I refer to is Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce with onion and butter. Its an amazingly simple and delicious recipe so if you’re already familiar with it then high five, and if you’re not already familiar with it then you’re in for a treat. This is how it goes:

– a 28-ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes, with the juice
– one onion peeled and cut in half
– 5 tablespoons of butter
– a pinch of salt if needed

Simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. Done.

Ok, there is a little more than that. You let the whole thing simmer slowly for about 45 minutes and near the end crush the tomatoes with the back of a spoon. Discard the onion before serving. Done and done.

For a more detailed version of this see Orangette, or Amateur Gourmet, or Smitten Kitchen.

For this recipe I make a double batch. Doubled it fits in a 4-quart dutch oven nicely and I freeze the leftovers in portions for later. I’ve been using small canning jars (note: affiliate links) with the very handy plastic screw caps lately for freezing foods, it’s easy to take of the lid and thaw the whole thing in a microwave. Or at least I find the jars less fuss than I anticipated them to be. I bought a bunch of jars a few years back expecting they’d eventually be cycled out of my house when giving food gifts to friends and I’ve honestly been surprised at how much I enjoy using them for dry food storage and freezer storage. The caps, though, make all the difference. They are easier to remove and clean and keep track of and won’t rust.

This is a little tip I learned somewhere that I cannot recall. (I think Cook’s Illustrated?) If you want to break up whole canned tomatoes with as little mess as possible use kitchen scissors to cut them up while they are still in the can. This recipe doesn’t require you break up the tomatoes first but I do it anyway because I can get a little obsessive over smashing the tomatoes later on and I like to give myself a head start. I’ve read that when deciding whether to buy whole or diced or crushed canned tomatoes it’s better to buy whole because there is less processing time before the tomatoes hit the can so they are fresher. I’m not sure if this is true but it’s good to keep in mind. Maybe a taste test is in order?

While I’m here let me just say that I’m totally in love with my no-sharp-edges can opener. I know there are not exactly breaking news but every time I open a can I find myself being gushingly appreciative of not being able to cut my fingers on anything sharp. (Because I did, every time.) I own the Zyliss and have no complaints. Sweethome recommends the OXO Good Grips version. In conclusion: not having the culinary equivalent of a throwing star weapon in your trash is good.

Ok, go, make the easy sauce and feel like a genius.

This post is part of an occasional series that I consider my Freezer Pantry. Here is the link to the category: Freezer Pantry, and here is a list of all the previous posts:

• Caramelized Onions
• Fresh Pasta
• Baked Brown Rice
• How to blanch and freeze kale
• Bolognese Sauce
• Freezing Bacon (so you can just grab a few slices at a time)
• Dorot frozen herbs and garlic

I was addicted to Serial, now what?! by Third Coast – ThingLink.

Scent sucker revisited | dooce®. “It kind of smells beachy? Like you spent all day at a beach, but not a lame touristy beach, maybe like some secret cove where Daniel Craig would take Rachel Weisz and then later he’d shower before dinner and put on a crinkly button-down shirt and this is how he would smell.” By Sarah Brown.

The Renovated Cinerama Deserves the Hype | Slog. (Ed note: the Cinerama is a movie theater in Seattle worth treating as something to check out if you’re visiting the city. They have chocolate popcorn. No, really.) “The huge space is now fitted with a 160 speakers, and each speaker is dedicated to a particular sound in a movie. All of this sonic richness is mixed and intensified by Dolby Atmos, a surround sound monster conjured by Dolby Laboratories. The goal of these improvements is of course to stun our senses in a way that no home theater system ever can.” Sold.

How candy canes are made by hand. at Kottke.

Gluing a gingersnap cottage (like a nerd), at Instructables. Directions on how to make your own sugar glue gun inserts.

Watch the Building of the Most Complicated Gingerbread House Ever | FWx. From the people behind Modernist Cuisine.

Holiday Music 2014 | The Amber Show.

How to Make Christmas Tree Napkin Fold – DIY & Crafts – Handimania. Via Swissmiss.

Why Tory MP is the father of all Bernards – Telegraph. Screenwriter Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Three Weddings and a Funeral, etc) nearly always has a character named Bernard in his films, a character who is treated quite badly, this is why. I’m delighted to know that Bernard and the Genie is also named for this reason.

The Food Lab: How to Make the Best Creamy Chicken Enchiladas | Serious Eats.

Sprinkle Bakes: Golden Gingerbread with Hard Sauce. So very very pretty and simple.

gingerbread biscotti | smitten kitchen.

Party Drinks: Easy and Elegant Smoky Sage Punch | Serious Eats. The smoky element is added by Lapsang Souchong tea, smart.

Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Cheddar Beer Sauce – Joy the Baker.

Gift Guide Spotlight: Gifts for the Geek Cook | Serious Eats.

Chicken Broth Taste Test – America’s Test Kitchen. One of the winners is the Better Than Bouillon base which is what I keep in my kitchen. I don’t cook very often so this is a great option as it keeps in the fridge for a very long time.

Kickstarter at MoMA – That neat stuff that was on Kickstarter but you might have since lost track of? Here it is! Also see: the whole gifts section. (I’ve been eyeing that Bubble Necklace for a few years now. Not a hint. Ok, yes, it’s a hint.)

Good Gift Games at The Morning News – An annual curated list of tabletop games by Matthew Baldwin and one of those things I look forward to every year. I know the guy in person and can vouch that all these games have been well tested over rounds of beer with good people at good pubs. I’m going to throw my support on the Marrying Mr. Darcy: The Pride and Prejudice Card Game and also call up a past game that is a most-played in my house: Forbidden Island.

Cool Tools: Mark’s Picks and Under $10 – Have somebody on your list who is a Maker or very practical or just plain hard to shop for? Cool Tools will have a suggestion for that one thing that they might not already know about. Among the most well received gifts to family that I’ve given have come from past Cool Tools recommendations including a craft assistant setup for a model-making family member and guitar tuning devices for my part-time rock star husband. (If said giftee just likes knowing about neat things they might love the Cool Tools book, which I fully admit to becoming engrossed in myself, it’s huge like a coffee table book and packed with information like a catalog.)

Brit+Co Shop – Among the many awesome things in this shop I’m particularly in love with the Gold Leaf Valet Kit with Lovely Indeed, the customizable wood burnt Cheese Board with Design*Sponge and the wooden Pop-Out Ornament Cards. See also: the whole Tech (Bluetooth Camera Shutter Remote for an iPhone!) and Merrymaking Color Block Muddler!) selections. Full disclosure and blatant self promotion: this winter I have my own collaboration with Brit+Co for a set of mini gingerbread house mug topper cookie cutters which, as of me typing this, should be back in stock to purchase on Friday 12/12/14. Update: The DIY Kits have sold out, thanks to everybody who purchased one!

What are your favorite sources for the difficult to shop for?

The Stars Are Right | Neat Hobby. Possibly the truth behind what the series Cosmos with Neil Degrasse Tyson is getting to. Maybe. Dunno. But I’ll be ready.

Coming Soon – Butter Up. A knife that allows you to take refrigerator cold butter and get it spreadable with very little fuss. I know somebody for whom this will be the perfect gift.

‘Serial’ and White Reporter Privilege – The Awl.

Karl Stefanovic’s sexism experiment: Today presenter wears same suit for a year. Not one viewer noticed and all the while his female counterparts were being heavily judged on their outfits.

“That’s right, my little spider-egg-carriers, we are already on Take Level Meta and the podcast’s season hasn’t even finished. Life is truly a miracle.” Today In Tabs sums up how I feel about Serial.

I Tried a Bunch of Those Viral “Life Hacks” So You Don’t Have To— off the (meat)hook. I’m linking to this for one reason, which is to dispute the review of “Doritos as kindling”. At lady camp one of the tips we were given was that a small bag of Fritos was good for many things: 1. gluten-free food source, 2. kindling (oil in the chips is very flammable), 3. bag for reflecting sun (if needed for signaling to aircraft, and good luck). This past summer at a cookout in a public park we managed to prove #2 true, Fritos work as kindling in an otherwise damp-ish environment. Many hot dogs and veggie burgers were enjoyed.

How to fold the world’s best paper airplane, at Kottke.

Pamie » Barbie Fucks It Up Again.

Marshmallows On Sweet Potatoes? Thanksgiving’s Traditions Exposed : NPR. I cannot handle marshmallows on sweet potatoes (why!?) and now I know who to blame: it’s the Cracker Jack company, I never would have seen that coming.

The Best Scotch to Buy on a Budget | Serious Eats.

Recipes and How To’s | Momofuku Milk Bar. Right. That pumpkin pie cake? That is my next project food.

Recipe Review: Momofuku Bagel Bombs | testerfoodblog. Cream cheese in the center, what?!

Christmas Tree Cakes | Time To Cook. Great instructions on how to anchor these in the oven.

Cookies Too Beautiful to Eat by Pastry Chef Amber Spiegel | Colossal.

Here are the decorations I’ve collected to decorate the tiny gingerbread houses that decorate mugs which I’ll be making this year. The houses are so small that decorations to be sprinkled on are all you need. I tend to keep an eye out for holiday worthy sprinkles and decorations all year long, so some of these might have had me contemplating the holidays in the middle of July.

Crushed candy canes – Easy, colorful and festive. Also, candy canes are easy to find at the corner store or, say, in the lobby of your bank so you don’t need to make a special trip to find sprinkles. (If you use the pre-crushed sort I promise I won’t tell.)

Nonpareils – Tiny and crunchy and if you get one of those containers with sections for six different colors you can create your own color mix.

Sugar pearls – These are like giant nonpareils, I found these at a discount store.

Itty bitty edible gold foil stars – Itty bitty edible gold stars! These are amazingly cute. I’ve found these sold by Wilton in the baking aisles of Michael’s and Joann stores as well as specialty cooking shops.

Gold dragée – I want more gold in my holidays so I was thrilled when I found these. Unlike their silver counterparts these are safe to eat since they’re made using edible metallic dust.

Oversized sprinkles – Colorful like twinkle lights. These are from Wilton and they make me very happy.

The next three options are great for creating a simple snowy roof:

White nonpareils – I like the details of a sweet covering of precious little snowy white balls.

Sanding sugar – The larger sugar crystals sparkle nicely.

Edible glitter – I bought this at a specialty cake supply store where the owner assured me that the edible glitter is the best for reflecting the sparkle from twinkle lights. I’ve done a terrible job at conveying that in this photo.

The last row are all from a decoration set that came in one container.

Holly leaves and berries – Sweetly festive.

Tiny snowflakes – You can place these individually if you want, or just sprinkle them on and let randomness do it’s job.

Tiny candy canes – Much to my dismay they don’t actually taste of peppermint, but all is forgiven because they are terribly cute.

Don’t forget! This winter I’ve collaborated with Brit+Co on a DIY kit which includes cookie cutters for my tiny gingerbread houses! It makes creating the gingerbread houses very easy. Go have a peek!

Last year Maggi, Jameson and I created the Nog Crawl and this year it’s evolved into the Nog Ball! It’s gonna be fun, if you’re in Seattle you should definitely get tickets for this!

As you may know, here at Sun Liquor we make a special batch of hand-made aged Eggnog every year. It has gained in popularity since our first batch in 2006, and now we are bottling and making it available to the public for the first time! With the help of some wonderful friends we made during last years Nog Crawl, we have decided to host Seattle’s First Annual Nog Ball.

The event will be held in our production facility on Pike Street and all proceeds for this event will be donated to Wellspring Family Services a local charity that help families in crisis take the next step forward, tap into their own resilience and strength, and build community.

We will offer guests a taste of this years batch of Aged Eggnog as well as tastings from our partners:

2bar Spirits
Caffe Vita
Hilliards Beer
Off the Rez
Snoqualmie Ice Cream
Snowdrift Cider Co.
Standard Brewing
Top Pot Doughnuts
Vinum Importing’s For a Song Wine
& more to be announced!

I’m so utterly thrilled to announce this collaboration with Brit+Co to create a DIY kit for my tiny gingerbread houses that sit on the edge of a mug!

The kit includes two cookie cutters that are 3D printed (!!!) and each kit comes with a mug, a pen for decorating or personalizing the mug and recipes for gingerbread and royal icing. May I suggest that the kit would make a wonderful holiday gift? Even if just for yourself?

They’ve created a complete DIY tutorial for baking and assembling the house.

I couldn’t be more pleased, go have a look!

Step Inside Michael Laiskonis’s Dessert Laboratory | Serious Eats. His secret weapon ingredient? Xanthan gum.

Bring Home A Taste Of Paris The Easy Way With French Bistro Brisket : NPR. The recipe calls for an entire bottle of wine, I plan on making this very soon.

Bon Appétempt: Video: Beet and Goat Cheese Terrine. It’s so pretty!

Imbibe Unfiltered: David Chang Hates on Fancy Beer. I love discussing hop varieties, neckbeard or not.

30 Bags of Chips Means No One is a Winner — Medium. Via mathowie.

Sodium Citrate Will Turn A Block Of Cheese Into The Creamiest Nacho Sauce Ever. Get Some. at Huffington Post.

How To Make A Faux Cheddar In One Hour : NPR From the Found Recipes series.

Monument Valley
This is a stunningly beautiful and simple game that plays with Escher style geometry and has a slightly spooky story. For iOS, Google Play and Kindle Fire.

Doggins
This is a short and exceedingly sweet game about what a dog dreams about. An especially stylish version of a point and click style adventure. For iOS, Google Play and Kindle Fire.

Find the Line
In this game you slide a few lines until they compose a picture and watching the lines dance through their patterns, which work as hints, is beautiful and mesmerizing. One downside: while the game is free the distributor has put video ads between each level and you cannot pay to make the ads go away. Bummer. Just in iOS.

Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake
A cartoonish and funny puzzle game with a surprising amount of levels. I thoroughly loved this game and the levels are satisfyingly tricky while the story is well developed. For iOS, Google Play, Amazon Apps and Steam.

See also the previously mentioned: Tiny Thief and Little Inferno.

Lately tiny cheeses have been making me happy as an inexpensive and low commitment indulgence. My friend Leslie introduced me to the concept of tiny cheese, which are the smaller odd bits and ends of cheese left over when a grocery store has portioned out and packaged chunks off of a larger wheel. There is usually a small basket of cheese ends tucked in the display case, most for $1 or $2. These tiny cheeses had always been there in grocery stores but for some reason I had never noticed them, so thank you Leslie! Just in case you overlook them too consider this a gentle nudge to have a peek next time you pass them. This past summer the tiny cheeses have provided me with timely moments of fresh mozzarella, queso fresco to accompany a few grilled peppers for dinner, parmesan when I only needed a small portion as I’d be leaving on a trip in a few days. You get the idea, tiny cheeses are great.

This small collection of cheese cost me under $7 and include:

• Long Clawson English Cotswold, which had onions and chives and was sort of like the Everything Bagel of cheese
• Le Chatelain French Brie which was creamy and insanely good
• Cascadia Creamery Raw Sleeping Beauty which is a hard cheese, and very delicious
• Tillamook Pepper Jack, spicy and dependable
• Buenalba Goat Cheese With Paprika, which was my favorite, subtle and colorful

The Eye-Fi mobi card is the real deal | A Whole Lotta Nothing.

New study says more adult women play video games than teenage boys · Newswire · The A.V. Club. “Before anyone pins this on Kim Kardashian: Hollywood or whatever, the study also says the average adult woman has played games for 13 years”.

The Amazing, Original Green Building Is Soon to Be Vacated by the Original Timber Company | Slog. You can see this building while driving on I-5 and it’s amazing even from a distance.

The Heron and the Snake | BirdNote. This was a very unusual Bird Note, and basically the audio version of that Never Give Up frog vs. heron poster.

Part 1: I cheated on my girlfriend of 8 months. At Do You Think You’re Pretty? the blog of Emily V. Gordon who I hereby nominate as the best councilor for us all. Between telling this guy what he needs to hear I also love this: “No love, no matter how great or small, benefits from being overly romanticized. It makes us forget that we’re actually just two people who decided they dug each other.”

Everyone In Hollywood Has This Hairstyle at Refinery 29. Next time I head to get my haircut I’m just going to pull a bunch of these images as examples for what I want.

XOXO 2014:

A tiny gathering of artists has become the most interesting weekend in tech | The Verge.

The narrative lottery at XOXO – Boing Boing.

The XOXO Festival and the fierce urgency of nice — The Message — Medium.

One-Pot Wonders: Cold Soba Noodles With Kale, Avocado, and Miso-Sesame Dressing | Serious Eats.

The Food Lab: The Road To Better Risotto | Serious Eats. I’m not unhappy with my recent risotto experience but it’s worth trying this to compare. Because science.

The Food Lab: Use the Oven to Make the Best Darned Italian American Red Sauce You’ve Ever Tasted | Serious Eats. See also: Quick and Easy Italian-American Red Sauce in 40 Minutes or Less | Serious Eats : Recipes.

BBC News – Wasabi: Why invest in ‘the hardest plant to grow’? This might explain how I recently came across fresh wasabi at the Granville Market in Vancouver, BC.

I’m looking for real life food mysteries. Where would I find them? | Ask MetaFilter. The answers here point to lots of great stuff to read.

Chef Jonathon Sawyer’s Guide to Eating in Cleveland | Serious Eats. I grew up in Cleveland but it’s changed so much that next time we return for a visit it’ll be like discovering a new city.

Anthony Bourdain How to Travel – Anthony Bourdain on How to Fly – Esquire. Via Kottke.

Italy 2014 – August 25th to September 4th. At Other Hand, some great suggestions for markets, gelato and lesser known spots to visit.

DIG IT | Getting Lost Inside The Elizabethan Hedge Labyrinth Out At VanDusen Gardens : Scout Magazine. I’m going to make it to this Vancouver, BC hedge maze soon.

I have a few basic requirements for a rain coat – something that doesn’t scream “I also hike in this”, something that will survive being repeatedly crammed in a bag, and something that fits my petite frame. I also have a few more personal requirements: no wool (I’m allergic) and no extraneous buckles/straps/flaps that I will only manage to catch on everything. This combination of things were surprisingly difficult to find for a while and at one point I ordered ten possible coats online and tried them on one after another at home. Some were too fussy, too heavy, too narrow in the hips and some were terribly tight up under the arms (what’s up with that Michael Kors?). At the time I overlooked the coat I’m about to tell you about because honestly, the photos online make it look more shiny and flimsy than it is in person and they never seem to have it in the stores to check out in person.

The Eddie Bauer Girl on the Go® Trench Coat and Girl On The Go® Insulated Trench Coat filled the raincoat shaped hole in my life. I brought the insulated version with me on a trip to the UK in Oct. and Nov. of last year and I was never cold or wet, the coat could be crammed into my suitcase and emerge looking just fine and I like to think I didn’t stick out too much as a tourist.

The petite size manages to give me some shape and, miraculously, still fits over my not insignificant hips when I’m wearing my bulkiest sweater. I have both the regular and insulted version of the coat. The insulated liner has full sleeves, buttons out when you don’t need it and is surprisingly warm — in fact I was too warm when descending to Tube stations in London. (So, this could be a downside if you live in a city with a subway.) The only difference between the regular and insulated versions is that the waist is cut in a bit tighter in the regular version and it’s more flattering. Which is why I kept both versions. Because vanity. These coats are perfect for the Seattle climate and they both get a lot of use throughout the year so I have no regrets. I have the coat in black but the putty color, shown above, was tempting.

Things that are not so great:

• it is all synthetic fabrics so it does make scratchy/swishy noises when you move, it doesn’t bother me (crinkle noises are insignificant when rain is pelting the side of your head) but I’ve known a few people for whom this is a peeve so I’ll mention it
• the hood detaches but it doesn’t tuck into the collar so you just have to keep track of it

Things that are great:

• interior chest pocket that will hold an iPhone, the pocket sits low enough so that it hits, thankfully, underneath my boob
• hood cinches down
• no velcro
• zips from the bottom as well as the top
• snaps shut as well for those times when you’re just popping out to grab the mail and don’t want to fuss with zippers
• can be balled up and shoved in a bag and won’t wrinkle
• without the insulated liner the coat is surprisingly lightweight so it’s not too much trouble to carry with you shoved in your bag for the day
• the petite size fits a petite (but not necessarily skinny) frame well with room for a warm sweater

I will also point to the MacKenzie Trench Coat, shown above right. It’s a little less sporty looking with a matte fabric and empire waist and comes in a nice dark gray. Ultimately I valued the longer length of the Girl On The Go coat but nearly fell for the MacKenzie.

Both of these coats are on sale right now so if you’re looking for a raincoat I can recommend giving them a try.

Molly’s Sketchbook: Breezy Friendship Bracelets – The Purl Bee. So easy and colorful. I’m late to the friendship bracelet renewal thing, I know. See also: Cashmere + Neon Friendship Bracelets.

Cool Tools – Rapid Heat Ceramic Glue Gun. “It’s better than guns costing 5 times as much.”

5 Small & Simple Leather DIYs | Apartment Therapy.

Bone Records – Mighty Girl. Oh wow, people in the Soviet Union listened to banned music made using records created from repurposed the vinyl in old x-rays.

Damn, Gina, It’s never not a good time to read Wikipedia’s Bog Bodies at Damn, Gina. We saw a few of these at National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. Go and read about how they were found and try not to think about it next time you are enjoying your Scotch.

Harvesting Free Food at Seattle’s Beacon Food Forest | Garlic Gulch. This is in my neighborhood!

Recasting Gilmore Girls for the Highly Anticipated, Hypothetical Movie, at Gawker. I was pretty worried about what recasting choices people might expect but this article makes some solid points. Via Making It Lovely.

Cool Tools – Hugo’s Amazing Tape. It only sticks to itself.

Five Things You Didn’t Know About The Red Carpet – A Practical Wedding. Meg’s writeup about what it’s really like on the red carpet is a whole lot of fun.

nateswinehart: Being good to each other is so important, guys. This is so true, and so funny, and true again.

48 Unexpected Views Of Famous Historic Moments. These are really amazing. Via Girls of a Certain Age.

Little Green Notebook: Making a Wall Mural. Great big color mural here and the source, Wizard Prints.

How To Use IKEA Trones Storage Boxes in Every Room of the House | Apartment Therapy. We use three of these as recycling bins and they are great – large enough to hold a gallon size container or a newspaper, shallow enough to fit in our limited space and they disappear on the wall.

How to Make Gold Leaf Wall Art | Brit + Co.

What We Really Taste When We Drink Wine : The New Yorker. “Do we actually want to eliminate expectation and create an experience of tasting that approximates blindness? Galloni doesn’t think so. Having spent a big part of his career as a critic in blind tastings, he now fully embraces context as one of the major parts of his enjoyment of and appreciation for wine.”

ciao samin: All I Want to Eat. Cold dressings for cold foods.

Where to Eat Outdoors in Seattle, 2014 Edition | Serious Eats.

The best beer in baseball – Washington Post. “Seattle sells beers from 20 breweries based in the state of Washington, the highest number of in-state offerings in Major League Baseball.” Via Metafilter.

Cheesy Stuffed Poblanos | How Sweet It Is.

The Complete Guide to Burger Blends | FirstWeFeast.com. Via Kottke.

Muhammara Recipe – 101 Cookbooks. “It’s a traditional red pepper spread originating from Syria made with a beguiling blend of red peppers, walnuts, olive oil, pomegranate molasses”. Yum.

How to Make Pocky at Home at Food 52. Via Craftzine.

Made in America: The Girls of a Certain Age. I had no idea some of these brands are made in the USA, this is a good list to keep in mind.

Rich People Gotta Upholster Too | dooce®. Sarah Brown on Restoration Hardware then and now. I second this.

I Have Been Waiting My Whole Life For This Butter Knife at The Frisky. That is indeed a very clever butter knife.

Meet the game that shows us the future of storytelling — The Message — Medium. Robin Sloan suggests how to play Gone Home for non-gamers and goes into why this is a form of video game that is worth paying attention to. Via Waxy.

10 Years, 10 Great Games: Jessica’s picks | Joystiq.

The secret of Minecraft — The Message — Medium. A very good perspective on what Minecraft is an exactly why it matters.

$7 Portal Mod Has Fans Riled Up | Game|Life | WIRED.

Cool Tools – Panda Ultra Wifi 1540Mbps Wireless N 2.4Ghz Adapter. A teeny tiny adapter that can work as an access point at those hotels that offer you wifi for one device. Nice.

The last of the great Twitter apps at Kottke. I’m looking at #2 on the list here, TweetBe.at, which makes it much easier to sort and edit Twitter lists. I’ve recently been asking friends about why they prefer to communicate with Facebook or Twitter and the Facebook people site overload on Twitter with Twitter list making is too time consuming to use properly. It is indeed a pain and it used to be much easier.

Padrón peppers are delicious and they are also like a little game of surprise – most of these are mild but ever fifth one is hot. This can be especially amusing if somebody at your dinner is likely to break out into hiccups when they bite into a spicy pepper. (Ahem, Scott!)

Traditionally these are fried in a skillet but we find them just as delicious when tossed with a little olive oil and grilled. Add some good salt to finish and that’s all you need. They practically melt in your mouth, yum. If you have not encountered these yet, I somehow got to adulthood without being introduced, I recommend you seek some out soon.

A shout out to Maggi who introduced me to these a few years back! Also Shishito peppers are similar, every tenth one is hot.

What to Drink on July 4th | Serious Eats. Mostly I’m eyeing the Campari-laced version of the Starfruit Sangria here, the slice of starfruit is such a simple decoration for the Fourth.

The Scientific Way to Cut a Cake – YouTube. By Numberphile. A very clever way to slice a round cake so that you can keep it as fresh as possible day after day, and the suggestion is from 1906! Via The Morning News.

Sprinkle Bakes: Crème Brûlée Filled Strawberries. So tiny and so fancy.

Southwestern Coleslaw Recipe | Simply Recipes. We’ve been making this a lot lately, it’s tasty and very simple to make if you have a food processor with the shredding attachments. Also, this is a very simple vinegar and olive oil dressing for those of you who like a more simple cole slaw.

Smoky and Spicy Yogurt-Marinated Chicken Kebabs | Serious Eats. If you can remember to make them early enough to allow for the time to marinate them these are easy and really delicious.

See also: Marinades for Chicken | Ask MetaFilter. Lots of great suggestions and regional options I’d never heard of.

Tales From The Borderlands nets a nerdy voice cast | Joystiq. I’m pretty darn excited for this game to come out.

Oculus Game Lucky’s Tale Will Blow Your Mind | Game|Life | WIRED. I want to play this.

Ask a Game Dev — Why are so many people demanding AAA titles to be all feminist and stuff when women don’t even buy those games?. There are twice as many gamers who are female and over the age of 31 than there are male under the age of 18, so guess who is spending money on games. Via Andrea Phillips.

How to Make a Light-Up Father’s Day Card | Brit + Co.

Montreal-style bagel – Wikipedia. NOTE: “Montreal-style bagels are currently the only style of bagel to have ventured into space.” Via a discussion with friends.

RINGLY | Smart Jewelry and Accessories. A ring that is connected to your phone and has several vibration patterns and colored lights for different notifications – email, text, Uber arriving. Interesting! Via SwissMiss.

Ravelry and knitting: Why Facebook can’t match the social network for knitters at Slate. I’ve been telling people for years that Ravelry should be studied as the example of an ideal social networking site.

One of my four goals for our trip to the UK last year was the find my way out of a hedge maze so we headed to the maze at Hampton Court which is a short train ride from London. The Hampton Court Maze isn’t the largest hedge maze in the UK but it is the first one planted in Great Britain, dating from 1690. It’s also reportedly the most famous hedge maze so we figured it would do nicely. Being iconic means that the actual layout of the maze is depicted everywhere even on the sign at the entrance to the maze and, I think, printed on our tickets. We tried not to study it too closely, I mean, spoilers. If you want to see an overhead photograph of the maze there is a good one halfway down this page.

This photo was taken by standing on tippy toe and pointing my camera out towards the center of the maze. Meaning, the hedges were taller than they seem in photos.

In the off season the gardens surrounding Hampton Court are free to explore but the maze itself is about £5. Currently the maze page says there is a sound installation but we heard nothing and didn’t see any evidence of speakers so the off-season tickets might not include it, or we were there on day when it wasn’t working.

That tree seemed so far away while we were in the maze.

We were there in the off season and during a weekday which meant there weren’t many people in the maze so we had whole stretches of time where we could almost feel alone and lost. It was awesome.

We reached the center!

The maze itself doesn’t seem very large from the outside, it covers 1/3rd of an acre and has 1/2 mile of trails inside, but it feels far larger inside. Like magic. Most of the paths are long straight stretches that end in an almost u-turn, which is disorienting. We were there to enjoy being inside the maze though, so we sought out every dead end and checked around every corner and when we found the end of the maze we turned around and found our way back to the entrance just because we wanted to spend as much time as possible inside.

It was, happily, a sunny day so we spent a few hours wandering around the gardens. The most decorative part of the gardens was closed because there was a film crew using it. We couldn’t really complain because they gardens were free.

In the center there you can see famous people. Supposedly.

We saw a lot of filming going on in Dublin and London while we were there. Scott works for a company that gathers movie and tv facts so we kept approaching the guards who were there to keep people like us out and asking, all innocent like, what they were filming. Our secret hope was that they would give us the code name that studios often use to make something sound as boring as possible when in fact Big Stars filming an alley scene for the Next Exciting Huge Thing are just beyond the barriers. To our disappointment all of the guards we talked to were very friendly, apologized that they couldn’t let us get any closer and then excitedly told us all about what was being filmed and which huge stars were right over there. In this case the production was an upcoming movie (tv special?) about Stephen Hawking and the two guards helpfully pointed out that if we stood just here we might capture a glimpse of somebody famous whose name I didn’t write down (sorry). They were young and excited to be working in the industry, it was so adorable I forgave them for ruining our game of being media sleuths.

Early version of Cones of Dunshire? Or just the half of the decorative gardens that weren’t closed for filming?

Hampton Court is a quick train ride from London, unless you are us in which case all the train schedules have been shuffled and instead it will be a strange hour and a half of fiddling with incomprehensible train schedules on your phone while desperately hoping you’re on the correct platform. The train schedules might helpfully suggest you go to a further train station and take a bus, but don’t listen to it! The closer train station is a very doable walk over a bridge and onto the grounds. The court itself looks like it’s well worth the ticket price to get to look around inside but we were there with a purpose: hedge maze and then back to London for fancy dinner reservations.

In the off season the gardens are free to wander but the maze itself is about £5. Even if you don’t have tickets to tour the court there are a few rooms you can access that have exhibits about the history of the gardens and the maze. There is also a gift shop and, I think, a cafe.

There were statues in the decorative gardens all wrapped up. It was incredibly creepy.

I had grand plans of visiting more hedge mazes in England while we were there but from the moment the airplane landed both Scott and myself came down with some a form of head cold that was determined to be the most torturous and the least friendly to getting sleep. So when we were stationed in Bristol for a few weeks I had intended to take a few day trips by springing out of bed and catching a very early train so I could wander a maze, have lunch and be back in time for a relaxing dinner. Instead I spent my days sleeping in because there was no other choice, I needed rest. We had hiking and drinking to do in Scotland and Ireland after all! Seriously though, I was convinced I had pneumonia and was close to checking out how the free healthcare works. For the record, I have not come down with a cold in the many months since we returned from our trip so whatever we survived covered all forms of viruses that swept through the US last winter. How do I train myself to catch and fight all the viruses before my next trip?

Hampton Court Maze and gardens are a perfect side trip from London. A little being outdoors and a bit of puzzle solving and you can be back in time for fancy dinner reservations.

Sprinkle Bakes: Fresh Watermelon Cake. What a clever idea!

A Beer Beginner’s Guide to Hops of the World | Serious Eats.

Star Wars Macarons Prove the Force is Delicious at i09. Ok, those are cute.

The Rise of the $8 Ice Cube at Priceonomics.

“Miracle Fruit,” America’s Oldest New Food Trend at Gawker. I was really hoping this story was going to reveal that the Victorians threw scandalous miracle fruit parties, but no. Gawker means this goes all the way back to 2007. I would like to point out that I was one year off on my Mircale Fruit party invitation, I said 2008. Oops.

How to Make a Good Salad Without Dumb Leaves – The Awl. “So let us forgo leaves. Let us not require our salads to rely on our least-favorite ingredient. Let us shape our own salad destiny.”

Feel the Burn: Mailbag! Posture! Desk Jobs!. Exercises good for those who slouch. You can’t see me right now but know that I’m pointing at myself.

5 Details They Cut from My Season of ‘The Biggest Loser’ | Cracked.com. “That is the mighty power of the television editor: With enough time and a copy of Adobe Premiere, you can make Mr. Rogers look like a blood-drinking psychopath.”

Flexible Light Helps People Find Keys And Wallet In Their Giant Bags – PSFK. A flat, rechargeable purse light with 24 LEDs. Want! via Girls of a Certain Age.

Cool Tools – What’s in My Bag? Christopher Michel. A frequent world traveler shows which items he keeps with him at his seat in the plane. I do something similar, it’s so calming knowing I have everything I need to block out noise or charge up without digging through a bag at my feet.

Infinite Trees – The Colossal Shop. So simple and so lovely. Should this actually be a Christmas link?

Wonder Woman Costume Designs We’d Love To See On The Big Screen, at i09. Some of these are great, recognizably Wonder Woman but a bit more badass.

Engineer Prints from Photojojo. Huge 3′ by 4′ black and white prints for your home, shipping is included in the $25 price. I have a plan.

Douglas Adams’ Guide To Interspecies Sex Getting Published At Last, at i09. These will be the unpublished works that were on paper, whereas The Salmon of Doubt was what was left behind on hard drives. As somebody who found the tapes of the original radio series at my library and listened to them obsessively when I was in high school I’m stupidly excited.

Recently King Arthur Flour gathered a group of PNW bloggers and we all made dinner for a shelter here in Seattle. It was part of their Bake for Good initiative to encourage and help people reach out to their communities in various ways. In addition to getting food to those in need, baking for community events and bake sales to raise money they also have a Bake for Good Kids traveling tour that helps kids learn to bake and work with their communities. In addition to all this King Arthur Flour is an employee owned company where each employee donates time each year to volunteering and helping the community. You know what? There’s been a lot of gloomy stuff going on in the news lately and being a part of the Bake for Good tour reminded me that there is plenty of goodness out there and sometimes you have to create it.

(The image above is from the King Arthur Flour website. The pictures below are all from my aging iPhone, the days were so packed with flour and butter and dishwashing that I didn’t pull out my camera.)

(My bread was a little lopsided but bascially worked. The one here looked so pretty I took a picture of it instead.)

We spent some time in commercial kitchens which was a thrill for me. On the first day we made braided white loaves, dinner rolls and apple pies.

We braided white bread dough, you start from the center and braid down, then flip it over and braid down again. Not as easy as it sounds, at least the first time.

It rose! And got brown and pretty!

I’ve never been able to get a handle on pie dough. I’d seen plenty of demonstrations on cooking shows, I’d done the vodka thing, the food processor thing but I never had any success and basically gave up on it. Turns out some hands on learning with a cheerfully helpful teacher is what I needed.

What I learned? Half of the butter bits need to be way larger than I suspected. And one of these large plastic scrapers is oh so handy. Seriously, I won’t ever make pie dough without one of these again. It’s particularly great if you don’t have cold hands because it can mix and fold with minimal contact from your hands. It’s also great for scooping up chopped vegetables, even easier to use than a metal bench scraper. There you, my new favorite kitchen multitasker.

In my notes I have VB, which stands for Visible Butter, something you want during the last stages of putting your pie dough together. When you are gathering it to chill before rolling out you want the dough to be both shaggy and crumbly, not too dry but just wet enough to hold together. Right, I’m not going to do any good telling you about it, go find a pie person and practice!

The next day we made salad, macaroni and cheese, chicken and a few other vegetable side options. I appreciated the oversized tools.

We had a tour of the shelter and it was pretty sobering. Everybody there was a good soul caught in a difficult situation. It made me feel very grateful for what I have and like I could be doing a lot more to help out in my community. I’ll be seeking out as many opportunities to volunteer as I can.

If you like to cook I do have a suggestion for helping out in your area, look up your local VA hospital and see if they are seeking volunteers to cook dinner for the caretakers of patients who are living there are on a short or long term basis. Here in Seattle the Fisher House is one of those spots, this is something my friend Fresh Picked Seattle organizes from time to time so all credit goes to her. In addition to cooking they have room for people to come and hold craft nights, garden, organize outings or teach a class.

Alright, let’s go out and do some good.

Stainless Steel Branch Skewers | UncommonGoods. Instead of one long skewer these have nine branches. It might just solve some of those times when the skewered food just rotates around when you try to flip it.

What Are You Drinking? – NYTimes.com. A simple interactive page where you plug in your requirements (like, a fruity drink made with tequila for a hot afternoon) and like magic a brief video plays showing you how to make something. All of the recipes can be seen here.

BuzzFeed’s Clean Eating Challenge. I’ve seen a lot of negative takes on this two week diet (clean eating and detoxing are things to be questioned) and while I’m unlikely to follow along I do admire how clearly they’ve laid out the shopping/prepping/cooking for a few weeks of healthy meals. I’ve turned to this for inspiration for a few light dinners and the pear and almond butter snack is a new favorite around here.

Joy the Baker – Fresh Juice and Sweet Tea Shot Bites. These are adorable.

The Best Places to Drink Outdoors in Seattle, 2014 Edition | Serious Eats. Thumbs up to all of these.

Feeding Hannibal. Janice Poon is the food stylist for the tv show Hannibal and here she goes behind the scenes with the inspiration, struggles and tricks on getting the food juuuust about as creepy as it can possibly be. Even if you don’t watch the show this is a lot of fun to read. See: How she solved the problem of making fake and actually edible Ortolans.

Project index / Bompas & Parr. I’m losing my mind over the fabulousness of the projects they’ve created. I’ve been to the Guiness tasting room and it was a very fun experience. See: Glow-in-the-dark Cornetto. Via Janice Poon.

Aquaria was released for PC in 2007 and won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at IGF that year. I played it around 2009 and fell deeply in love with the game. It was adapted and became available for iOS a few years ago and after recommending it I finally bought it for my iPad mini. Everything about it was the same but just as soon as I got into the areas where combat is required I died. Over and over again. You respawn at points very close to where you die but it was still frustrating. Why did I like the game so much upon the first play through? A little bit of memory jogging and I remembered why – with the PC version you can gently hack the settings so that your character takes damage less quickly. You’re not invincible but needing to regain energy comes at a much more reasonable pace for me. The other reason that playing on a computer has a bit of an edge is simply that there are keyboard shortcuts for triggering common things in the game that come in very handy. (One tip: If you are playing on iOS make sure you pick up your first pet before you head out to Open Waters to explore beyond the initial area of the game. Not having that was part of the reason I was expiring so quickly and why I was frustrated to the point of not continuing.)

General review: In Aquaria you play as an creature who lives in underwater caves and has no memory. You set out to make discoveries and during the course of play you uncover the history of yourself as well as a set of long lost civilizations all wrapping up in the story of the creation and downfall of a god. The game is vast and takes a long time to play. You are in an open world, meaning you can venture into almost any area of the game at any time. There are a few features that block your way until you gain new abilities but those abilities also unlock some fast travel systems later on which is great because you will be revisiting areas. There is a map and a note system so you can mark areas to return to. The game can be at times delightful and spooky and just when you think you cannot possibly find anything new everything changes completely, and then it changes again. I adore the feeling of exploration in this game, there is an amazing amount of space to search and most every area has a secret to reveal to those who look closely. If you get stuck or want hints the forums at Bit Blot are very thorough. The character development, soundtrack and story all lead to most people, including myself, having an emotional attachment. It’s one of those games to dive into in the depth of winter or if you break a bone and are immobile for a while.

Bonus points for the main character and most of the secondary characters being well developed and powerful females. Game includes impressively vast open world exploration, puzzle solving, combat, resource gathering and crafting and an amazing story and soundtrack. For game nerds I’ll point out that one of the developers went on to create a game called Spelunky, you might know it?

Available for PC, Mac and Linux (DRM free). Also on Steam.

Aquaria was made by two developers, check out their other stuff: Alec Holowka’s projects can be found at Infinite Ammo and see Derek Yu‘s site.

The Cave is a game by my beloved Double Fine that I hadn’t played yet but was on my radar. I bought it for my iPad and got stuck almost right away because the tablet controls are terrible. I was so frustrated I pulled up a bunch of reviews and the majority of them echoed my later conclusion – the game is great but the tablet controls are unsatisfactory and it’s worth playing the game in a different form.

So next I bought the game for my OUYA and loved it. The game is funny and sarcastic. In the game you choose three characters (out of an available seven) to go in and explore the cave, or rather, The Cave. Each character has a different set of abilities and can reach different parts of the cave. As you progress you learn the stories of each character, and they aren’t always what they seem. The playthrough isn’t terribly long and you can replay choosing different characters to reach different parts of the cave, though there are a few areas you will play through during each pass, which can be a little repetitive the third time you play (if you want to play all the characters). My favorites were the Twins, the Scientist and the Explorer.

Bonus points to the developer for making half the playable characters female. Game includes plot driven exploration, puzzle solving and humor. Available on Steam and OUYA.

Double Fine has been up to some interesting stuff lately, I cannot wait for the second half of Broken Age and their older games are well worth playing, there is a special spot in my heart for Psychonauts which I didn’t play until a few years ago.

Let’s talk games. I have a PS3, a PC, an OUYA and an iPad. In wintertime I want games to play in my living room so the PS3 and the OUYA are my focus, otherwise I am often looking for something to pass the time on a flight so I look for games for my iPad. My PC gaming has fallen away with the exception of a few extended story lines or games bought through Steam or Kickstarter (Dreamfall Chapters and Broken Age part 2 are what I’m currently anticipating). With all these platforms I’m only slightly aware of all the games out there that I know I’d like. (Even doing some link gathering for this post has led me to some gems that have been around for a while but are new to me.) Lately I’ve been depending on the podcast The Indoor Kids for game recommendations, and they do an amazing job but their focus as been on Xbox lately. I’m looking for a website or news source that is curated enough to not be overwhelming, my usual sources – Jay Is Games, Ars Technica, Touch Arcade – are often more information than I can parse.

So, I’m curious! Where do you find yourself looking for new games? What platform do you prefer? What news source do you trust?

This is a sponsored post brought to you by the upcoming Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return 3D animated film.

I remember reading about China Country for the first time in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book and I was utterly charmed by the description of a land and people entirely made of porcelain. Rereading it just now I find that a startled china cow has it’s leg broken off! Happily the cow could be mended but, still, eeek. In the book Dorothy and her companions pass through the land of China Country and then there isn’t any more mention, but for some reason I’ve always remembered it. Happily we will see a lot more of China Country (called China County in the film) and the China Princess in the upcoming Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return film, which opens this weekend. (Quick note: sound plays when you load that website. It’s lovely music but, just in case, I wanted you to know.)

To celebrate the film I decided to make tea cakes themed around places in Oz including China County and Candy County. The icing I used here doesn’t require any heat or electric mixers to make, it’s stirred together by hand, so young children can be responsible for icing and decorating these cakes.

I wanted to keep things fairly simple and shopped for candies that could represent the various places in Oz. I found rainbow sour ribbon candy, green rock candy for the Emerald City, orange nonpareils for the field of poppies, yellow cake sprinkles for the Yellow Brick Road, chocolate cones and mushrooms that would work as forest trees, sugar roses and gold dragees for China County and gingersnaps and peppermint candies to represent Candy County.

I wanted to create small cakes but instead of buying a baking pan specifically for them (they are out there if you’d like) I used jumbo sized cupcake pans and put a smaller amount of batter in each cup making for small and charmingly domed cakes. Since my cakes are little landscapes I used chocolate cake to represent earth but any flavor of cake, or even a brownie, would work out great here. This is a good time for your favorite one-bowl chocolate cake recipe.

Cake Instructions

Spray a jumbo muffin tin with a baking spray such as Baker’s Joy. Put 3 tablespoons of cake batter in each section and bake at 300 degrees until a tester comes out clean. Allow to cool, remove from the tin and place on a wire rack set over a baking sheet.

The icing is simply confectioners sugar and milk mixed together by hand. I made white icing for the porcelain of China Country and the snow of Candy Country, and the rest of the icing is colored green to represent grass. I used clear vanilla flavoring so the white icing would stay as white as could be. The great things about this icing are that it’s as simple to make and it sets up into a beautiful shiny finish, like porcelain. The downside is that it doesn’t keep overnight very well so it’s best to make these the same day. (Or keep in a sealed container in the fridge overnight.)

The trick for the icing is to make sure it’s as thick as can be while still being a little bit flowy. Add the ingredients listed below and if it’s thick like a paste add 1/4th of a teaspoon of milk at a time until the icing feels thick when you stir it but it relaxes and becomes shiny about 10 seconds after you stop stirring. 1/4th of a teaspoon seems like a tiny little amount but you’ll be surprised at how quickly that amount will change the texture of the icing.

Icing Instructions

• 9 ounces confectioners sugar (or two cups of of confectioners sugar that you’ve fluffed up by running a whisk through it before scooping)
• 2 tablespoons milk (plus more)
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla flavoring
• green food coloring

Mix the ingredients above together in a bowl. If the icing is thick like a paste or not all the sugar will dissolve in the milk add 1/4th of a teaspoon of milk at a time just until the mixture is still matte when you stir but relaxes and becomes shiny a few seconds after you stop mixing. Either separate it and make 1/2 of the mixture green or make a second batch. One batch will cover twelve cakes.

Drop a heaping soup spoon of icing on top of each cake.

Be a little patient and let it settle and spread. Now quick! Before the top dries it’s time to decorate!

A little bit of sour rainbow ribbon candy works for our rainbow. I used a butter knife to poke into the cake and hold the rainbow in place

Simple sugar roses and gold dragées echo China County.

Green rock candy represents our Emerald City and tiny orange nonpareils for our field of poppies.

Candy County is full of gingerbread house delights, here I used half of a ginger snap and some peppermint candy.

Small chocolate cookies from a Japanese import store work as trees in the forest. These are supposed to be cones and mushrooms but clustered together I think they look like a foreboding forest.

You might think I’m looking forward to this movie because of the actors behind the voices (Kelsey Grammer! Bernadette Peters! Oliver Platt! Hugh Dancy! Patrick Stewart! Lea Michele!) but I think I’m most excited to see what the animators have done with Candy County. It’s like a gingerbread house but instead it’s an entire land, be still my gingerbread loving heart!

Have a look at the movie trailer for more peeks at the new lands:

As a kid did you read the further stories of Dorothy or the land of Oz?

The Science of Fat-Washing Cocktails | Serious Eats.

Wine Tasting Notes: When Less is More—Why Lower-Alcohol Wines Are Sometimes Just Right | The Feed. We are looking at a lot of lower-alcohol options for our drinks this summer, session IPAs I’m looking at you.

Sprinkle Bakes: Bubble Gum Frosting Cupcakes with Gelatin Bubbles. Gelatin bubbles!!

Behind the Scenes: Making Edible Blown Glass at Aureole, NYC | Serious Eats. Sugar bubbles filled with flavored cream so they shatter when you eat them. Please allow me to say: amazeballs.

Back Of The House: The Life of a Cook’s Illustrated Test Cook | Serious Eats.

NPR’s April Fool’s Day Prank Was An Absolute Masterpiece, at Filmdrunk. Very clever!

Cool Tools – Kitebuilder. A site all about building kites, with tips and plans.

A Goose That Lays Golden Eggs by Geraint Krumpe of Y Line Product Design — Kickstarter. This product scrambles eggs inside the shell without piercing the shell at all. Nicely thought out and I kindasorta want one, but I also really like an egg with a runny yolk.

Campfire Boyfriend Sweater | Mighty Girl. Need-want all of these things. We are without fire in my house and I miss it.

If you need to do some last moment Easter Egg dying these instructions will help you create simple, vibrant eggs using supplies from the grocery store.

A few years back I spent some time using good old fashioned food color to dye very saturated and vibrant eggs for my Easter Surprise Eggs project. I wasn’t quite happy with a few of the colors made back then so this week I set out to refine the process and what went from an easy and cheerful activity quickly turned into obsessive madness as my kitchen and dining room were turned into an egg dying laboratory. Timers were used, results were carefully examined and tweaked, charts were made, home production assembly lines were perfected. (A whole lot of my manic energy came from the fact that most of my week was spent with various crews of workers fixing our ceiling. I’m glad to report that the room is very nearly back to normal.)

The most fun part? I had an excuse to buy eggs in those large flats of 30. I never get to do that!

What You’ll Need

• white eggs
• white vinegar
• one box McCormick assorted colors food color (red, yellow, green, blue)
• one box McCormick assorted neon colors food color (purple, green, pink, blue)
• skewers for lowering/lifting and drying the eggs
• containers to hold the dye and eggs (we’ll be using 8 ounces of liquid)
• a few vases or styrofoam cones to hold the skewers to dry the eggs

Not Necessary But Nice To Have

• short skewers or drink stirrers for the lowering/lifting and stirring of colors
• pint sized (16 oz) wide mouth jars
• electric kettle for boiling water

How To

• put 8 ounces just boiled water
• and 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• and food coloring drops (amounts below below)
• add an egg for a 25 minute soak (unless otherwise noted)
• also agitate the eggs at least three times during the soak to knock off bubbles and prevent a bare spot where they rest

Red

20 red
2 neon pink
1 yellow

Orange

20 yellow
4 red
2 neon pink

Yellow

20 yellow
6 neon green

Green

25 neon green
3 neon blue
2 green

Blue

6 blue
2 neon blue

Purple

2 neon blue
2 neon pink
2 neon purple

Red Orange

25 yellow
6 red
2 neon pink

Yellow Orange

20 yellow
2 red

Yellow Green

20 yellow
4 neon green

Teal

6 neon blue
1 blue

Blue Violet

5 neon blue
2 neon pink
1 neon purple

Red Violet

6 neon purple
1 blue

Dark Pink

10 neon pink
2 neon purple
soak 10 minutes

Light Pink

1 neon pink
1 neon purple
soak 5 minutes

These 16 ounce jars are the perfect size. And later they will replace all of our drinking glasses because our drinking glasses were bought on sale and are not holding up well.

Note: All of the eggs shown here are eggshells that were emptied before they were dyed, meant to be turned into Easter Surprise Eggs. I don’t know if you’d get the same color results from a hard boiled egg, but I doubt you’d want to eat a hard boiled egg after it’s been introduced to this much food coloring.

Also note: The color amounts are subject to change because I’m still not quite happy with all of them and I didn’t yet have a chance to test dye everything one more time. Because if I did take the time to do that this wouldn’t get posted until Halloween.

A few things I learned

The color on the eggshell will deepen as it dries, so don’t despair if it isn’t as saturated as you’d hoped when you first pull it out of the dye.

The teal and the dark pink eggs were the consistent best and both of those colors worked perfectly almost from the very start. Reds and oranges turned out well, blues and purples were the most difficult to get right and tended to be the most blotchy or streaky.

When using emptied eggshells like these stirrers or skewers are really the best way to lift the egg, a spoon will prove a lot more tricky.

The colors will look very different under artificial lights, the neon colors will show a lot more and the reds will seem much more orange. It’s fascinating.

Agitate the eggs about three times during the process, lifting them out of the water to disrupt bubbles that might form and make the final egg speckled. (Or don’t, it’s actually a cute look, but the egg will have a bare spot where it rests on the bottom of the dye container if you don’t move it at least a bit.)

I have one more thing to add to my list of why jars are ideal.

I went from soaking the eggs for 10 minutes to 25 minutes because the eggs I accidentally left too long turned out better.

Ohmigosh. I just now noticed that there are egg dying charts on the back of the boxes of food coloring drops. What a palm-forehead moment. I don’t remember if I started with those charts way back when I did this the first time. Where those charts on the box back then? Did I not see them? Not trust them? Willfully ignore them? This year I started with my old notes and made changes from there. I see more egg dying in my future. (Somebody send help, I cannot seem to stop.)

My Easter treat for this year is a couple of giant Kinder Surprise eggs. Look at how big they are! It’s shown here with a regular sized Kinder Surprise Egg for scale and a Mini Kinder Egg which I added because I happened to find them in a local shop.

The Mini Kinder Eggs are filed with hazelnut paste and bits of hazelnut. They are delicious and I recommend you grab some if you see them.

If you’d like to see what was in my giant Kinder Surprise eggs click through for all the details. (If not I’ll be back later with a spectrum of vibrant eggs dyed using food coloring!)

The egg itself came in a clamshell plastic holder and looks just like a regular size Kinder Surprise, with the seam and everything. The chocolate was a bit shinier and snappier than normal, much like the Kinder Santas.

The capsule is huge.

Here is the capsule next to a regular sized capsule. For a Kinder Surprise enthusiast like myself this is a silly thrill.

Inside the first giant egg was an adorable memory game with characters and luggage.

The two suitcases actually open and hold the cards. The suitcases don’t snap shut though, which is a shame since I’d totally use them to store a little travel sewing kit or something.

The second giant egg held this fishing game. That blue pool is made to hold water, so the boats would be floating. I’m not sure if this is a game of speed? There weren’t any game rules included in the assembly instructions. I like the idea of lions fishing for human boats, it’s a bit sinister.

If you’re a Kinder Surprise nerd you might like to know that, yes, even the giant capsules come in different colors.

Solidoodle 4: Testing the home 3-D printer. At Slate, via The Morning News. “Consider: Once upon a time, people purchased sewing patterns (like a program from Thingiverse) and yards of fabric (like filament) and they made their own clothes. I wasn’t alive back then, but I’m pretty sure the process sucked. It took lots of time and effort and the clothes were often amateurishly constructed. … Most people would much rather just get their clothes from a store—already assembled by people employing industrial-level efficiency and a wide variety of materials.”

THREES – The Rip-offs & Making Our Original Game. Some in depth exploration and conflicted feelings on the clones. Via Waxy.

I’m sure you’ve seen the stories about artisinal toast in San Francisco and lately news has been talking about the toast trend hitting Seattle, but I remember fancy toast being here years ago. There was a cafe called Nervous Nellie’s (now closed) that offered coffee and interesting toast. There was cheese, and jam, and jam and cheese, and cheese and a red pepper relish. I tried the relish because I’d never heard of it and, quite shockingly honestly, I really liked it. A whole lot. It was savory and tangy and a nice change from the usual sweet breakfast offerings.

Nervous Nellies is closed now but I tracked down the ingredients to make the same style of toast. A bit of snooping around archived web pages and my old notes leave me believing that the ingredients I remember are Lappi cheese (a very mild cheese, havariti will work just as well), and Ajvar, a red pepper spread.

To assemble

Add butter and a sprinkling of good salt to the toast, then slices of cheese and spread the Ajvar on top. The toppings are cold and creamy and a little spicy and tangy. I don’t think everybody will like Ajvar but I highly recommend giving it a try should you come across it.

Some notes

Nervous Nellie’s listed their red pepper relish as “Lutenica” on the menu but after doing a tasting of a few relishes I’m convinced that they were using something closer to Ajvar. At an imports store I found both hot and mild Ajvar as well as Pepptizer and Lutenica. They all looked similar with the exception of a few different ingredients. Clearly there had to be a taste test.

Mild Ajvar: This is what I remember, it’s got a very mild heat. Mostly tangy and a little sweet, very fresh tasting. (Top left.)

Hot Ajvar: There is a extra zing of spiciness but no acid (no tomatoes). It’s a still a relatively gentle heat. (Top right.)

Lutenica: This one is more blended and looks more like a sauce than a relish. This is definitely not what I remember from the Nervous Nellie’s toast. It’s got more garlic and the taste of cooked tomatoes, and it doesn’t taste fresh. (Bottom left.)

Peppetizer: Too much onion and something tastes off, like stewed vegetables. Not what I’d want on toast. (Bottom right.)

If you’re in Seattle and interested in sources: I tracked down Ajvar at Big John’s Pacific Foods Imports in SODO and the Lappi cheese at Scandinavian Specialties in Ballard. This winter Trader Joe’s had a red pepper relish that I suspect is the Zergut brand with a TJs label and last time I was in the store they still had a number of jars available. (I had the opportunity to ask a TJs employee and he said it was almost certainly one of those seasonal items that they won’t be stocking again after the run is sold out.) Update: mims mentioned in the comments below that the red pepper spread carried by Trader Joe’s is actually a year round product, and sure enough it’s been there on the shelves every time I’ve checked for it. It’s stocked down near the floor and easy to overlook, look for it and give it a try!

Dominique Ansel to Debut Milk & Cookie Shots at SXSW – Eater. Milk served in a chocolate chip cookie shot glass, lovely. From the guy who brought the cronut to the world.

How To Make Amazing Cold Brew Coffee – Business Insider. Via a post about how to have coffee in a coffee-less office over at Ask Metafilter.

Hungry Cravings: Adventures in Extruded Pasta.

Have You Ever Tried an Opal Apple? | Serious Eats.

Carbonated Celery Gimlet – Recipe – ChefSteps. (Video.) From The GastroGnome’s Best of 2013.

A Beginner’s Guide to Italian Wine | Serious Eats.

Just 1 Bottle: 15 Cocktails to Make With Gin and a Trip to the Grocery Store | Serious Eats.

Best beer bars in Seattle – Thrillist Seattle. Naomi nailed this list.

Rise and shine: Kouign aman achieves pastry perfection | OregonLive.com. Two recipes and tips on making the best possible.

Gin and Tonic with Cucumber Bursting Boba | Gratuitous Foodity. A recreation of The Aviary’s gin and tonic with encapsulated cucumber juice and a good explanation on how to make popping boba of any flavor. Via this question on Ask Metafilter about making alcoholic boba drinks.

Spring is technically here but we still have some cold nights ahead before things warm up so I’m going to tell you about one of my very favorite things in our house: the heated rug. Our living room has this cotton chenille shag rug for a few reasons: it wasn’t terribly expensive, it’s easy to clean (I’ve only spilled wine on it twice but both times the splatter was spectacular and far reaching) and it’s very comfortable to sprawl out on with laptops or game controllers. And most importantly it nicely covers a rug heater, which is glorious on cold nights.

When we were looking for houses to buy our realtor seemed to have heated flooring on the brain because she suggested putting in heated floors in every other place we toured. When we moved in I looked into installing heated floors and, whoa, it’s expensive. So I did the next best thing and got an under rug heater. There are a few options out there and we went with the SpeedHeat Rugbuddy which we got from Amazon (affiliate link). It has made the last three winters much more cozy. We have an open plan area around the living room so I can’t tell if it heats the room up but I can say that after a while I’m warm enough to take off a sweater, especially if we’re camped out binge watching something or if we’re sitting on the floor playing a video game. I love it and have found myself recommending rug heaters to a lot of people this year.

Some details: We have the 3’x5′ and it’s large enough for the area in front of a couch but I do wish we’d gone for a larger version. The mat will shift around under the rug as you scoot an ottoman or coffee table back and forth so do use rug tape the way the instructions recommend. I put a heatproof fabric between the heater and the room’s carpet (not needed, but I’m paranoid), I use the fabric that is sold to insulate ironing boards which I found at a local fabric store. The rug heater plugs into the wall (our cord is hidden under the couch) and has an on/off button. I cannot say with any certainty that it’s saved on heating bills, but I can say that we are much less likely to turn up the heat in the house if the area around the couch is warm. They come in in several sizes (up to 8’x11′!) and I’m considering getting this 3’x2′ mat for under my desk.

I’m really, really glad we bought this. It’s seems silly but it makes me very happy.

The Exploratorium’s Tinkering Studio and new book! – Boing Boing. I loved the Exploratorium when we lived in San Francisco and am looking forward to seeing it’s new space next time I go back. Which will be any day now. Promise.

2 Lanes, 1 Life: The America Far From the Freeway – Pacific Standard. Her description of driving through the Palouse makes me want to take another Washington road trip.

What’s the best credit card for saving for a trip to France? | Ask MetaFilter. The advice given here applies to travel in general and there are lots of great suggestions for which cards are worth signing up for.

the UGC: Austin, Keeping it Gluten-Free. A tour of all the gf spots in Austin which makes me want to go there very very soon.

Portland Streets That Inspired the Names of Simpsons’ Characters | The Everywhereist. I had no idea!

I love brown rice but I’m too impatient to make it for dinner so I borrowed an idea from Trader Joe’s and cook it in advance and keep it in the freezer so it’s just a microwave away from being ready to eat. It’s also great to have around for a fast breakfast of an over easy egg on rice, which I default to a lot when I’m feeling lazy.

I’m terrible at cooking rice in a pot (burned rice, melted pots, other tragic results) so instead I bake it using instructions from Alton Brown and Good Eats and no pots have been ruined since.

To make: Put 1.5 cups brown rice and a teaspoon of salt in an 8×8 baking dish. Pour 2.5 cups boiling water over the top, stir and cover tightly with tin foil. Bake in a 375 degree oven for one hour. Allow to cool, divide into portions and freeze.

I do two or three batches at the same time and I’ve used larger baking dishes and even pie plates with good results, no need to have multiple 8×8 baking dishes hanging around. If you’re a rice texture snob this cooking method probably won’t make you happy, but hey, convenience.

I’ve mentioned before that I have a knack for finding four-leaf clovers but I didn’t talk about how that skill was a huge part of my identity growing up. It was. Any time when I was a kid bored at a community picnic in a park? Instant treasure hunt. When I went to summer camp and my cabin was sent on a scavenger hunt that included a four-leaf clover? I had that covered. I was the Irish girl with an Irish name who could find four-leaf clovers. My fixation even got me a boyfriend in college. (He wrote a poem about it! It was true love except for the fact that it really, really wasn’t.)

Before Go Mighty and the Life List I never really considered what things I wanted to do before I died except for this: as a kid I decided that one day I wanted to find a four-leaf clover in Ireland. And last November I did!

Last year Scott and I took a work/travel trip to the UK and Ireland. We only spent six days total in Ireland and on the second to last day I, ecstatically, found my four-leaf clover. It turns out that the urban parks, national monuments and historical locations in Ireland are very well tended — which means that patches of weeds (like clover) are not allowed to take over. So I felt that much more lucky to spy a four-leaf clover outside the Kilmalkeder Christian Site in Kerry, Ireland. According to the Rick Steves guide book it was a Norman center of worship that became a 12th-century church where the old graveyard is rising spookily above the soil line while on the other side there are new gravestones being inscribed. We visited as the sun was setting on our second to last day in Ireland and I was beginning to fear I’d be leaving cloverless.

I found a few four-leaf clovers in that precious patch and have them pressed inside a book. They aren’t the prettiest of clovers but they are my favorite because every time I see them middle school aged me is giddy.

Hot Male Cellists’ ‘Thunderstruck’ Cover Will Blow You Away (VIDEO) | The Stir. I had never heard of these two who do covers of modern songs. For this one in particular they really get into it near the middle of the video.

So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery… | Serious Eats. From my summer spent with Spinnaker Bay Brewing I can tell you everything he says here is spot on.

defective yeti — Board Games via Skype.

Lammily, a doll based on the average size of actual human girls. From what started as an idea to find out what the Barbie doll might look like if it were scaled to an average human comes this doll ready to be produced. The arms and legs articulate so she can were flats or heels, play sports and sit. It’s already 400% funded with 23 days to go. I might buy one for my office to remind myself that people are good.

Tagalongs vs. Peanut Butter Patties: The Great Girl Scout Cookie Regional Naming Rift | The Hairpin. See also: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Girl Scout Cookies at Baking Bites. “One of the two bakeries, ABC Bakers, produces four completely vegan cookie varieties: Lemonades, Thanks-A-Lot, Thin Mints and Peanut Butter Patties. These same cookie varieties are not vegan when they come from Little Brownie Bakers.”

How-To: DIY Paper Turkey Surprise | MAKE. This is absolutely adorable.

9 Scent-sational DIY Perfumes and Body Sprays | Brit + Co. Terrific roundup to DIYs and good smelling things.

Are Grommets the New Studs? We Tried It | Brit + Co..

Bombs Away! 10 DIY Bath Bombs | Brit + Co..

Birthday in a Can at Oh Happy Day. This is such a great idea, I think I’ll be making a few of these this year.

The Cheapest & Best Online Sources for DIY Project & Craft Supplies | Apartment Therapy.

I recently received a KitchenAid pasta roller attachment as a gift. I asked for just the single pasta roller, none of the other cutter attachments, because my kitchen is tiny and I’m happy enough to cut my own noodles into wide strips. And if it comes down to something as thin as linguine I’m far more likely to used a boxed pasta anyhow.

It is so much fun to make pasta but with all the flour being scattered about it’s worth making a whole lot of noodles at the same time. A little research tells me that freezing fresh pasta will preserve the flavor better than drying it and the best way to freeze it is in bundles or nests.

Technique: Toss your just-made pasta with extra flour so it won’t stick together. Let it dry for a few minutes then fold and twist into bundles. Freeze those on a parchment lined baking sheet, then transfer to an airtight container. When you are ready to cook simply drop one bundle into boiling water, the noodles should separate from each other easily. Also, voilà, fresh homemade pasta appears before you like magic!

Before I did nests I decided that individual pasta strands rolled up, frozen and stacked together would be charming. And they were, but obviously they stuck together like mad in the boiling water. Oops.

Little Inferno

In this game you burn things. Toys and bricks and food and batteries and planets. For everything you burn you build up credit to buy more things to burn, which you order from catalogs. There is a plot that unfolds as you progress in the form of notes from your neighbor and updates from the weatherman as you cower indoors. This game is a criticism on video games and it skewers the way that modern games get you to obsessively play against odds and (spoiler alert) ultimately chides you for wasting your time playing this game. That said, I enjoyed every moment. The fire sound effects are soothing, each thing you burn has a different aspect or reaction (some scream, some explode) and it remains amusing throughout. The graphics are all lovingly created fun to toss around. You get a bonus when you burn things together from a pun-tastic list you can check off when you guess what “Duck Season” or “Nuclear Shave” means, which adds an extra completionist layer and will have you looking back through old objects to find a match.

This game manages to be simple fun while having you looking extra hard to find a deeper story, and you won’t be disappointed. The humor and a few subjects inside are not for young children. $4.99 in the App Store, see more at the Tomorrow Corporation website. Also for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Year Walk

This is a mysterious and emotionally dark exploration game based on Swedish folk tales. It starts without any guidance on how to play or where you are or what you are doing, all things you’ll uncover as you progress. It’s graphics and spooky atmosphere had me continue to poke around instead of giving up in frustration. The first time I played it I was on a plane and the guy next to me made a point to ask what I was playing, it really is that pretty.

One of the first objects you encounter doesn’t end up being used in the completion of the game but it does tie into the Companion game ,which is easy to simply not know about. The companion game is short but adds some explanation and depth to the original story and it, apparently, wasn’t released for a good long time after the main game which was a very interesting move.

This game deals with murder and ghost horses and dead babies and is really, really not for the young. $3.99 in the App Store, Year Walk Companion is free. Year Walk will also be available on Steam soon, see the Year Walk website.

Tengami

This is a recent addition to the app store but I’d had a preview of it last year at the Seattle Indies Expo. The graphic in this game are all inspired by origami and in the game you actually unfold objects to go deeper, it’s a fresh and intuative and frankly gorgeous form of gameplay. That said the unhappy reviews of this game focus on the fact that it’s short, which is true (but it’s worth the price) and slow, also true but the only aspect I had a problem with. Your character moves from location to location at a fairly slow pace and the first time you run through a new land it’s great to have a chance to look around and admire the origami landscape. When you backtrack to solve a try something it takes a little patience, when you have to go back for the eighth time to move something into another position in the midst of solving a puzzle you get downright impatient. A form of double-click-to-run option would solve all this and in the end it’s a trivial complaint in the midst of a deeply beautiful game. Available in the App Store now, $4.99, pre-order for OS X and Windows is on now. See more at the Nyamyam site.

Inner World

This is a new adventure game in the old school point and click style. Everything is hand drawn in a charming cartoon style and it’s set in a completely different world which is underground and dying out and guess what? That’s right! Your character is unwittingly set on the path to save it. I’ve loved this style of game since King’s Quest 1 and a thoroughly enjoyed this game, the gather-and-combine puzzles aren’t too obvious and aren’t too incomprehensible, the conversations with characters are funny (and skippable if you find yourself asking the same question), the world is quirky and unexpected. It’s a bit of a slower pace than (affect a “kids these days” tone of voice here) games these days but I loved it and played it in short bits as a sort of bedtime story for myself. There isn’t much objectionable in this game (it’s Despicable Me type grown up inside joke humor) but it probably won’t interest younger kids. $0.99 in the App store. Also available, DRM-free, for Windows and Mac on the Studio Fizbin website, it comes in German and English.

Scott and I have schedules that mean during the workweek we only cook dinner together about two times a week. This makes it impractical to keep a lot of fresh food in our fridge (cleaning it out got depressing, so many unidentifiable items) so we tend to pick something up to cook earlier in the same day. To make it even easier I’ve been figuring out what half-prepared foods to keep in the freezer. For whatever reason if I made something complete (say lasagna) and freeze it we never seem to actually eat it, we prefer to make something we are craving so having components that will cut down on dirty dishes and chopping time have been making a big difference. It nearly makes me feel like I’m qualified to be an adult.

I’ve mentioned a few things I keep in the freezer before — kale, bacon layered so it’s easy to just grab a few slices, bolognese sauce — and the latest staple I’ve added is caramelized onions. I use the recipe from Tea and Cookies which mostly calls for “time, patience, and faith” which isn’t an exaggeration. The first time I caramelized onions I had to restrain myself from them off the stove too early. They need to be nice and dark:

Image by Tara Austen Weaver, Tea and Cookies.

Basic technique: two sliced onions in a 10-inch pan, 1/4 cup olive oil, medium high heat, stirring every five minutes and patience. It will take about 30 minutes. For a more detailed description go read the entry at Tea and Cookies and follow her tip about slicing bits a little thicker than others. I let these cool, put them in ziplock bags pressed flat and freeze them. Then I break off a tablespoon or so as I need it.

So far we’ve mostly been using them in egg dishes. For the omlette pictured above I used mushrooms, spinach and goat cheese left over from a salad with some of the caramelized onions to create a way more delicious breakfast than I usually have. Tara describes caramelized onions as the bacon of the vegetarian world, they are smoky and salty and add a hit of flavor whatever you add it to. And people, yum. Also, having them on hand will make you feel like a genius.

Device 6
I’m going to admit I have not finished this yet. I tend to play iPhone games in public situations (on the bus, waiting in line) and this one will require that you either have a keen memory or the ability to take down some visible notes (codes) to enter later on. That said, it’s worth playing with your headphones on as this mostly-text game uses audible as as well as visual cues tell a story, and the game requires you to rotate and tilt the screen to advance. This game is stylish and fun. It’s won a bunch of Best of 2013 awards and I agree. Awesomeness. $3.99 in the app store.

Blackbar
This is a fun combination of fill-in-the-word and future fiction. You are a viewer into a series of digital conversations between an all-seeing dictatorship, a rebel group and a friend caught in the middle. Your only clues are the context of the story you’re reading. It can be frustrating if you just cannot get one of the words and you are prevented from advancing. That said, if you just don’t know the answer it’s easy (too easy?) to Google and find a spoiler in return. This is one of those instances where if you love the story it’s worth engaging a friend to Google the answers and give you more gentle clues. $2.99 in the app store.

PKPKT
This is a simple game that uses Bluetooth to detect other players nearby and whoever reacts first can pick the others virtual pocket. It’s amazingly fun to get a notification of somebody nearby while you’re riding a bus or arriving at a party. But, there aren’t nearly enough players yet which is why I need you all to play. It’s got the potential to be epically fun. Free.

Home Sheep Home 2
I heart everything that Aardman Studios does so I’m a wee bit embarrassed that it took me so long to play their Home Sheep Home 2 puzzle platformer involving Shaun the Sheep and his usual suspects. In each screen you’ve got to solve some puzzles to get three sheep to the exit. Each sheep has a different ability, one jumps high, one pushes heavy things, one fits through small spaces, and you’ll need all three to solve each level. The soundtrack, humor, personalities of the sheep and the crisp sound effects make a very charming game that is balanced with just enough difficulty. As you progress there are new elements presented (gravity!) and as you play there are collectibles for us completionists. That said, if you tend to play casual games in a web browser some of the levels are available online: Underground, Lost In London, as well as the original Home Sheep Home. $.99 in the app store. (Home Sheep Home 1 is also available for $.99 but know that it’s a much shorter game.)

Snail Bob
This is similar to Shaun the Sheep, you have to get the snail to the exit on each screen. You click to move things out of the way, manipulate gravity and the like and in each level there are three stars hiding. It’s not as stylized as Home Sheep Home but it makes my problem solving pleasure centers happy. You can play a bunch of Snail Bob games online for free and if you’d like to try it out Snail Bob 5, A Love Story is a good representation of what is in the iPhone game. $.99 in the app store.

Just a quick note to say that I’ve reposted my Felt Dahlia Flower Brooch tutorial here on Not Martha. It was originally posted over at a website called Holidash that shut down earlier this year and the project page disappeared with it. I pulled together the original tutorial as well as a bunch of additional notes all in one spot: Felt Dahlia Flower Brooch.

Orangette: A good person to know. A good steel cut oatmeal recipe, and she reports that it reheats well.

Check It Out: Ernest Hemingway’s Personal Burger Recipe | Man Made DIY.

How to: Make Edible Spoons – The Perfect Holiday Treat! | Man Made DIY.

Gin Gin Cocktail, at The Ginger People website. I’m a wee bit obsessed with their Ginger Juice and all the things it can do (ginger/lemon/bourbon toddy has been a regular this winter).

11 Healthy Kale Recipes – Health.com. I would eat every one of these, who wants to do the dishes for me? Via Swiss Miss.

Chemistry of Cast Iron Seasoning: A Science-Based How-To, and the follow up “Black Rust” and Cast Iron Seasoning. This is fantastic, the how and why and what for seasoning cast iron. Via Kottke.

Valentine’s Day Treat: Cupid’s Creme Brulee // Hostess with the Mostess®. She makes caramelized hearts inside a silicone mold, what a great use for it.

Perfect Soft Boiled Egg | Eat the Love. My only regret from getting to visit America’s Test Kitchen is not forcing them to answer their best technique for soft boiled eggs. Mine is still the Egg-Perfect Timer.

Tom’s Supermarket Picks: quality oils at good prices | Truth in Olive Oil. Great information when you want a good olive oil but are only headed to your local grocery store. The notes on inequality among lines at places like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are interesting. Via Kottke.

5 More Great Cocktail Blogs You Should Read | Serious Eats.

Sprizee :: A simple girl replete with complications: Roasted Vegetable Lemon Tahini Salad. This looks delicious and it’s so simple.

Printable pop culture valentines over at Mighty Girl. See also: her roundup of nerdy valentines.

Valentine’s Day cocktails at Serious Eats. I’m also looking at their bitter anti-Valentines cocktails.

A simple paper heart garland that can be whipped up with office supplies, at Just Bella.

Last minute Valentine’s Day party at Oh Happy Day, a few simple things you can probably grab at Target to make staying in a celebration.

Bake a heart (or a broken heart) into a cupcake from Bake It In A Cake. (I’m still in love with all her ideas.)

I’m not a huge fan of cut flowers (because I’m thinking ahead to when I inevitably leave them too long and end up with dead flowers and a moldy vase) but my favorite Valentine’s gift remains this String Of Pearls plant (even though we’re on version #3) which Scott admits he bought me on the way home from work.

I hope you have a romantic Valentine’s Day, unless you’re dreading Valentine’s Day in which case I hope you have a really amazing Friday.

Update, Oct. 2015: Merrell’s new version of this boot is the Merrell Women’s Captiva Buckle-Up Waterproof Boot and I rather like the seam that runs down the center front. It comes in black, dark brown and copper. I can report that my version of these boots is still as comfortable and as waterproof as when they were new.

These Captiva Strap boots from Merrell are waterproof and as comfortable as slippers. No really, the footbed is made of something slightly squishy so they feel really lovely. They are knee high, zip all the way up and the calf was more generously sized than a few other boots I compared it to. The soles are grippy rubber and there is plenty of support for my fussy feet. The shape of the toe box means there is lots of room for movement.

I brought these with me on a month long trip to England, Scotland and Ireland in November and I tempted fate by getting them at the last minute and not having a chance to break them in before we left. Yeah, a potentially stupid move on my part. But they were amazing, I didn’t get blisters or achey feet and I was warm and dry even after a few walks through very damp fields. The heel support did hit me a little higher than I would have liked and I was afraid they would rub but I was fine.

Here is the thing though, I wish they looked a little nicer. They are undeniably comfort boots, they will work with a cute outfit but these aren’t boots that can be dressed up. (Not that my own opinion on this point has stopped me from trying.) Still, there a few touches that bug me. There is a faux strap wrap around the ankle with a decorative buckle which I like but halfway up there is a rivet and a few inches over that there is a metal tag that says, very small, “waterproof”. Why thanks, but I don’t think I need to be reminded of that every time I put them on. There is an elastic panel at the top but it’s on the outsides of the boot, I’m sure it’s located just there for a reason but not knowing what that reason is I wonder if they couldn’t have tucked it away on the inside to hide it away a bit. There is a small logo embossed as well, just below the ankle. All these little things add up to make the boot look a little less tidy than it could.

All of that said, the other day I was waiting in line at an airport and I was admiring the pair of boots worn by a woman walking by. Turns out she was wearing these very same boots. Which I had on my feet at the time. So, maybe I’m being a little nitpicky about how I perceive that they appear.

Overall they get incredibly high marks for comfort and utility (like, Pry Them From My Cold Dead Feet high marks, or maybe just Get Another Pair In Brown high marks). They will work nicely for tromping around in muddy fields, looking cute with dresses and warm leggings as well as walking for many more hours than you anticipated in an unfamiliar city in an attempt to find that specialty beer shop you read about.

The Merrell Captiva Strap boots are available at Zappos and Amazon (affiliate link) in black and brown. I hover between a size 7 and 7.5 in shoes and I bought a size 7.5 in these, though the fit across the top of the foot has stretched and I occasionally wonder if the size 7 would have worked out as well.

(One quick note: I usually look for shoes over at Zappos and use the “You May Also Like” suggestions to browse out further, which can take a while and lead to scores of open tabs. Just now over at Amazon I typed Merrell Captiva into the search and it showed me 25 results for boots of various brands, many of them had been contenders in my search last Autumn. If I’d know Amazon was so good at laying down focused options like that it would have saved me a bunch of time. This is something I’ll have to remember and test out next time I’m looking for shoes.)