Bake the Book: Raspberry Doughnuts with Vanilla Dipping Sauce | Serious Eats: Sweets. “It took her dozens of attempts to develop a method that, according to her, works every time.” This is something I’ll be learning very soon.

Lately I crave very tasty vegetable and grain salads from very pricey cafes. Can any cookbooks or blogs teach me to cook something similar? | Ask MetaFilter. I love the number of times 101 Cookbooks and Orangette are recommended here.

Spicy Black Bean Dip Recipe | Savory Sweet Life – Easy Recipes from an Everyday Home Cook.

How to Decipher the Beer List at Your Local Craft Beer Bar | Serious Eats: Drinks.

App Release: Unique Eats of the Northwest | The GastroGnome. The person who created this app just happens to be a friends of mine so I can say that this lady knows her restaurants. It covers Oregon, Washington and British Columbia and is perfect for food loving road trippers.

Last year when I was attending Camp Mighty I won a grant from Go Mighty and Bing for one item on my Life List. They chose my goal of “throwing a dinner party for eight people”. I was excited to win but there was a problem. It was actually a big record scratch moment. You see, the dinner party on my list was more of an aspirational thing. My house isn’t large enough to hold that many people in the same room. My goal was really something more like: “move to a larger house and then hold a big dinner party for all the people I love”. Obviously Go Mighty wasn’t going to be giving me a bigger house, so I had to improvise.

I was making plans in the depths of winter here in the Pacific Northwest where it’s drizzly and cold for weeks on end so an outdoor party wasn’t an option. (Though I wish it had been, I really admire the outdoor dinner parties that Jordan Ferney throws.)

I rented the back room of a restaurant, Via Tribunali, here in Seattle. I was familiar with that room since I’d attended a party there before. I was all nervous about renting it, it seemed like a big deal to me. But the restaurant was responsive and even asked if there was anything they could do to make the occasion more special. Which in fact there was! More on this later.

Next was the guest list. I was sitting down with a friend talking this over when we ran into somebody we both know from different places so I took it as an auspicious sign and grew the guest list out from there. I gathered people I know who know somebody else at the party but for a different reason. (I was trying to overlap some circles and in the end it appeared to work out really well.) I checked some dates and chose the one everybody was free, which was April 1st.

So I had a location, a guest list and a date. But how to make this something more than just meeting at a restaurant? I needed a theme. Since it was going to be April Fool’s Day I took a distant memory of Miracle Fruit parties which were happening here in Seattle about five years ago. Miracle fruit, in case you’re not already acquainted with it, makes your tongue perceive sour flavors as sweet for a short period of time. It’s a kind of trick and it involves food. Perfect for April Fool’s Day. And it turned out that nobody else at the party had tried it before so it was a new experience for all of us. I decided dessert would be a spread of various sour foods to sample. (I ordered the mberry tablets right from Amazon, they came with a list of foods they suggest you try which was really helpful.)

I took some advice that Maggie Mason gave way back and put some time into the invitations. (I was a delighted recipient of the ones shown here and it was very memorable.) Good invitations set a tone, get people excited and make everybody feel especially welcome. At least I hoped.

When I was a kid I remember getting Transformers toys packaged in a box that had a squiggly red square on the side. Inside the box was a piece of transparent red gel paper that you held over the squiggles to reveal a code. It was nearly more exciting than the toy itself. I mean, it revealed a secret code. It was awesome. I decided to use this as part of the invitation.

I’m not the only one that feels this way and I found on the Martha Stewart website a printable squiggly line overlay for you to use, along with instructions, here. I was too late to order the red premade cellophane decoders so I had to create my own. I used a red gel meant for lighting which I found at a party supply store. I found some premade cardstock labels, cut windows out of the center and sandwiched my red decoder gel in the middle. Simple. After that all I had to do was find a font I liked. The only word that needed to be revealed was “sweet”, because I didn’t want to make the invite too mysterious. Everybody liked the invitations, and everybody was thrilled to get a piece of real mail. This made me awfully happy. (A similar idea that I’m also smitten with is shown here, instructions are half way down that page. By the way, the decoder I made works when you view the image on that site. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Secret decoder website messages!)

Meanwhile the restaurant asked if there was anything they could do to make the dinner party extra special, and mentioned creating a custom cocktail in particular. I explained about the miracle berries, made sure it would be ok for me to bring a variety of sour foods that we’d sample during the dessert portion of the evening and asked if they would make an extra sour cocktail for us. And they made us three. One was a take on the Jasmine and involved fresh lemon juice and Aperol, one was lime juice and tequila based, and the last was the restaurant’s own coffee cocktail. I was incredibly pleased that they put so much thought into making our evening special. Thanks!

The evening of the dinner party arrived quickly and I didn’t have time to stress over it nearly as much as I thought I would. The room was dark in a delightful way, but it was horrible for photographs so please forgive my lack of them.

We chatted over dinner and ordered a huge bottle of wine, which was great fun to pass around, I’m afraid I completely failed to capture the scale in the picture above. Jameson picked out the wine, if at all possible I recommend you have a wine writer at your dinner party. He was awesome and gave me this tidbit about the wine:

Nothing says “dinner party” like a large bottle of wine on the table. Why settle for a puny, standard 750ml bottle when you can impress your guests with a big 1.5L bottle? And the 2009 Vietti Perbacco was a pizza-pleasing Italian gem. Hailing from Northern Italy’s Piedmont region, it’s made from the Nebbiolo grape. This is the same grape that makes the area’s most famous wine: Barolo. And the Perbacco is pretty much a Barolo in everything but name. But while Barolos need to spend a bit of time in the cellar before they can strut their stuff, the Perbacco has more of a “drink now” style that’s perfect for a dinner party with friends and lots of pizza.

Bonus: In the local dialect of Piedmont, “Perbacco” roughly translates to “Oh my God!” Luca Currado of Vietti explained that what his mother said the first time she tried this wine. (Thanks to Carrie at Dalla Terra for this bit of information.) We had a similar reaction at our table: “Oh my God, this wine is fantastic with pizza!”

After dinner was cleared we started in on the Miracle Berry experience. I had bought the tablets, which you allow to dissolve in your mouth for a few minutes. Then we sampled lemon and lime slices, vinegar potato chips, tiny lime tarts, cornichons and balsamic vinegar. All while the restaurant brought us three courses of the sour cocktails. Consensus was that lime slices were amazing, the vinegary things were interesting but not pleasant, the drinks were great. But it was the lime slices everybody went back for.

This is what I learned: Friends are amazing and want to celebrate with you, and if you don’t have room to fit them inside your house they won’t mind a bit. An invitation sent through the mail will make everybody feel welcome and excited. I’m not going to hesitate for a second to hold another party, renting space in a restaurant is far less expensive than a new mortgage and is entirely worth it.

It was a really fun evening and it made me eager to be able to hold more gatherings in the future. Thank you Go Mighty and thank you Bing for helping me to find that entertaining a large group outside of one’s home isn’t complicated or scary. I also want to offer a huge thanks to my guests, a girl couldn’t ask for better friends. Here are what they are up to: Kyle is the man behind the nerd rock band Kirby Krackle and the future (soon!) Charging Hippo Brewing. Maggi and Jeff are currently selling their very excellent house. Jameson has a wine blog and podcast called Wine Without Worry. Lucia works hard at our local PBS station (and is our in on when Downton Abbey is coming back) and wants you to know you can now get PBS on your Roku. And Scott is my husband and haver of many projects including the band Kin to Stars, now with drums, who are getting ready for a show at Folk Life this summer.

Disclosure bits: The Life List grant gifted by Bing covered the cost of the meal. I was not paid to put up this post. All opinions are my own. Pinky swear.

TIGSource » Preview: Hiversaires. A very pretty looking game that I’m looking forward to, for iOS.

What I’m Using Instead of Google Reader | Slog. He lands on a paid option called NewsBlur, I’ll have to check this out.

Podcast recommendations | Ask MetaFilter. Lots of great long, conversational podcast recommendations here.

swissmiss | iFontMaker. “iFontMaker is an iPad font editor allowing you to create typefaces with the iPad touch interface in a matter of minutes.” Neato.

15 DIY Gadgets You Can Make with Raspberry Pi | Brit + Co..

Lucy Knisley is a comic book artist who writes about her food, travel and her life. I’ve been a fan for a number of years so I was extra excited for her newest book, Relish to come out. (And I was excited to meet her when she came to Seattle on her book tour which is now, sadly, over.)

Relish is a memoir of how food has shaped her life as she was growing up and she tells funny and touching stories, ending each chapter with an illustrated recipe. I love this and now find myself wishing I could get illustrated versions of all recipes. I especially like the way she laid out the Huevos Rancheros, shown above. I made her Spaghetti Carbonara and it was the best I’ve ever tasted.

She’s got a bunch of other books as well as a collection of what anthologies she’s done work for. I really must check out her book French Milk, and I have been meaning to get myself her Cheeses Is Love poster for a while now. Relish, by the way, is the perfect thing to have to read on that electronics-less period of time during airplane take off and landing. I have to admit even when I could pull out my iPhone I kept reading the book. I’m looking forward to seeing what she is up to next.

How to: Make an Easy and Secure iPad Wall Mount | Man Made DIY.

The Kitchen has a New Floor! | Manhattan Nest. Have an ugly floor but rent? Daniel but down rubber flooring cut to size and it looks great. Earlier done over at My Little Apartment. Both of these are giving me ideas for my bathroom floor that is horribly beige but I’m keeping in place because we might sell the house soon. Or not. We haven’t decided.

Surface Skins at Blik. Adhesive, durable skins for tabletops and furniture. I love and hope they make lots more designs. I wonder how my dining room table would look with the faux cow hide?

Plumbing Pipe Rack Tutorial – The Crafts Dept.

We got back from the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo yesterday and I’m all jittery with leftover excitement. I’d gone primarily to see Kirby Krackle (for those just tuning in my husband Scott plays bass in the band) when they opened for Weird Al. Look, I tried to play it cool but this was a big, exciting, “if only I could tell my 15-year-old self” type deal. And it was indeed amazing and fun and I’m so grateful I got to be there for it.

After we arrived in Calgary I was given I Guest Pass to the expo and a Backstage Pass to the concert, neither of which I was expecting. I resisted my urge to jump around and squeal.

The band got a peek at the arena the day before when things were still be setting up. Three thousand some seats. No pressure.

The afternoon of the show was load in, including piles of rented equipment. The behind the scenes halls of convention centers are very sexy, as you can see.

The theater was more dramatically lit than the day before.

Weird Al’s equipment had already been set up and I fell in love with this drum. Hello cutie.

First Weird Al’s band did a quick monitor level check, along with dramatic lighting. Either they have a band member that does a really great Weird Al singing imitation or they have a Weird Al voice modulator (for harmonies?) but at some point a Weird Al sounding voice (not a recording) was tested and I wanna know how they did it.

Next came Kirby Krackle’s sound check, still with some dramatic lighting. They had smoke machines running before we arrived and I tried to get video of how cool it looked being pumped into such a huge room while they ran through various lighting cues but I completely failed.

During sound check they went through and set the sound level for each band member’s instrument and microphone. During Scott’s turn Weird Al came over to greet the band. (You can see his elbow in the photo above, just behind Scott’s knee. I promise!) So Scott didn’t get to say hello, which was a bummer. I was on the wrong side of the stage to grab a good photo of the moment. But we hear from close and trusted sources that he was a nice guy.

My husband wielding his huge instrument. Hey there.

We did a panorama of the theater with Kyle and Scott appearing at both ends. It’s possibly funnier when you’re scrolling the picture on the iPhone.

The band’s green room was really posh. Ok, not really. It was the locker room for a hockey team. The away team. It smelled like the inside of rental hockey skates and was all cement and wooden benches. It was awesome, actually, because the band ran through an acoustic version of Grandma’s House and really made the echo-y surfaces work.

I make fun but I should also say that the expo took really great care. There was nothing that wasn’t provided backstage (including private space) and everybody was professional and great at their jobs and happy. Calgary you’re great.

I attempted to keep a low profile while blatantly abusing my backstage privileges. Behind the stage was a curtained off area that contained piles of costume changes and from the right angle you could spy Weird Al’s jacket for Eat It! I wonder how many versions of this have been made over the years? Or is this the same one? Is it real leather? Pleather? I was too timid to run up the ramp and touch it. Also, I’m very certain that I would have been stopped and then kicked out. Maybe.

This was innocently sitting stage right. I walked past it a dozen times before I realized that oh my god this is Weird Al Yankovic’s accordion!!! I wish there was some haze-and-halo filter I could have put on this photo. I didn’t touch the accordion. I should have. Just to say I did. Also because nobody was looking and I totally could have gotten away with it. (“I touched Weird Al’s accordion” sounds misleading though, no? Funny, yes.)

Kirby Krackle took the stage to a swell of cheering. Which was amazing and made me smile. I have shaky video of the moment that contains a loud off camera “thank you” (from a volunteer photographer that I’d just helped sorta kinda sneak into a semi-backstage photo vantage point) and a whispered “you’re welcome” as the camera wobbles. I regret nothing but maybe it’s time to invest in a good video recorder and some big headphones?

(Photo taken while sitting slightly backstage, the screens were projected from behind so I could see a clear but mirrored image.)

On either side of the stage were big screens that showed the live footage as it aired by flipon.tv. You can (for free!) view the entire Kirby Krackle performance. I am listening to the show while I type this. It sounded better in person, but then again it’s hard to capture the awesome. Right around 17:35 I believe you can catch a glimpse of Kyle’s younger brother sneaking onto stage to capture iPhone video from behind the drums.

At a few points Kyle (the bright blur in the middle of the photo) jumped down off stage to run through the seats. The first time he did it he nearly gave me a fit because I thought he was going to jump all the way down. Happily he knew better than I and used a row of big speakers as a giant step. I heard later that Kyle had been caught examining his route down during sound check and had been given a stern “no” by a stage manager. Rule breaker!

The lighting and sound guys were quick. During Ring Capacity they threw up green lights.

Shortly after I took this photo the band ended their set and as I was turning back a guy (who had no idea I was connected to the band) bounded past and said to me “that was great!” Indeed it was, mystery man.

Rock.

We watched most of the Weird Al concert from the arena seats that were behind the big screens. We’d situated ourselves in the shadows far back from the stage and early on a manager came over and indicated that we all needed to move closer to the stage. Turns out during Weird Al’s show all of the band members have a costume change for each song (the time is covered by Al TV clips, which are hilarious). From where we were sitting we possibly could have seen rushed clothing changes. They were a very good looking band but, yeah, I would have made sure we all moved too.

I live in Seattle so I had to include this picture of the wig that Weird Al wears during Smells Like Nirvana, his drummer was wears a wig of amazing dreadlocks. I’d seen the girls with pom-poms who are onstage during this song practicing backstage, they had a room with a window and as I passed by I thought one was waving frantically so I glanced over. It was awkward. I hope they don’t think I was peeking. Oops. In any case, Scott and I later saw them doing a full cheerleaders-with-pom-poms rehearsal in the hallway. I think they were dancers hired just for that show and if so they learned the routine the few hours before they went on. Bravo gals!

Rock stars.

Awesome poster by Jeremy Haun.

Later this week I’m headed off to the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. I’m look forward to the con but mostly I’m looking forward to getting to see Kirby Krackle play a huge theater when they open for Weird Al Yankovic. I’m so excited for them!

While I’m in Calgary I’m hoping to see some theater during lunch, eat good steak, shop for cowboy boots and look at some shops from the Design*Sponge guide to Calgary. I’m also going to investigate reports that Canada has the extra large tissues and if so I’ll have a lot of boxes of something to report to customs.

People of Calgary! Is there anything I should make sure not to miss/eat/buy while I’m there?

Great thing #1: There is no bookmarklet to install. Bing has the Pin It button right there on the image search result page. Easy as can be.

Great thing #2: For image searches Bing includes a set of filtering tabs at the top. I can look up Dalek dresses (I’m headed to a comicon next week so what to wear has been on my mind) and with one click I can sort out dresses that are red, then brown, then white. (Look at this one! Also, shout out to Seattle’s Emerald City Comicon where that photo was taken.) You can also narrow your image search by image size, vertical or horizontal layout and how people appear in the photo. Very handy.

Tip: If you are looking for something on a specific website you simply add “site:sitename.com” in your search options. So, say you were looking for Easter eggs on this here website you’d put “Easter eggs site:notmartha.org” (like so) in as your search. From there you can narrow down by color, size, etc. I find this particularly useful for when I’m shopping. Does Nordstrom have any yellow cardigans I’d like? Why, yes they do.

Great thing #3: Bing automatically links the image you’ve pinned back to the original, high quality image source. Proper attribution is a good thing and this makes it easy. When you’re in the early stages of research you can quickly Pin a bunch of images right through Bing and know that the link to the page you will want to find later on is there.

The Bing image search Pin to Pinterst option allows me to quickly gather images for inspiration and reliably keep the sources straight. Meaning I can be efficient and a little bit lazy at the same time. So darn useful.

This post was sponsored by Bing, all thoughts are my own.

Spring Cleaning – The Crafts Dept. Great list of places to take all those old craft supplies so that they will find a new home.

Grocery Bag Basket | Pintester. She includes some good clarification of the directions, and I wanna make this now.

The Perfect Gift: Gold Leaf Plaster Votives. These are gorgeous, and easier than you might thing. The post includes full directions.

Patent Pending, at Cooking Issues. A heat diffuser for a torch to cut down all the pesky troubles that come with using a blow torch in the kitchen. Smart.

We Prove It: Rested Batter Bakes Up Into Better Cookies | The Feed.

Sprinkle Bakes: Chocolate “Wax” Seals on Poured Fondant Honey Cupcakes.

Strawberry, Gin, Campari and Lime Slushito | Serious Eats.

Joy the Baker – Buttered Popcorn Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Secrets to Sheet Pan Pizza | The Feed.

DIY Alcoholic Dippin’ Dots: The Hangover of the Future. Via Delicious Days.

Grilling: Thai Chicken Satay | Serious Eats.

Assemble Shop and Studio: Those Girls: Smart Girls at the Party with Amy Poehler. Amy Poehler has a YouTube channel? How did I not know this?

defective yeti — Tabletop Day Seattle. Matthew lists all the great events going on here in Seattle. I’m sad that I’ll be out of town for this, Dawgsled Events is taking over the top floor of the Columbia Tower!

Last weekend Scott and I headed to Portland for a weekend where our main goal was to try as much beer as we could. We’d made the plans in January when it was dark and rainy and hopeless and beer sounded like a damn good idea. It turned out that the weather that weekend was one of those perfect pockets of Spring where it’s 70 and sunny and you just want to sit outside and talk about how great sunshine is. Which is basically what we did, every meal and sip of beer was done outdoors. Or at least near a really big open door. It was ah-mazing considering it was still March.

I was armed with a few places in mind and a recent copy of Beer West magazine that has an article on all the beer destinations along Division Street. Most of the restaurant recommendations friends had given me (Pok Pok being mentioned the most often) were on Division Street and I started to wish our hotel had been in that part of town because we kept returning to it.

When we arrived our first stop was at Hopworks Urban Brewery which is huge. They have outdoor seating in the front as well as an upper back deck. Right now they are doing a single hop series of IPAs, I tried a sample of the Simcoe and discovered that I don’t prefer Simcoe on it’s own. I wish I lived closer and could sample all of their single hops beers because I suspect it would be a cheap and enjoyable beer education. Hopworks has an eye towards being friendly to the environment and we’re hoping to take our bikes to Portland (maybe on the train!) and pedal our way up to their BikeBar location this summer.

That night we walked to Ground Kontrol and drank beer while playing console arcade games and it was so damn fun. The upstairs is filled with rows of old electric arcade games, the upstairs is devoted to pinball machines and yes the games take real quarters which you can get from change machines just like the old days. We had the most fun playing two person House of the Dead, with the rubber guns. We nearly made it through Chapter 3 before running out of quarters! We would have planted ourselves in front of Gauntlet: Dark Legacy (which we’ve played on our PS3) if it hadn’t been occupied.

They have all the old games I could remember, including Joust, Paperboy, and Burger Time. They also have a tabletop four-person Pac-Man (a hem: Pac-Man Battle Royale) that was very popular all night long. The lights above are reminicscent of D&D dice, the tiles in the ladies room are Ms. Pacman themed, the entry tiles (shown above) are Space Invaders. Also, on weekend nights there is a cover ($2? $1?) and there might be a line, which is good because it means the place doesn’t get too crowded. When we were on our way out I noted there was a crowd around a few of the machines but there were plenty of seats at the tables near the bar, where the tables are illuminated. I heart that place.

The next day we got brunch food from the food carts near our hotel (the standout was Liege waffles with brie, arugula and bacon) and headed out to have a picnic. Our goal was to eat under cherry trees which were blossoming in the most spectacular manner that weekend. But it turns out that was everybody else’s goal that weekend too. The area around the trees near the river (and the Saturday Market) were filled to capacity and the Arboretum was packed. So we took the great advice of Sprizee and headed out to Cathedral Park. It was perfect. An expanse of grass leads down to the water just under the Cathedral Bridge, which makes everything feel very dramatic. We had a huge area in the sun all to ourselves and sat and watched dogs playing fetch. We weren’t right under blossoming trees but we did have a view of some, which was good enough. This morning has become the Happy Place I go to in my head.

Next we headed to Hedge House which is the new-old home of Lompoc Brewing. We grabbed seats on the front porch (there are also tables in the front courtyard area) where we watched families walk and bike past. I had the Calling All Monsters IPA which was very good and I remember as worth going back for if it wasn’t a three hour drive away.

Scott wanted to show me the space where the XOXO Festival had been last year and there just happens to be Cascade Brewing around the block. We had samples of their Noyaux (almond) sour, seasonal IPA and the Oblique Black and White Stout, which has the color of an pale ale but has mellow coffee flavors. (Not shown in order above because they all looked the same and it was freaking 70 degrees and aaaawhhhhh.) The Oblique Black and White Stout was delicious and surprising and on our way out of town we stopped to buy a growler of it, which we buckled into the back seat.

That night we met up with Jenna whom I’d met at Hops Academy last summer. We met at Beer Mongers where she gifted us a precious bottle of Pliny the Elder which we can no longer get in Washington. Beer Mongers is a bottle shop that has a big door they can open in warmer weather. I love drinking at bottle shops, it’s still a novelty for me. Jenna knows what she is talking about when it comes to beer and was sipping this IPA made with brettanomyces, which I dearly wished I’d requested a sip of. In any case it was a perfect end to a beer day.

The next day we managed to made it to Sasquatch Brewery before we left. I got to meet Charlie (aka RagnarBeer) at Hops Academy who the head brewer there. I sampled a beer that is is own recipe, Celilo Cascadian Dark Ale and it was delicious. I’m normally not a fan of dark beers but this made me very happy. Sasquatch has a full menu and outdoor seating in front as well as a nice peaceful deck along the side of the building. I didn’t get to see Charlie because he was busy doing something like the Craft Brewers Conference in Washington, DC. No biggie.

We stayed at the Crystal Hotel downtown which is part of the McMenamin’s empire. It was surprisingly quiet considering it’s in a noisy part of town, though I was roused by the daily 5 a.m. garbage collection. We took advantage of the soaking pool in the basement and had it all to ourselves. Our bed wasn’t very comfortable but the hotel as a whole was good for the price and location. Most rooms share a bathroom in hall, which I’ve never found to be awkward in a McMenamin’s hotel, but I booked an ensuite room because, well, bathroom.

The staff at the Crystal Hotel seem used to asking if people staying there are headed to the music venues later that evening so one day we were asked if we were going to see Anthrax and the next day they asked if we were there to see Bob Seger. I assure you we are not people who look like we’d be headed to either. At least not any more.

Places we didn’t make it too but I want to hit next time we’re in Portland: The Woodsman Tavern, Kask, The Green Dragon and Pok Pok.

Alright Portland people, what else should I seek out next time I visit? Anything particularly spectacular in the sunshine? Or particularly comforting when it’s rainy and dark?

Non-reflex dependent, not-too-hard video games, preferably for the Xbox? | Ask MetaFilter.

30 WordPress tutorials for designers | Creative Bloq. Via Swiss Miss.

Basic Photo Editing Tutorial by `TheTragicTruth-Of-Me on deviantART. Some nice effects to make a person look just that bit better.

Staples Announces In-Store 3-D Printing Service | Wired Design | Wired.com. Woah. Via Waxy.

Temporary tattoos could make electronic telepathy and telekinesis possible at i09.

Help me decide if I should sell my Canon Rebel DSLR and buy a Sony RX100 | Ask MetaFilter.

Cool Tools – Pogo Connect. The best stylus for the iPad.

A Whole Lotta Nothing: Thoughts surrounding Google Reader’s demise. Includes reviews of other existing readers.

‘emitips’ – The Crafts Dept. You attach these by iron-on to the inside of finger tips to make your gloves touch screen compatible. Smart.

DIY Sprinkle Easter Eggs | Studio DIY. Very cute.

Modern Parents Messy Kids: Creative Play Easter Basket Idea: Water Bead Eggs. I love the glowy transparency she has going on here.

Unique Easter Gift Basket Ideas for Adults – Creature Comforts.

glitter pissing: creme egg showdown.

I’m back from a trip to England! And Wales! We drove on the other side of the street and walked along the tops of bluffs on footpaths and saw the Dr. Who Experience and had cream tea and got really familiar with a few stops of the Underground and saw Book of Mormon and opened Kinder Eggs and gawked at cheese in Cheddar and watched the path emerge from the water from the top of Saint Michael’s Mount and looked the wrong way for traffic before crossing the street. But mostly our group spent time passing around a bad cold, which I was unlucky enough to have for the days we were in London where it was cold enough to snow and yet there was no way I was going to take a whole precious day to sit and be warm and still indoors.

Since we now have Uniqlo and Lush and Muji shops and Boots aisle in Target here in the US it’s harder to find new and fascinating things in the UK, but we succeeded! Behold something called “Mansize tissues”, shown above next to a regular sized tissue. The Mansize tissues are big, almost hanky sized, and I love them and I wish we had them here in the US. So, who knows somebody in the tissue industry and how quickly can we get these things here in the US and can we rename them something less sexist but still offensive like Texas Tissues or Supersize Tissues? Anyhow, they made having a cold slightly less miserable.

Homeopathie, at Design Mom. We have the same sort of tubes available at our food co-op and I’ve had success with those that I’ve tried so far.

The 82 Best Comedies Currently Streaming on Netflix | Splitsider. Great list.

Looking for “useful” sites such as Instructables, Lifehacker, CoolTools | Ask MetaFilter.

Show Caves – The Morning News. I love caves.

Estate Jewelry: Masonic Orbs and Legendary Peacock Chokers | The Hairpin. The Peacock Choker shown here first is stunning but it’s the unfolding Masonic ball that has really caught my attention. It goes from an orb to a cross of six pyramids. I want!

What are your top 5 websites and why? | Ask MetaFilter. Lots of great suggestions in here if you’re looking for new sites to read.

Sarah with an H: Frozen Yogurt Pops. Made using a cake pop pan, I like this idea a whole lot! Via Edible Crafts.

Miniature miracles: quick meals with a mug and a microwave – The Independent. Small but hearty microwave recipes for dinner and all made in mugs! Thanks go out to Busywork for sending the link my way!

Cookie Spoons DIY at Oh Happy Day.

The Best Way to Make Popcorn (Thanks, Mom) at The Popcorn Whisperer.

Fried snowballs (!?) and a brand-new feature on delicious:days » delicious:days. That’s it, I need a schneeballenform.

justJENN recipes – Weeping Angel cookies. Oooh, I like these.

Downton Abbey Cocktails: Mary | The Kitchn. This one for Mary sounds divine. See also cocktails for Edith and Sybil.

A pinata cake | a subtle revelry. This is so much fun!

After out Reidel O wine tumblers finally all cracked I set out to find wine glasses that were perfect and landed on these Reidel Vivant Pinot Noir glasses sold at Target. We live near pinot growing country and find ourselves drinking that most often but I think this shape works just fine for all varietals, we don’t get too fussy around here. I looked at all the fancy brands at various kitchen stores but kept coming back to surreptitiously open a box of these in the aisle at Target to hold them.

These glasses have everything I like: a dramatic bowl, a nice thin lip, and they are easy to replace. They are a nice height too, the stem isn’t too long (I tend to knock over taller wine glasses) or so short you cannot get your fingers around it when you’re feeling like holding the glass properly. We bought ours in a set of 8 and all but one has held up to hand washing for well over a year now. And most pleasingly, they made a beautiful ringing noise when clinked. For how much these get used in our house the price is worth it, and they were even more affordable because we used a few Target gift cards for the purchase.

Leather door pull how-to, Brick House. I have a nearby leather working shop and a need for one of these in my house.

mirrormirror: Five Great Things to Grow in Your Pacific Northwest Garden.

I constantly lose and misplace things. Here are a few of the tricks I use to keep the things I use daily in order. (Over at Babble.)

Slide Show | What to Eat at Honoré Artisan Bakery, Seattle | Serious Eats. The first recommendation here is the Kouign Amann and I cannot heap on enough extra recommendations that you try one here. So, so good.

Can vegans stomach the unpalatable truth about quinoa? | guardian.co.uk. “The quinoa trade is yet another troubling example of a damaging north-south exchange, with well-intentioned health and ethics-led consumers here unwittingly driving poverty there.” People in Bolivia and Peru where it is grown can no longer afford it, in Lima it is more expensive than chicken. Via Delicious Days.

Bon Appétempt: Nancy’s Chopped Salad.

Let’s build a massive meta McDonald’s in Times Square at Kottke. I love the comparisons between fast food and molecular gastronomy. I remember hearing that Ferran Adria admired McDonald’s for their ability to make the exact same burger over and over again.

5 Sauces that Spank Sriracha | The GastroGnome. See also: in this episode (185) of The Dinner Party they have a segment about siracha. Did you know? It’s made here in the US and it’s so popular it’s been faked!

Cucumber and Hummus Cupcakes at Creative Kid Snacks. So many things can be made to look like cupcakes, but these I will actually be making for myself soon.

Dreamfall Chapters

Yes! Dreamfall Chapters, the continuing story of The Longest Journey, is up on Kickstarter and it’s still going! I am a big fan of the first two games in this series, The Longest Journey and Dreamfall. The creator, Ragnar Tornquist, has started up a company and this will be their first project. They’ve already passed the $1 million mark and as a result the game will be available on extra platforms and there will be more content. I’m very excited to find out the fate of April Ryan and I have hopes that we’ll see Zoe again. I’ve been a fan of adventure games going way back to King’s Quest 1 but the Dreamfall games tug at my heart in a special way.

Dreamfall Chapters is also up for a vote over at Steam Greenlight. If you’ve got an account over there do me a favor and vote it up? Thanks.

Kyntt Underground

I love the (free) Knytt games and played them to death so I was really pleased to find the newest one, Knytt Underground available in the Playstation store (it’s also available for Mac/PC/Linux). Knytt Underground keeps the 2-D screen by screen exploration and ads a map overlay. I’m only a few quests in and have been meaning to carve out some more time to explore and uncover more of the story. It’s also up on Steam Greenlight, throw it a vote? Please?

Borderlands 2

Small whine: There aren’t enough couch co-op games available. I don’t like playing FPSs alone, they get weirdly boring, but sitting on the couch next to Scott makes it really enjoyable. We’ve spent a good chunk of this winter playing split-screen Borderlands 2. It’s a vertical split screen and while at first it might be a little cramped I got used to it very quickly. None of the text or menus are obscured. We’ve been liking it so much that we took our time finishing the main storyline and now we’re revisiting everything to get all the Cult of the Vault symbols.

Adventure

If you missed Double Fine’s Kickstarter like I did (oops) you can still become a Slacker Backer and get the game while it’s in beta. I was late to play Psychonauts so it’s still new and fresh in my memory. Really really looking forward to Adventure. In the mean time I have yet to play The Cave.

So many games to look forward to! And I have not even gotten to how much I am anticipating The Last Gaurdian, it will arrive some day, we just have to keep believing.

I’m currently on a trip through the UK with a group of wonderful girlfriends. I’ve got posts lined up while I’m away but I’ll be posting pictures when I can over at Flickr, Instagram and Twitter (I’m notmartha at all those places) if you want to follow along. I’m depending in wi-fi in the evenings so updates met be spotty. Full reports soon!

Let’s All Make Emergency Engagement Rings | The Hairpin. How to craft an origami ring for that last minute need. (Note: video.)

DIY Brushed Text and Polka Dot Tea Towels and Tote – Home – Creature Comforts. The polka dot tote here is simple but oh so nice.

I’m a bit in love with all the possibilities that surround Easter Eggs, here are a dozen of my favorite Easter egg crafts and ideas. (Over at Babble.)

It’s been way too long since I said I’d share more of my favorite makeup. Oops. There is a bright side though, I can say I still find these products to be my favorites. Earlier I wrote about which products I keep in my bag, the following are the ones I have at home and use on a semi-regular basis:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance – Eye makeup doesn’t stand a chance on me unless I’m using eyeshadow primer. This works great and doesn’t add any shimmer (an enemy of mine when it comes to the eyes). A tiny bit goes a long way and this lasts me for a long time.

MAC Eyeshadow – I find these to have plenty of pigment and stay well. Most often I use Omega (light brown) for the crease, Carbon (black) as eyeliner and Print (medium gray) to smudge it out.

Wet n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow – I read a lot about Wet n Wild eyeshadow, that the quality and pigment load for the price was great. I’ve bought a few sets and I do like the pigment but it’s all got a bit too much shimmer for me. I keep these to use one peach or one light pink color on my lids. I probably won’t seek these out again but it is an inexpensive way to play around with a lot of different colors.

Smashbox Photo Finish Light Primer – This is a light, oil-free foundation primer that does it’s job and doesn’t make me feel like There Is Something On My Face.

L’Oreal Magic Smooth Souffle Foundation – A tiny bit of this smooths on easily and hides my giant pores. It does dry quickly so I work in smaller areas. It can emphasize dry skin but does well with my ever present oily sheen. It doesn’t necessarily require a foundation primer but I usually don’t wear foundation unless it’s going to be a long day so I use it.

Nars Blush – In Orgasm, of course. I really like this for a bit of subtle color. Blah blah blah everybody loves this and I do too.

Sonia Kashuk (Target) in Flamingo – I use this one when I’m going for some bright Irish Lass cheeks. It’s a matte color and I’m really fond of the low profile packaging it’s in.

L’Oreal Voluminous False Fiber Lashes – After reading about it at Girls of a Certain Age I’ve been testing this out and it’s mostly replaced my usual for the time being. I like the drama of this but it can go spidery on me if I overload it. It plays nicely with my sunscreen and eye cream and doesn’t flake or smudge.

Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Pur Couture in #001 – I thought I had talked about this already but apparently I only did over at Flickr. This is a powerful matte bright red that isn’t too blue and isn’t too coral and works with my cool-pale skin. I found this when I needed my first ever red lipstick and was hovering around the makeup section at Nordstrom being fiercely ignored by the people at the MAC counter when a kindly YSL lady pulled me into a quiet chair and applied this. I kept looking in mirrors for the rest of the day. I love it. I use an eyeshadow primer around the edges of my lips and apply this using a lip brush.

NYX Jumbo Lip Pencils – I’ve seen these recommended a lot and I have to say I like them too. I find them easier to apply than a tube of lipstick, and they fit well in a makeup bag if you’re taking it with you. I like Chaos (724), which is a dark pink that isn’t too Barbie-pink.

Coach Poppy Flower – My current favorite perfume. I only wish that it came in a single roller ball instead of a double-headed roller ball because I’m convinced it’s going to break in my luggage when I travel and then everything is going to smell like the other perfume which I don’t like very much.

Makeup brushes – You hear this advice all the time but I didn’t really know how much of a difference it would make for me: invest in good makeup brushes. They make a huge difference in how even the cheapest makeup goes on. I have some brushes from Target that are often recommended in beauty magazines but they aren’t nearly as good as the MAC brushes I’ve invested in and the Target brushes have been relegated to blending brushes. Here are the brushes I use most often:

• MAC 266, a fine angled brush I use as an eyeliner brush.
• MAC 242, I use to press eyeshadow into the crease.
• MAC 217, I use to blend my crease color.
• MAC 224, a big fluffy brush I use when there is a larger field of color to be applied.
• Bobbi Brown Ultra Fine Eyeliner Brush, comes to a tiny point and is great for adding a very thin line to the base of the lashes.
• Sephora 60, a retractable lip brush. I couldn’t apply red lipstick without this. It stays nice and neat in a bag.

This post is brought to you by Bing. Know what Bing does really well? Image searches, which is why I now need to go plant seeds to have these ready for next year. Thanks to Bing for making finding ideas for Oscars party food and star shaped foods easy to find.

My husband is on call for work the night of the Oscars so we stay fairly low key in our house. A little bit of celebration is in order since it marks the end of a big annual work project. So this year I’m making it The Night of A Thousand Star..shaped foods. Or at least a few star shaped foods. All of these are gluten-free, almost by coincidence. Though I know so many people who are gluten-free that it’s become normal to avoid it when menu planning.

I hope some of these ideas help make your Oscars snacks a bit more sparkly.

Red Carpet

We’ll start with a fruit salad and champagne. Pineapple rings and kiwi slices act (sort of) like rays of light and the stars are cut from slices of pear. I used Sumo citrus wedges here, their delicate taste doesn’t overwhelm the other fruits. (Shout out to my friends who have shown me the way to Sumo love!) Add pomegranate seeds to your champagne glass and watch as they bob and float.

Opening Monologue

DIY star shaped tortilla chips! The best thing about homemade tortilla chips is that they are extra strong and can stand up to the chunkiest of guacamole.

The chips are are easier than you might suspect, I followed the instructions you can find over at Savory Sweet Life. You’ll need a bag of corn tortillas, a star cookie cutter and some vegetable oil. Brush or spray vegetable oil on both sides of a tortilla and use a cookie cutter to cut shapes, I could only get through two tortillas at a time. Spread the chips on a baking sheet in a single layer, sprinkle with salt and bake at 350 degrees for about ten minutes, flipping about half way through. Since I don’t know the size of your cookie cutter I recommend flipping them after five minutes and checking them every two minutes after that. If you have a crowd coming over you can make some star chips for decorations and then slice the rest of the tortillas into wedges to save time. (Kind of like bringing out the cheap wine after the good wine has been consumed and nobody will care at that point anyhow.) If you want to make these in advance they can be crisped up by baking in a 200 degree oven for a few minutes.

Acceptance Speeches

Finger foods are in order to keep our energy up during commercial breaks so I’m going with stuffed mushrooms and star shaped cheese crackers. This is the first time I’ve made stuffed mushrooms and I had no idea that they are so easy, I’m going to be making these a lot more often for no reason at all. For these I simply subbed in gluten-free bread crumbs.

The star shaped cheese crackers here are the Cheesy Squares recipe from Lara Feroni’s book Real Snacks. I’ve made these before (for cookbook club) and at the time I made both the version with wheat flour and the gluten-free ones to compare. We found that the gluten-free ones turn out a bit more crisp and are more fun to eat. This time around I made a few different sized cheese stars and the smallest size were our favorite by far, the crispy edge ratio is just about right. The ones shown here arout 1.5 inches tall. I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour. If you make these a day early they can be crisped up by heating in a warm oven for a few minutes.

I had a little conundrum at the grocery store over these. The good sharp cheddar I could find didn’t have the ultra-orange coloring that would make these really fun to look at. But the good sharp cheese is delicious so it won out. You could likely make these far more Cheez-its orange with different cheese.

Cheesy Stars
Recipe from Real Snacks, by Laura Ferroni. Used here with permission and changed slightly.

• 8 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 180 grams (1.5 cups) all-purpose gluten-free baking flour
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup milk, plus more for brushing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the cheese, butter, flour, onion powder, salt, and milk in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the dough blade. Pulse to form a ball, 1 to 2 minutes. Divide the dough into four parts and flatten into discs, wrap with plastic wrap for the time being.

Roll dough between two sheets of parchment paper until it’s 1/8th to 1/16th inch thick. Cut the dough out using a small star cutter and transfer each star to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper leaving about 1/2 inch between each. (You will likely be popping each one out of the cutter so it’s easy to just deposit them right onto the baking sheet.) Brush the dough with milk and prick the center of each one with a skewer.

Bake until the crackers are just slightly brown on the edges. Check after five minutes frequently after that, times will vary depending on which size cutter you’ve used. Cool crackers on a wire rack.

Best Picture Announcement

Dessert will be something we can make quickly so we don’t miss anything. Here are simple scoops of ice cream with metallic sprinkles. I found these at Joanns. I cannot tell you how delightful I find these tiny edible gold stars. I’m going to start putting them on everything, like eggs and steak.

Designing For The Modern Web. Via Swiss Miss.

Cool Tools – Linx. “This inexpensive construction kit uses simple plastic hubs to connect grocery store drinking straws. You can assemble quite large — and featherweight — structures in crystalline and geodesic designs.” This will make a great present and activity for our niece and nephews next time we visit.

3D printed cookie rollers | Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. I’ve seen plenty of 3D printed cookie cutters but I’m falling in love with the rollers here. Love the comparison between creating ancient things with modern tools.

In the last few weeks I watched all of Downton Abby after avoiding it for years. I’m completely hooked. I’ve posted more about it’s powers of seduction over at Future Imperfect.

Treasure Hunt Idea #1

Here is one hunt I set up for Scott on the first Valentine’s Day that we lived in the same apartment after we moved to San Francisco. I hid a dozen small cards around the apartment with messages. I put them in spots where he’d find them while getting ready for work in the morning. For example I tucked a card that said “I love your smile” in the medicine cabinet next to the toothpaste. I hid more inside a coffee cup, under his pillow, his computer bag, the pocket of his coat and inside the shoes that I knew he’d be putting on.

I made the cards above by cutting 1.5 inch cards out of colorful cardstock and using a heart punch, though you can cut the hearts by hand. My original cards were created with scissors (all I had at the time) and were all a bit off center.

Treasure Hunt Idea #2

If you want to send a message why not scramble it? This is an idea I’d been planning on using this year but, oops, I guess he’ll be expecting it. For these I bought tiny envelopes, found at a local scrapbooking store, and filled them with punched out hearts.

Each heart has one or two letters on the front and a number on the back. Once each one is found and put in order they spell out a sweet message. You can use as many hearts as you need for whatever message you have in mind.

Treasure Hunt Idea #3

Scott did this for my birthday a while back but it would be just as great at Valentine’s Day. He hid little toy capsules filled with toy rings (they echoed my engagement ring) around the house. Then, at different times, I was given two maps. One was numbered on vellum, the other was a layout of the house. Put together they revealed locations of the capsules.

Treasure hunts like these don’t have to be elaborate to create utter delight. Scott and I have been together for 13 (14?) Valentine’s days and there have been flowers and restaurants and probably chocolates but it’s the treasure hunts like these that I remember the most of all.

Bake The Book: Bouchon Bakery Marshmallow Eggs | Serious Eats: Sweets.

swissmiss | Heartshaped Straws. These are cute, and I really want them.

Valentine’s Day Candy Buttons · Edible Crafts. Love this idea!

Play Food « bakerella.com. These cookies are teenier than they seem at first and they are absolutely adorable.

swissmiss | Valentine’s Multi Tattly Pack.

oh meaghan: locket valentines for gal pals. Simple and so sweet!

Heart Balloons in a Closet at Oh Happy Day.

Candy Filled Straws « Sweet Simple Stuff. Very simple and sweet idea for a unique valentine. Via Edible Crafts.

Assemble Shop and Studio: Crafty Project: Junior High Love Note Folding.

I adore clever things for Valentine’s Day and I’ve collected a few of my favorites. These are all things that give my brain a little spark.

Go see them all in my post over at Babble!

Pictured above is the Heart Attack by The House That Lars Built.

How to boot cuffs from a sweater, at Petit Elefant. So simple and add a nice visual touch.

Current Crush: DIY Paper Diamonds and Gems – Creature Comforts. Links to so tutorials for awfully pretty paper gems.

Laura’s Loop: Reversible Stripes Scarf – the purl bee. I’m really taken by this reversible stripe pattern, I’m also taken by the fact that it lies completely flat.

Faye’s Super Soft Merino Chunky Cable Hat – the purl bee. Simple and very pretty.

Past & Present: Uten.Silo & DIY Wall Organizer | Design*Sponge.

Cool Tools – Belkin WeMo Switch. A simple device that you plug into the wall and it allows you to turn things on/off from your mobile device. This would have saved me so much worry when I was using my iron on a daily basis, I was always heading back inside to double check that it was off.

Iron Out Carpet Stains | Pintester. It actually works! You open the windows, spray Windex (or diluted ammonia) on the spot, put down a towel and use the steam setting on your iron to get all the gunk up. (Spot test first, of course, and beware scorching.)

The kitchen has been painted! | Door Sixteen. Here Anna used a gray paint from Valspar called Filtered Shade which we used in one of our bathrooms and love. This particular gray paint has also been recommended to me by Holly at Nothing But Bonfires.

Seeking movies to help me think about clothes. | Ask MetaFilter. A great list of movies I wouldn’t seek out but am intensely interested in.

Make-Yer-Own Oscar Pool Page 2013, at Defective Yeti.

Pamie » Hey, Pamie: “How Do I Not Give the Fuck Up When Other People Get What I Want?”.

Cool Tools – Human Dimension & Interior Space. A comprehensive set of measurements to help you design interiors, furniture and wearables for all people: “Good for architects, costume designers, gadget makers, interface designers, and interior decorators.”

Read Better: Five Steps to a More Balanced Media Diet | Media on GOOD. Via Juniper Moon Fiber Farm.

Sometimes when I am in a three-person conversation the other two people make lots of eye contact but I am excluded. Am I doing something wrong? | Ask MetaFilter. This happens to me all the time and I’d love to know what is going on.

What You’ll Need to Escape New York – NYTimes.com. Puts my bugout bag to shame.

Monday Music – “Sexy Sexy!” The 2013 Brooklyn Valentines Day Playlist at The Amber Show. See also The Makeout Playlist.

The Business Cards of Alt Summit 2013 – Creature Comforts. See also this roundup at Giverslog. It’s true, the business cards at Alt were amazing this year.

I’ve written about the Curly Girl hair method before. (If you want to know more I’ve included links below.) I have wavy hair at best, I’m 2A on the hair types chart over at Naturally Curly. My hair is fine and limp and I have often cursed the lords of genetics for it. It resisted all attempts at being styled with heat and sprays and I basically gave up until I read about the Curly Girl method and decided to give it a try. A few years back I started getting my hair cut to enhance the curl as much as possible and started using curl friendly products. And it worked! My hair looks better! Not awesome, but better.

I’d been trying various non-silicone styling products for curly hair and nothing was quite right. Most were too heavy for me, some didn’t last. Then my stylist suggested I try Kevin Murphy Undressed Fiber Paste. Pastes are usually tragic and heavy on me, but this? I really really like. It’s become the sole product I need to put in my hair. It contains a water soluble silicone so I can continue to use my Curly Girl approved Tea Tree shampoo and conditioner from Trader Joe’s (which I wrote about previously). The Undressed paste is heavy enough that I do shampoo my hair more often then I used to, about ever other day, and I always do the conditioner wash thing.

more about the Curly Girl thing

The Curly Girl thing was started by Lorraine Massey who has a book Curly Girl: The Handbook that explains all. The basic idea is to avoid silicones in conditioners and styling products and sulfates in shampoos. The silicones are too heavy for curly hair, you need sulfates to wash them out and sulfates are too drying on curly hair. If you’d like to learn more see these starting points and further explanations at the Naturally Curly forums. The Naturally Curly site and forums are the best place to find out more and compare products and hair types, and my hair stylist even asked if I knew about them already.

My friend Noemi (whose curly hair I am desperately jealous of) recently wrote two fantastic posts about she treats her curly hair and the curly hair of her young daughter: Help! My Kid Has Curly Hair! and Wait. I Have Curly Hair Too. Noemi uses the popular Deva Curl shampoo and conditioner (which I’ve found too heavy for my hair), and she links to curly hair styling products you can find at Target.

If you have wavy or straightish hair that is a bit frizzy and resists all attempts at styling it I encourage you to look into the Curly Girl method. You might be one of us.

I have a post up at Babble Voices about my recommendations for Seven iPhone Games to Keep You Occupied During a Long Flight. I picked both old and new games soley based on which ones I make sure are on my phone before I leave, these are my faves. Go take a look.

There were a few other games that I wanted to note but didn’t quite make cut for being airplane-ready, here they are:

• Hundreds
  This is the latest popular time waster. I didn’t include it because I have a love hate relationship with it, the levels become frustratingly pretty quickly and I do a lot of low-key rage quitting. But it always lures me back.
• Babylonian Twins
  This is a platformer where you play twins who each have different skills. You can switch between them them to help each of the reach the end of a level. The game has an interesting history, it was originally created for the Amiga but never released but word of it spread from those few who played a demo and it became something of a legend. The game for iPhone has new graphics. I’m normally not a fan of platformers but I find each level combines plenty of exploration and puzzle solving. (Free lite version to try out.)
• Rolando & Rolando 2
  Adorable graphics and great sound. I didn’t include these games in my list because the controls use the accelerometer and needing to turn and twitch your iPhone isn’t so convenient when squeezed into an airplane. I’m not sure if these have been updated for the Retina display.
• Cross Fingers
  A game where you move wooden blocks inside a level. The sounds are nice and crisp and the visuals are pleasing. The game seems simple but can become challenging. I didn’t include this one because some levels require you to use your fingers in a way that will make it look like you’re playing a mini-Twister so it’s not perfect for airplanes. (Free lite version available to try out.)
• Flow Free
  I compared one of the games on my recommendation list to Flow, which is better known. I had played Flow before and it didn’t hold my interest for long but revisited it when I was writing this as well as because I heard it recommended on an episode of Slate’s Culture Gabfest. And of course I am now obsessively working my way through it. I find it sort of works on my brain in the same way that knitting does. (Free levels, can buy more.)
• Pocket Frogs
  This is a free game where you raise and breed frogs. It’s like a low-key tamagotchi. I play with this in spurts but love coming back to visit my frogs. There are a few ongoing frog goals that give in-game rewards to keep you working after you’ve bred yourself a library of frogs. I didn’t include this because some of the higher level frogs can take days to grow so it won’t help you out on a long flight. (Free, freemium.)

all buttoned up.: Printz. Three online photo printing services compared, with one clear winner.

Thermoworks Thermapen and Oven Thermometer – Cooking For Engineers. This links to a giveaway, and I wanted to note that this is their favorite.

GABIFRESH: Totally InStyle. Congrats on Gabifresh who announced her plus-sized fashion column in InStyle!

Baguette Bag | The Urban Grocer. It’s perfect! A zip up bag to keep your fresh baguette warm on the way home from the bakery.

Links from the Food Universe, delicious:days. I’m looking right at her recommendation for the GIR Spatula here. I love spatulas that don’t need to be taken apart to be cleaned, and this one comes in so many great colors.

Not too serious, not too silly board games | Ask MetaFilter. I like the cooperative games like Pandemic, it’s the players against the game itself.

We bought a microwave! I’ve often said that we didn’t have room in our tiny kitchen but this one is a microwave that fits into a corner (queue triumphant music). The back is rounded (shown below) and since it’s as tall as it is wide it doesn’t take up too much countertop space. It’s cute right? It looks like those big tvs some of us grew up watching. When we were surveying the kitchen trying to figure out where we could put a microwave we decided the corner was really the only option and I was shocked to find out that somebody actually makes one.

This little number goes by the sexy name of the Whirlpool WMC20005YW which is white. There are also black and brushed silver options.

Showing the rounded back of the microwave, cute huh?

The back of the inside of the microwave is also rounded, there is a turntable inside. The microwave is tiny but it does fit an 11-inch dinner place. In the picture above I showed some plates from Ikea (the Ikea 365 brand) that feel like really large plates but fit just fine inside. It’s got buttons for Defrost, Reheat and Popcorn and you can choose your power level.

Note: This is what I originally said, see the next paragraph for why the microwave is awesome and I’m dumb. It’s not all perfect though. The inside of the microwave is only six inches high from the surface of the turntable to the top of the inside and it looks like it might be a bit cramped. That said, the orange mixing bowls shown above are pretty tall and fit inside with plenty of clearance. When I am taking a soup bowl out of the microwave it does take a little more care since I have to grab it from both sides to ease it out. The microwave lacks a keypad so you cannot just type in “2-0-0″ to zap something for two minutes, you have to hold down the time button. It doesn’t take long for it to count up to the 2:00 mark (it counts by five second increments for the first minute, 15 second increments for the second minute and then thirty seconds after that) but it’s not quite as convenient as being able to hit a few buttons. There is an “add 30 seconds” option for when things area already heating and I’ve already started taking the lazy girls option of hitting the heating button just once, hitting start and then pressing the “add 30″ button a few times once it’s already going. These are all compromises I was happy to make for something that doesn’t take up all my countertop space.

Update: Martha mentioned in the comments that you can put food inside, close the door and hit the start button to get 30 seconds going, then you can just hit the start button again for 30 second increments. Which is perfect! Huge thanks to Martha for pointing out the lazy shortcut I was apparently too lazy to find on my own. I will note that this is in the manual, I just didn’t actually read it.

It’s the first time in years and years that we’ve had a microwave. We decided to get one because we’ve pretty much cut bread out of our diets and the toaster wasn’t getting much use. Up until now we’ve reheated leftovers by steaming them on the stovetop, a process which works out nicely but does take a wee bit more time than a microwave. Aaaand since our schedules mean we don’t end up home together for dinner most nights having the option to zap leftovers was sounding better and better. Since we got it I’ve been making excuses to heat things up and I stand there watching them turn around and around like I’m six years old again.

10 objects that prove 3D printing will change the world | Gadgets | Geek.com.

Drop the Needle on the 3-D Printed Record | Line Out. 3-D printed records don’t sound good yet but still, printed records! I want to send secret messages where the decoder is simply an old record player.

Glitch: The Text Adventure, and Other Fun with Playfic – Waxy.org.

Top 10 Ways to Speed Up and Beef Up Your Google Searches, at Lifehacker. Via Swissmiss.

What equipment can I use for a food photography setup in low light? | Ask MetaFilter.

WeeNudge | Teach your clients about the mysteries of the web, Wee Nudge. Via Swissmiss.

The Fiddle-Leaf Fig Tree | Making it Lovely.

15 Clever Solutions for Small Spaces | Brit + Co. I’m loving a few of the things on this list.

Cool Tools – Philips L-Prize Bulb. I’m so on the fence about these super expensive LED bulbs. The right lighting is very important during our deep, dark winters here.

DIY Industrial Furniture – The Crafts Dept.

What’s really smart for a smart house? | Ask MetaFilter. A good discussion of what home technology is worth it.

But! Friends of mine are up to some far more exciting things:

• Go Mighty has been connecting people’s life goals with ways to make it happen. Maggie has been keeping track of what people are up to on Mighty Girl and I’m definitely on board with the Own Less Crap goal that lots of people have. I’m not alone.
• AB Chao has announced the dates and locations for 2013′s Design Camp tour. I kinda want to follow her around (London! Berlin!). Also, anybody going to Alt Summit, she’s got two spots open for her Salt Lake City mini-camp. After attending her Design Camp here in Seattle last year I’ve got a much clearer picture of what to change around my house.
• Kirby Krackle will be holding Kracklefest 3 on March 1st here in Seattle, guests are the Doubleclicks and Paul and Storm. Then in April they’ll be opening for Wierd Al (Wierd Al!!) at the Calgary Expo. (My husband Scott plays bass in the band.)
• Melanie Biehle has announced that she’s taking on clients who are setting out to make a change in their business lives. She can through coaching, talking branding and social media and creative components, see it explained far more elegantly on her site Genuine Mix. I’ve seen Melanie at work and she is good, she’s also one of the most calming people I know. And! She’ll be at Alt Summit.
• Robin Sheridan has announced that she’s kicked off her career as a real estate agent here in Seattle. She did an amazing analysis of the market value of our home (no, we’re not moving out just yet) and I can recommend her highly. I initially met her when her husband Kirk of Mastin Studio took some photos of Scott and I.
• Seattle Bloggers Unite continues to be a really fantastic resource for Seattle bloggers. The meetups are always very informative and fun. If you’re in Seattle and have a blog (or want to start one) please come join us!

Something to try, Smoky Spruce Buttercrunch | Thoughts on Food and Life. A Buttercrunch made with smoked chocolate and spruce essential oil. I happen to have some of those smoked chocolate chips and they make for the best indoor s’mores of all time.

New Booze: Hophead Hop Vodka | Serious Eats: Drinks Hopped vodka? I wonder if it’s good, I looove hops..

Taste Test: Olo’s Chipotle Paste Vs. Canned Chipotle Chilies | Serious Eats. We don’t cook often enough to keep fresh ingredients around all the time, but I think I would make good use of the chipotle paste.

What are your best recipes for a savory breakfast casserole that can be prepared the night before and cooked in the morning? | Ask MetaFilter.

How to Identify Hops in Your Beer: The Three C’s | Serious Eats: Drinks, also see How to Identify Hops in Your Beer: Amarillo, Summit, Citra, Simcoe I wonder if there are any professional beer tasting courses that teach you how to identify components, I’d like to take that class.

Bon Appétempt: Gérard’s Mustard Tart. Oooooh!

25 Food Trends for 2013: bonappetit.com. The Paloma made with mezcal and the stovetop smoker are things on my radar. Via Shutterbean.

Julian Baggini – The art of coffee. A blind taste test of Nespresso vs. hand drawn espresso.

Eats // The best heart shaped donuts you’ll ever have. So very cute, at Sugar & Cloth.

The First Canon Lenses You Should Buy | The Wirecutter.

ThinkGeek :: Static Electricity Eliminator. A small battery-less gadget that attaches to your keychain and helps you dispel (or know when to) static electricity. I need this because during dry conditions I grow fearful of the pain that I associate with touching my car door. Via Ask Metafilter in a question regarding dry winter air and getting continuously shocked by pushing a cart at Costco.

outgrow.me, a marketplace for the successfully funded and produced Kickstarter campaigns. Via Swiss Miss.

MAKR. A shop full of simple leather, canvas and metal goods. I like all the bags and wallets but what I’m really drooling over is those hooks! Via Freshly Picked.

swissmiss | Maker’s Row. “Maker’s Row is a brand new site by 3 young, smart New Yorkers trying to demystify the process of manufacturing products in the US.” How insanely useful.

Cool Tools – Just Ride. A practical guide from a long time bike rider who offers straightforward advice to put the fun back into getting on a bicycle.

Best TV shows to keep you hooked? | Ask MetaFilter.

Twitter controlled Eggbotted LED Ornaments | Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. They light up when people use keywords on Twitter. I love everything about this project.

A tour of the International Space Station, at Kottke.

London’s best brewery tours – Time Out London. Via Busywork who has probably heard way too much about how much I’ve been liking beer lately!

Five Things to Do on Your Layover at: Chicago-O’Hare || Jaunted.

Things to do in ORD for 8 hours | Ask MetaFilter. There is a four story tall Brachiosaurus on concourse B!

The Urban Grocer’s Guide to Urban Eating, NYC | The Urban Grocer. Great online magazine to keep a link to, note that music plays.

How to work around $20/day hotel Internet in Central London | Ask MetaFilter. Looks like there are no-contract prepaid wireless dongles. I’m headed to the UK next year so this is good to know about.

Concealers: you asked, I answered – Girls of a Certain Age.

Five beauty products you only ever need to buy at the drugstore – Girls of a Certain Age.

Dry shampoo recommendations | Ask MetaFilter. I’ve also found that the Suave brand clogs after two uses.

How do you who go bare-legged in pumps do it without turning your feet into raw hamburger? | Ask MetaFilter. Ugh, me too. I cannot even tolerate flats without socks. The advice here includes lots of great product comparisons.

Happy new year! I hope your celebration is sparkly.

Above:

Gold polka dot garland at BHLDN. (It’s on sale!)

DIY Gold-Leaf Polka Dot Ceramics at Vitamini Handmade.

Three DIY cocktails for New Years at Refinery 29.

Edible star glitter decoration at Fashionably Bombed.

Bubbly Champagne Flutes. (No longer available, sad trombone.)

DIY styrofoam and toothpick decorations at The Sweetest Occasion.

How To: Broken Glass Ornaments Into New Ornaments – Grathio Labs. Via The Hairpin.

3 Wreaths to Make for the Holidays, at Oh Happy Day.

How To: Make a DIY Modern Wooden Christmas Tree Set » Curbly.

Candy Cane Vodka – Shutterbean. So easy!

Kids Craft: Santa Beard Disguise | Say Yes to Hoboken. Adorable! Also see the Quick and Easy Festive Tabletop.

Ginger Syrup and Grandadine gifts at the Ugly Green Chair. With drink recipes.

I cannot keep a regular manicure nice. No matter how careful I am it’ll be smudged before I even attempt to touch anything. So when I need my nails to look nice (not very often) I get a shellac manicure because they are Megan-proof. I even found a salon here in Seattle that plays episodes of Modern Family so I don’t get bored. (Julep, ladies, good place.) I realize that getting a manicure is supposed to be relaxing but the first two times I got a shellac manicure I nearly fell asleep because of the soothing music and nothing at all to look at, which just made me cranky.

When I don’t require heavy duty pretty nails (again, not very often) I have come to love nail polish strips, aka nail stickers. They are a little fussy to apply but when done well they will last a week on me and, most importantly, I cannot smudge them. I have mostly used the Sally Hansen ones that can be found in drug stores. They come in patterns (some questionable) and only a few solid colors. (Last I looked it seemed the solid colors are going away? Which, eh, they were never that great anyhow. Except for the neon ones.)

I usually go for the muted gold (Raise A Glass) but for parties, like the holiday parties I’m headed to this weekend, I get to pull out the glitter! Every time I have used this particular gold glitter version I get compliments from people. At least they seem like compliments, I hope it’s not actually comments because glitter nails seem so out of place on me. Which they so totally are. I find it’s easier to remove these than two layers of glitter polish. I also value the ability for these to be applied just before you need to leave, because honestly I’m terrible at planning ahead.

#1reasonwhy | Slog. This went down while I was visiting family and I mostly missed it other than seeing the hastag in Twitter. Here is what was going on.

A Whole Lotta Nothing: Listening to podcasts piecemeal: huffduffer & Instacast.

How to See If Your Photos Are Being Used On Another Site | Kevin & Amanda. Via Shutterbean.

The 12 Best Family-Friendly PC Video Games | Babble.

Cool Tools – Sonos. “Audio over the internet isn’t new, but it really is barely tolerable if it’s not coming out of good speakers with power behind them.” I listen to a lot of podcasts and streaming radio and my Jambox is great so far but I’m looking at more options.

The Video Games Women Make | MetaFilter. Great information here.

Trend alert: small internet publications. Links to great things that are going on.

24 ways: Colour Accessibility. Designing for the color blind.

Hi everyone! Today I’m letting an old friend and mastermind of recipe crawls introduce her new web series. There is a little scavenger hunt and a giveaway wrapped up in it all, which I find so delightful. Without Brooke’s ability to pull together blogger events the Partridge In A Pear Tree 3D Cookie and the Decorated Orange Pumpkin Pancakes for Halloween would not have been thought up. Thanks Brooke! Take it away:

It’s a Holiday Block Party, and you’re just 24 hours away from winning a last-minute $500 Holiday Shopping Spree from Good Cook!

There’s a new neighbor in the bloggy culdesac, so we’re having a celebration to say hello and you’re invited! HisXHers.com is a new online video series with Cheeky Kitchen’s Brooke McLay and Daddy Evolving’s Eldon Kartcher. As a divorced mom and gay, widowed dad, Brooke and Eldon know a little about the untraditional paths life can take. They also know, as you do, how busy life can get. So, as real life besties with a penchant for food, design, and home, they decided it was time to create a deliciously stylish approach to the things we do everyday while keeping it all simple, realistic, and totally sexylicious.

Here’s how it works: Today only, 8 different blogs (including this one) are premiering exclusive HisXHers episodes. One reader will win a $500 Last-Minute Shopping Spree Visa, and 15 lucky readers will win an 8-piece Good Cook Bakeware set. Here’s how to get yourself all entered up and ready to win:

Step 1.
Visit all 8 of the blogs below & hunt for the answer to the secret question in their exclusive HisXHers.com episode:

Step 2.
Visit HisXHers.com, leave a comment with your answers to each of the 8 Holiday Scavenger Hunt questions, and you’re entered to win the Holiday Shopping Spree! To win one of the fifteen 8-Piece Good Cook Bakeware Sets, simply follow HisXHers.com on Facebook or Twitter.

Ready to get yer partay on?
Check out the episode below, nab the answer to this question, then visit HisXHers.com, leave a comment with your answers and you’re just 24-hours away from a potential shopping spree! Winners will be decided by 10 a.m. MST on Wednesday, December 19th.

This episodes Secret Holiday Scavenger Hunt question is:
Brooke talked the whole cast of what show into a giant Christmas surprise for her daughter?

BY HAND Gift Guides: BUILD. A story that led By Hand magazine to Lee Valley via an offline friend and then validated by Ron Swanson. Lee Valley is catalog store that I’ve loved since high school (which was, ahem, pre-internet shopping era).

A beer/bicycling guide to Portland here, Hop in the Saddle. Via Foodie Gift Guide: Part Deux | The Urban Grocer

Munchkin Munchies: Peppermint Stick Platter. I love this, but I suspect the whole platter would melt quickly in our humidity. I would have to seal it with something food safe and right about there it sounds like too much work.

Cool Tools – Guide to Gift Guides 2012. Lots of tools and gadgets things in the practical to awesome spectrum.

My friends Freshly Picked and The Alison Show got together as The Craft Pack and made a book full of delightful and easy (really, seriously) DIY holiday gifts. The book is called A Hip Handmade Holiday: Gifts For Everyone On You List For $10 Or Less and I super duper love it. It’s a PDF download and includes nine how-to videos, pro tips and lots and lots of printables.

Susan and Alison gave a presentation at Camp Mighty last month and Alison said (to applause) that if your idea of crafting is printing something onto sticker paper and slapping it on a jar, then this book is for you. There are also project with great instructions that teach you a technique and give some room to improvise if you’d like.

There are projects for women, men, pets, the house, things to treasure for years and those gifts for last minute print-and-glue moments. Susan and Alison have curated their offerings incredibly well so the book offers just a few projects for each category but every single one is gorgeous, clever and well explained. If you want to follow each project by the numbers they’re great, but there is also room to use the technique as a starting point. There are pro tips and how-to videos scattered throughout the book. The printables include every holiday card you could wish for, all the stencils you need and stickers to cover treats served in jars, paint cans and bottles.

I’m highly impressed with the balance they’ve struck here and if this is the type of quality that can come through non-traditional forms of publishing I clearly need to be paying closer attention. Susan and Alison have labeled this book “No. 1″ and I hope there are many more to come.

I’m a little obsessed with the Ho Ho Ho pillows.

Just so you know: If you buy the book through the link here I get a percentage. That percentage goes right back into hosting costs for this here website which are doubling due to higher traffic. This isn’t something I’m complaining about. Just, you know, noting. So thanks.

As a way of saying hello The Craft Pack is offering a $50 Michael’s gift card to Not Martha readers. Yay, thank you The Craft Pack!

If you’d like to enter just leave a message with this post, and if you want answer this question: Have you ever sent a DIY gift to a family member? What was the most successful or the least? (My answer: a trio of candied nuts were beloved, but the hand knit scarves mostly got a polite thank you.) You’ve got until next Tuesday, Dec. 18th at 12 noon Pacific (my) time to enter, at that point I’ll close comments. The fine print applies. Good luck! Closed, thanks to everybody for entering!

Sprinkle Bakes: Cinnamon Cider Sticks. These are basically mulling candy for your cider, I’m completely in love with them.

Roasted Rosemary Almonds – Shutterbean.

Joining the Biscuit Club « Tea & Cookies. The secrets to the perfect biscuit.

Xmas Wishlist, Non-Pappy Edition | Mash Notes. Which bourbon to buy when you cannot find Pappy Van Winkle, via The Morning News.

Washington Wine Battle: Columbia Crest vs. Chateau Ste. Michelle | Serious Eats: Drinks.

Lara Ferroni » Gingerbread Meringues.

The Baking Steel | Serious Eats. “The Baking Steel makes some of the finest indoor-oven pies you’ll ever make. It’s a quarter-inch-thick, 15-pound steel plate that you place in your oven in lieu of a pizza stone. Because of its superior thermal qualities (higher volumetric heat capacity, as well as higher conductivity than stone), you can cook pizzas faster than you’d be able to with a regular stone.”

Cool Hunting: Gift Guide.

To & From, Holiday 2012 Gift Guide. A huge amount of pretty things, via Making It Lovely.

Links to lots of gift guides over at Apartment 34.

Sprinkle Bakes: Essentials and Gifts for Bakers.

The kottke.org holiday gift guide. Only one item!

Lottie + Doof » Gift Guide 2012. Maldon Sea Salt mini tin! Via Shutterbean.

Holiday gift ideas for the hard-to-shop-for : All & Sundry. Really great ideas that Sundry got from Twitter, and more in the comments.

The Blogger Market. Goods curated by bloggers, open until Dec. 15th and full of pretty things.

The 2012 Good Gift Games – The Morning News. The annual review of board games from the almighty Matthew Baldwin. (He goes on public radio with this list each year here in Seattle!)

MetaFilter Holiday Meta-gift Guide | Best Of MetaFilter. Lots of great lists here (“gifts for people you don’t know very well”) along with links to the best gift guides and a Metafilter mall of sorts filled with things made and sold by Mefites. Awesome.

In my 3D Christmas Tree Gingerbread Cookies post last year I explained how to create your own version from an existing cookie cutter and I also offered a ready to go printable version that you could use. I wasn’t ever happy with that pattern so I’m updating it. The pages to print out are below, and they have been added to the original project as well.

I’ll be making these again (as soon as I have a working dishwasher, because ugh) and using royal icing and sanding sugar to decorate the branches instead, I think it’ll look far nicer.

A view overhead showing how the cookies fit together to make them stand up.

Click on each of these to view or download and print them.

Happy creating!

I’ve got a few cookie swaps coming up and I am considering something new. My usual cookie swap recipe is of the slice-and-bake variety, the Cornmeal-Cherry Cookies from Martha Stewart are a go to. (Also very helpful is this slice-and-bake cookie palette over at Smitten Kitchen.) The slice-and-bake means I can lovingly mix the dough a day or two before hand then bake the night before or the day of the swap and, since I have not been stressing over six dozen cookies for the majority of the day, I’m a happy person at the gathering. This year I wanted to do something different that would let me cut out a bunch of shapes (since I’ve been doing a lot of that lately and have my technique down). These gingerbread wreath cookies are under consideration. And then yesterday I came across these:

Edge of the mug cookies cutters! I previously came across this concept when doing research for my tiny gingerbread houses that perch on the edge of a mug but at that time the only cookie cutter sets I could find were ones you’d order from the UK or were no longer available, just ghost catalog pages found through a vigorous search. You can also cut a slot into any cookie, see this page at I Am Baker for examples, but I think we’ll all agree that a dedicated cutter is faster. I know, this is me saying that. I am the one who is always making needlessly complicated things because they amuse me and suddenly this is too much bother. (In my defense, I had made a few test runs of DIY edge of the mug cookies and they all sort of tipped over and fell off the mug so I gave up on it.)

I think I’ll be using these edge of the mug cookie cutters and making cocoa-friendly cookies out of basic shortbread dough for my cookie swaps. They’ll be fun and quick and hopefully novel enough to delight people.

But I’m curious: What is your favorite recipe for cookie swaps? Do you bring something practical? Or a family recipe? Do you attempt to dazzle? Or do you pick a cookie that you know to be delicious but might not look like much? Have a cookie that is a consistent crowd favorite? Share!

Studio Neat — It Will Be Exhilarating. An e-book on passion and business and prototypes. Via Scott Andrew (that would be the boy I’m married to).

xkcd: Two Years.

5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Saying Yes — genuineMIX. Things to answer to sort out whether you actually want to take on a new project. I’m working my way through these right now.

Add a brake light switch to a bicycle brake lever, at Instructables.

Two weeks of travel in November left me feeling a bit run down. I just cannot sleep well when I’m not at home and it leads to all forms of whining. (Frequent travelers who sleep, I salute you. Now tell me how you do it.) Part of the trouble is lower back pain which I’ve had since I was in high school and which has been bothering me again. When I was grousing about all my aches I decided I needed to start a regular exercise schedule again because I have discovered that when I keep my core strong my back pain is no longer a problem. I can sit in the least-ergonomic chairs and sleep in the saggiest mattress and be just fine. Also when you can keep up a sprint pace down long hallways you might not miss that connecting flight. (Which totally wasn’t my fault, who expected a worldwide computer system to crash just before my first flight of the morning? Who thought it would happen all over again for the return flights?) This is all “duh, Megan” information I realize but somewhere I had forgotten how beneficial it is for many different situations. Might any of this also have to do with putting on a bathing suit at Camp Mighty last month? Ha ha ha no! I mean yes, a lot.

So instead of giving in to the excuse that is waiting for New Years resolution time I decided to take this weak glimmer of motivation and start exercising right away. During the most overwhelming month of the year. Wish me luck.

One thing that is helping to propel me along is getting to try out pvBody. This is how it works, they send you a new exercise top and bottom each month for a subscription fee (which works out to two thirds less than the items would cost retail). If you like them you keep them, if not you send them back for a refund and shipping both ways is free. When you sign up you can chose guidelines based on what sort of activity you do (“being comfy” is one of the options) and style you like. They allow you to chose from a bunch options: racerback or camisole? short or long sleeve? low, natural or high waist? patterns or no? colors or all black? I like being that specific and I like not having to try on clothes in a too-warm and harshly lit dressing room. I’m finding having fresh new clothes that are stretchy in the right places and do that wicking thing to be motivating in a way I wasn’t expecting. Girl strong! Girl do extra bicycle crunches!

If you’d like to try it out pvBody is offering Not Martha readers 25% off the first box as well as a a $15 Lululemon gift card when you sign up for membership.

Have you had a point recently that made you freshly motivated? Tell me about it, I hope your story doesn’t involve as many aches as mine.

Earlier this year I accidentally donated our pepper grinder to Goodwill. Don’t worry, it was clean. We’d been decluttering the kitchen and my just washed and reassembled clear lucite pepper grinder went into the donate box. I replaced it with this OXO Good Grips Pepper Grinder which isn’t as pretty but I love it. The part you grab to turn is rubberized so it’s easy to grind. But most importantly for me, the actual grinding bits are at the top. You have to flip it over to grind over food but this means that when I retrieve it from it’s little kitchen shelf any loose pepper doesn’t fall out. Which is great because in my awkward and tiny kitchen I store the pepper grinder on a spot over my head. It’s easy to set the grind, and the other end unscrews so there is a nice wide opening for refilling. Two kitchen gadget thumbs up.

Eye Candy: 20 DIY Ideas for Happy Holiday Party Decor » Curbly | DIY Design Community.

The Whisky Advent Calendar Whisky – Master of Malt. Oh yes, it exists. Via Sprizee on Twitter.

The Beer Advent Calendar · Edible Crafts. Beer! Advent! Candar!

Creativebug – Free Holiday Video Workshops. Creativebug, who offer subscriptions to view hundreds of instructional craft videos made by really great people, offer some lovely free video workshops. I’m charmed by that Burlap Bunting Advent Calendar.

Roundup: 14 Modern DIY Advent Calendars and Holiday Countdown Projects » Curbly | DIY Design Community.

Mini Christmas Cookies for an Advent Calendar · Edible Craft.

Bubble and Sweet: Lollipop and Candy Christmas Tree Cake tutorial. This is adorable. Via Edible Crafts.

My 3D Gingerbread Christmas Trees were featured in Anthology Magazine’s Holiday Gift Guide, which is full of pretty things. Thanks Anthology! They also got a shout out in A Subtle Revelry’s Holiday Issue. Thanks A Subtle Revelry!

The Portland Bazaar is next weekend, Dec. 8th and 9th. There will be stuff to buy and food to eat and I wish I could make it down there. Also, Design*Sponge is buying the first 100 guests of each day a little pick me up (coffee from Heart on Saturday and Pine State Biscuits on Sunday). Nice.

The annual Gingerbread Village display here in Seattle is up now through January 1st at the Sheraton. If you’d like you can take a peek at what is on display each year. This display is one of my favorite reasons to take a trip downtown in the winter, and since the display is open at all hours (it’s in the hotel lobby) you can plan a late night viewing followed by cocktails nearby.

The Mighty Tieton 2012 Chandelier Festival is tomorrow, Dec. 1st and includes a Holiday Crafts & Antiques Bazaar and the opening of Trimpin’s Sound Space, which you can control using an iPhone. Which is awesome. I was a kickstarter supporter and have a bunch of tickets to experience it, which I’ll be doing soon.

Kin to Stars, which is one half Jerin Falkner and one half Scott Andrew (I’m married to one of them), is doing a holiday show soon. It’s the Kin to Stars’ Ugly Sweater Holiday Adventure on Dec. 14th. It’s $10 and it’s at the very comfortable Jambox, where they bring drinks and food to your table. It’ll be cozy and excellent.

Kirby Krackle just released a new song and video called One More Episode. (It’s fun to try to name all the show opening art in the video.) They’ll have a holiday single out soon, Kyle will be appearing at the Dammit Liz Holiday Special at The Triple Door. And Kirble Krackle will be opening for Wierd Al (!!!) at the Calgary Expo in April. Awesome.

Pumpkin-Inside Pound Cake · Edible Crafts.

Dinner Tonight: Michael Ruhlman’s Warm Arugula Salad with Bacon and Poached Eggs | Serious Eats.

Bon Appétempt: Organic and Chic’s Goldies or The Shiniest Dessert Ever. Shiny Twinkie like things!

Marx Foods Readies to Open First Retail Store – Voracious. They sell really fancy foods, I’m looking forward to being able to visit the retail location here in Seattle.

Crunchy Bloody Mary – Recipe File – Cooking For Engineers. Gotta try this very soon.

I had a fabulous time at Camp Mighty earlier this month. There was lots of learning about inspiring projects, lounging by pools, connecting with new people (‘sup new peeps from Seattle?!) and visiting with old friends. Mostly though I was thrilled by the number of people I met who had amazing goals for their life and the year ahead, and I loved watching how sharing those goals meant finding people who were able and happy to help.

And! This year Bing was a sponsor of the camp and helped two campers with one of the things on their list and, shocker, I was one of those names pulled out of the jar. So I’ll be hosting my first dinner party for ten people with their help. I’m petrified and super excited and of course you’ll be hearing all about it. Thanks Bing!

Go Mighty is up and running and doing online what Camp Mighty does off. I’ve yet to get my list up there (a week visiting family around Thanksgiving means I’m a little behind) but good stuff is already coming from the site. I cannot wait to see what happens next.

Urban Craft Uprising, the winter edition, is coming up very soon here in Seattle! It’s December 1st and 2nd, 11am to 5pm at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. As usual there are free craft demos and book signings as well as a swag bag for the first 100 people. Don’t wory, if you cannot make it in time to grab a bag they have have an hourly raffle. And this year there is a $1 coat check, so hopefully those aisles will be a little easier to navigate (the show is nearly too popular for it’s own good). I’m excited by all the artisan food vendors they have, and the number of new vendors as well. This is my favorite sort of shopping!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I hope you’re somewhere cozy and surrounded by people you consider family. And I hope you stuff yourself until you cannot do anything more than sit on a couch and drool at the television. We are hanging with family in a large rental house near a lake where we are scouring the shore for acorns and skipping stones. I hope you are similarly happily situated!

He’s So Unusual | The Hairpin. Jane Marie interviews her uncle Patrick, who was Cyndi Lauper’s makeup person through all the crazy 80s years.

Our First Issue, By Hand Magazine. It’s here it’s here! I love everything inside, but most especially the pattern for the lattice cowl.

Talking with Maria Bamford About Stand-up, Her New Special, and Her Role in ‘Arrested Development’ | Splitsider.

Where can I get some American Chestnut seeds or seedlings? | Ask MetaFilter.

3D Printing Photo Booth Makes Tiny Replicas Instead Of Pictures – PSFK. Wow! Via Girls of a Certain Age.

Video: Excellent Footage Of Williamsburg Captured During Hurricane Sandy: Gothamist. The power station explosion is around 3:10. Interesting and scary.

Cool Tools – Rivet Spacer. “A rivet spacer was originally designed for evenly spacing rivets on aircraft, but it can be used for evenly spacing anything, from buttons on a sweater, to finish nails on those infernal Ikea drawers you are trying to put together nicely.”

11 Turkey-Shaped Foods That Aren’t Turkey at Buzzfeed. I’m fascinated and grossed out. See also: the turkey shaped jello mold contest.

quick. easy. perfect. thanksgiving recipes | Mighty Girl. Bourbon brined turkey!?

Turkey Tips From Alton Brown: Don’t Baste Or Stuff : NPR. He stuffs the bird after it’s been cooked, then maaaaybe uses a kitchen torch to make the bits that show a little toasty.

The Food Lab’s Top Nine Tips For Perfect Apple Pie | Serious Eats.

How to Transform Leftover Cranberry Sauce into a Cocktail – Videos – CHOW.

Faceted Vase DIY + Free Template, at Oh Happy Day.

How To: Make Washi Tape Magnets » Curbly.

Technique – Wheat Paste – How Did You Make This?.

swissmiss | Touchscreen Glove Kit. Have you tried any gloves meant for touch screens and found them, er, lacking? Me too, I’m ready to DIY this solution.

Seattle Magazine | Our Favorite Hidden Restaurant Patios.

David Sedaris and the Lit Crawl That Wasn’t a Lit Crawl | Slog. I am out of town for the David Sedaris reading in Port Angeles that is linked to here and, well, darn. You should go.

New Food Truck Pod: Come on Seattle, Don’t Screw This Up – Voracious. We have a food truck pod! Weekly calendar can be found at their website: 2nd & Pike. Might I suggest checking out the Off The Rez truck if you happen to come across it? It’s my favorite.

BevMo is opening a store in Northgate! And if you happen to be free on Friday morning and finding yourself in need of some booze you might also get a gift bag (first 500 people get one).

Later this week I’m headed to Camp Mighty. This will be my second year and I’m excited to see the people whom I met last year, I’m happy to revisit the hot tub at the Ace Hotel, I can definitely use a little shot of sunshine and I’m anticipating what things will come into my attention that I never new were there before. I was terrified to revisit the Life List that I submitted last year because, honestly, I have not focused on it very much. But you know what? When I reviewed my list I was able to cross off six things. None of them were huge or contributed to big world changes but being able to check them off was so thrilling. And then, of course, I added six new ones and I tried to make them a little bigger. This upcoming year I’ll schedule time to step back, take a look through my list and see if there are any connections to those things I want to do and the with people I know that can point me in the right direction that might normally go overlooked or shuffled away in a haze of routine.

Part of Camp Mighty is raising money for Charity Water. Last year the camp as a whole got word that we’d reached our fundraising goal in the middle of the weekend and we all cheered, it was a moment. Earlier this Autumn we got the photos, some shown above, of just what our fundraising managed to do. Our funds went into buying a drilling rig called Yellow Thunder which will bring 40,000 people clean water each year. Wow, people.

The people behind Camp Mighty also very recently announced the opening of Go Mighty, a site where people can share their goals, view those of others and connect to get stuff done. Registration is open so go, go on!

Klein Bottle Openers | Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

General Store & Community Market | MARKET | west elm. I’m digging West Elm’s curated marketplace.

ThinkGeek :: Portal Cookie Cutters. I want these!

Introducing Mark and Graham at Apartment 34. Erin invites us to see Williams-Sonoma’s latest shop, that will fill your life with awesome monogrammed goods.

My New Hygge and West Wallpaper is HERE!, Lisa Congdon. I am absolutely loving this wallpaper and eyeing my house to see if it might fit somewhere.

Get Cabiria High End Plus Size Into Stores by Cabiria Style — Kickstarter. This campaign looks worth backing, I even fell for the very first dress they show on their Kickstarter page. I love that one of the extras is a coloring book.

These are the books currently stacked up in my living room waiting for me to give them some more attention. Looks like I’m in for a lot of time in the kitchen! I’m putting two at the top here because they have events coming up soon (like, today soon):

The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perlman, Smitten Kitchen. This book is as beautiful as you are thinking it might be. Deb is here in Seattle right now! She’s at the Book Larder tonight, the main event is sold out but signing is open to the public later in the evening. Tomorrow, the 8th, she’s at the University Bookstore at 10 a.m.

Real Snacks: Make Your Favorite Childhood Treats Without All the Junk This book is by Lara Ferroni, Cook and Eat, whom I had the pleasure of meeting when she lived here in Seattle (we miss you!). She has recipes for all our familiar favorites and each recipe includes instructions for gluten-free and vegan versions as well. Lara will be at the Book Larder here in Seattle on Nov. 13th.

Ok, now from the top down:

Bake It in a Cupcake: 50 Treats with a Surprise Inside by Megan Seling, Bake It in a Cake. You gotta make the pumpkin pie cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. I mean, come on. Megan Seling also happens to be a music and food editor at Seattle’s weekly paper The Stranger.

Beer Craft: A Simple Guide to Making Great Beer by William Bostwick and Jessi Rymill. They go through all the information you need to brew whatever type of beer you’d like using your stovetop, and the graphical layout of the book makes everything very easy to take in.

The America’s Test Kitchen DIY Cookbook. Canning, pickling, making cheese, preserving meats (and yes, bacon), homemade snacks and brewing beer all with the how and why information that will allow you to make variations. I love this book.

Tim Gunn’s Fashion Bible: The Fascinating History of Everything in Your Closet with Ada Calhoun. The history of what we wear and why we wear it, with tips on how to look your absolute best. The tone is conversational and filled with anecdotes. I wish this had been around when I was starting to study costume design in college.

Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round by Marisa McClellan. From jams and pickles to syrups, granolas and nut butters. Even chocolate cakes, vanilla extract and information on freezing in jars. The book includes stories from her childhood and the tone is very friendly.

Improv Sewing: A Freeform Approach to Creative Techniques; 101 Fast, Fun, and Fearless Projects: Dresses, Tunics, Scarves, Skirts, Accessories, Pillows, Curtains, and More by Nicole Blum and Debra Immergut. The projects in this book are lovely and not too intimidating. They include basic garment shapes and dozens of ways to adapt them as well as decorative and functional items for your house and yourself.

Cook’s Illustrated The Science of Good Cooking. Detailed information on the practical science behind food and cooking, including lots of recipes. This book is dense, packed with solutions to common cooking troubles and will become my go-to for when I have a question about why a recipe has me doing something that I need to understand.

Go vote! This image is Lisa Congdon‘s addition to the #GoVote project. If you’re in SF go see Lisa’s show at Rare Device: This Is My World.

Nation’s First DIY Distillery Opens in Tacoma – Voracious.

We Prove It: Fat Makes Eggs Tender | The Feed.

How to Make Caramelized Onion Jam | The Feed.

The Food Lab’s Complete Guide to a Stress-Free Thanksgiving, 2012 Edition | Serious Eats.

Pumpkin Graham Bread | Not Without Salt. Oh yum.

I have serious cardigan envy. I cannot wear wool, not even cashmere, so each year I gaze longingly at the cozy sweaters other people wrap themselves in. This year I decided I needed a big, enveloping Vince-like sweater coat. (A note to Vince: I will pay your Vince-prices if you make me a wool- and yak-free sweater to buy. Please?) I need this sweater so I have something appropriate to snuggle into when I am inevitably seated too close to the front door of a restaurant where the oh so cold air keeps getting let in, my current plan of many layers of fleece and multiple scarves is getting old. Here is what I’ve found so far:

On the left: The Manon cardigan by Line, at Saks Fifth Avenue. I love this sweater so much I’m considering buying a second. The collar is snuggly like a scarf, the sleeves are tight enough that they don’t get in the way when you’re eating dinner, and the nice deep pockets give you a spot to hide your phone. This looks dark gray from a distance but it’s made up of teal and taupe yarns that add some nice depth up close.

(You can also find the Manon in charcoal being sold under the John&Jenn label right now. It’s on sale, so no returns, and note that shipping from that Line specific site, which is in Canada, to the US will be about $30.)

On the right: The Hinge Scallop Cardigan at Nordstrom. This is nice and slouchy, the knit is dense and it feels like it’s hugging you. The sleeve cuffs won’t get in the way, but there aren’t any pockets. As far as beige goes this is a cool toned beige (Stone Cobbler is the listed color). The only reason I won’t be keeping this one is that I personally look terrible in the color no matter how much I keep trying to convince myself I can pull it off.

Does anybody out there have any secret spots where one can find cozy knitwear that is great looking and doesn’t have any wool? Please do share, I’m running out of places to look!

Spider Pinata DIY at Oh Happy Day. That is one meaty looking spider.

Easy Last-Minute Costume Ideas For Adults | Celebrations with Design Mom. This video has a few simple ideas that are low-commitment but still fun.

Pumpktris, A Playable LED Lit Game of Tetris Inside of a Pumpkin, at Laughing Squid.

Secret Horror – The Morning News. Six horror movies you might not know about but are worth watching.

skulls at Design Crush. A post by yours truly.

Design Crush » Curious Vase. Three vases nestled inside each other, you have to break one to see what shape the next one is. Love it.

The True Spy Story Behind Argo – By Nate Jones | Foreign Policy. I read the Antonio J. Mendez book which tells the true story of the mission.

Remember last year when I made a 3D Gingerbread Christmas Tree out of interlocking cookies so that the tree stands on it’s own? I had so much fun making it that I decided to do something for Halloween too. This time I made a tree from four pieces so that the eight branches resemble spider legs. Perched in a dish of candy it looks rather creepy.

To make this I used one batch of Gingerbread House dough from Simply Recipes that was divided into four equal pieces before chilling it. I roll it to 1/4-inch thickness and bake it until the edges are browning so that it’s as dry and strong as possible. Directions and templates are all below.

I think I have some changes to make but in the mean time I feel like I’ve figured out how to roll out gingerbread dough with as little swearing as possible. As much as I love making gingerbread for construction purposes I really dislike rolling it out. Here is my set up:

The Roll-Pat is an investment but it gives me a smooth surface to use. It grips the tabletop and keeps parchment paper from slipping. A nice, heavy and super wide rolling pin with handles also makes a huge difference, before this I only had a cylinder rolling pin but this one with handles makes the job a lot easier. I have a 15″ rolling pin and it is large enough for everything I’ve used it for so far. I have both silicone and rubber rolling pin rings (one set has 1/2 inch and the other has 5/8ths inch heights). I cannot fit the thicker rubber rings around my larger rolling pin so I switch to my narrower rolling pin if I need to use them.

I let the dough come to room temperature and before I put it down to roll it out I squish flat to about twice the thickness I ultimately want. I like to roll dough between two layers of parchment paper, my house is small and flour gets everywhere so I avoid using it when I can.

Roll between two layers of parchment, and make sure it’s big enough to cut out your shape. I roll out all four pieces of dough first and leave each sandwiched in parchment until I’m ready to cut out my shapes.

I peel off the top layer of parchment and cut away any excess parchment so that it will ultimately fit onto a cookie sheet.

I sprinkle a little flour on top so that my paper template won’t stick.

Keep a pastry brush nearby to brush away excess flour when you’re done, try not to get it all over your floor the way I always manage to do.

To cut around the template I have found that a thin, blunt metal pattern tracing wheel does the job really well, think of it like a miniature pizza cutter. It makes a straighter cut and clears more height than a similar fondant cutter.

To cut tidy details into the corners I use this thin metal sewing ruler. You can also use a flat head screwdriver or a blunt knife, be very careful to not cut into the surface of your rollpat.

After you’re done cutting out your shape remove the excess dough from around it, this will keep the shape from warping or stretching. Then slide that parchment right onto your cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet in the freezer for about ten minutes before baking.

Here are all four baked shapes, and below I’m showing how they fit together.

Here are four images you can use if you’d like to make your own, each should print out at about the size of a sheet of paper:

I think I have more gingerbread experimentation to come. Happy Halloween!

From the mailbag: flickering LEDs in series | Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

Technique – Finish Strings of Beads with Bead Tips – Luxe DIY.

Flower Party Blowers at Oh Happy Day.

Mighty Thirst, Halloween: Killer Bloody Mary | Mighty Girl. Adore the garnish.

10 Caramel Apples You Should Consider Making | Hitting Refresh with Laura Mayes.

Bake It in a Cake • Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting.

A Salem-Lover’s Tourism Guide | The Hairpin.

These Trick-or-Treat cookies have a surprise inside. Each cookie either holds a treat, like mini chocolate candies, or a trick, here they are small sugar ants. Which will you get? You’ll have to break one open to find out.

How to make Trick-or-Treat cookies:

Make one or more batches of cut out cookie dough (recipe below, or use your favorite) and after chilling it take it out of the fridge to warm up so it can be rolled out. Preheat your oven to 350 and clear a shelf in your fridge or a spot in your freezer large enough to hold a cookie sheet.

Roll out one half of your dough between two sheets of parchment paper to a 1/4th inch thickness. Remove the top layer of parchment and cut out your cookies, dipping the cutter in flour to keep it from sticking. We’ll be baking the cookies on this same parchment so space them about an inch apart.

Right now you are cutting two parts of each cookies (the top and the bottom) so if you have an asymmetrical cutter be sure to flip it over and cut half of them mirror image, as shown above.

Trim the parchment away from the dough so that it’s small enough to sit on your cookie sheet and slide the parchment onto the cookie sheet. Put this in the fridge or freezer to firm up so you can pull away the excess dough.

Later we’ll baking the cookies right on this sheet so trimming the parchment means they’ll bake flat. I keep the cookies on this same parchment throughout so they don’t have a chance to lose their shape.

Once the dough has firmed up pull away the excess from around the cut out shapes. You can save the scraps for more cookies later.

Before baking chill the cookies and the cookie sheet again for about 10 minutes before putting them in the oven. (You can roll out your second layer while you’re waiting, instructions are just under the next photo.)

Bake for about 10 minutes, checking and rotating the cookie sheet half way through. After that check often and remove once the edges of the cookies are just starting to look brown and the tops look set.

Slide the parchment onto a cooling rack and let them sit for a few minutes until the cookies are cool and strong enough to slide them off the parchment and right onto the cookie rack.

Roll your second half of the dough to 1/2″ or 3/8″ thick. You’ll be cutting the middles for you cookies so only cut half as many this time, so if you cut six earlier, you only need three now. (No need to make mirror image cut outs this time.) Use smaller cutters to create a hole in the center of each shape.

Trim the parchment, slide onto a cookie sheet and chill the dough as you did for the first round. When it’s firm remove the excess dough from the outside as well as the inside of your shapes.

Again, chill these very well on the cookie sheet before baking them. Check and rotate after five minutes and keep an eye on them after that. Remove when the bottom edges begin to brown and cool carefully, as you did for the first set.

While your cookie pieces are cooling mix up some glue from one cup of powdered sugar and four tablespoons of milk (as per the recipe below). Put this into a sandwich sized zip bag and clip a teeny tiny corner off.

Lay your cookies out so the bottom piece has the flattest side up, the middle and tops will have the flattest side down. When constructed the top and the bottom of your cookies will show the pretty side that was up while they were baking and they’ll look nice and tidy. If you have asymmetrical cookies here be sure all the bits will match when they are sandwiched.

Glue the middle part of your cookie to the bottom.

Fill the cookies with your trick or your treat. Be random, no cheating! Don’t overfill them and check to make sure the top of your cookie will fit on with no trouble. It’s much easier to do this not before more sugar glue is introduced.

I made four different shapes: pumpkins, ghosts, tombstones and coffins (my favorite).

A detail shot to show the middle layer of cookie is a bit thicker than the top and bottom layers.

Glue the top on, decorate if you’d like, and you’re done! Now, serve these and see how much fun people have breaking them open.

Notes:

Important: Make sure anything you might put inside these cookies is edible, you don’t want somebody accidentally swallowing something like a plastic spider (which I really, really wanted to hide inside these).

These cookies were inspired by the Pinata Cookies made over at She Knows, which are genius. Since I didn’t need mine to be striped I used a cut out sugar cookie recipe instead and created a thicker middle layer. I did try to cut the cookies out when the dough comes out of the oven and is still warm, the technique that is in the She Knows recipe, but found it created an edge that was too crumbly.

I used a set of seven Halloween cookie cutters made by Wilton for the cookies you see here. I cannot seem to find the same set online, it came packaged in a coffin shaped box and it’s probably already 50% off at Joann. The middles of my cookies were cut out using my Ateco 12-piece round cutters, which I love and find myself using often.

I find rolling dough to be tedious so I invested in a Roll-Pat (that page shows it as Roul-Pat but mine says Roll-Pat on it). It’s similar to a Silpat but oversized and the bottom layer grips your counter top. This is lovely because I prefer to roll dough between two layers of parchment and this keeps the parchment from slipping on my counter top. Love it, especially as what I think of as gingerbread construction season arrives.

There are so many options for what tricks you can hide inside, here I used some black cake decorations made by Wilton, they are complete edible but don’t taste like much. I also considered some small flat sour gummy candies, salted licorice coins, various cake decorations (skull and crossbones!) and Pop Rocks. For the treats the only things could find that are small enough are mini M&Ms or (my favorite) Valrhona Perles Craquant. Sadly I found that Reeses Pieces or candy corn wouldn’t fit inside, I tried. A friend mentioned that mini-candy corn might exist in the world and if I’d managed to find some I definitely would have used that as well.

I’m also considering seeing if I can make the coffin cookies tall enough to fill with some sugar skeleton pieces I found. I’d also include the Valrhona Perles Craquant as graveyard dirt. And small gummi worms if I can find some.

Click more for the recipe.

Trick-or-Treat Cookies Recipe

• 12.0 ounces (2.5 cups) all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I love the vanilla paste made by Nielsen-Massey)
• gel food coloring (optional)

for the glue:
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 4 teaspoons milk

to go inside:
• mini M&Ms or other small treat candy
• cake decorations or other small trick candy

Directions:

Mix together your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and salt).

Beat the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for a minute more. If you’re adding food coloring put a few drops in now, it’ll be easier to see how much you need to add later and speed the process up.

With your mixer on a low speed gradually add half your flour. Take a moment to add more food coloring here if you’re using it and think you need it. Mix everything on low for a minute here, we need these cookies to be strong over tender so developing a little gluten won’t hurt. Add the rest of the flour and mix until everything all comes together.

Divide the dough into two balls. Flatten each a little and wrap individually in plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge until firm, four hours or overnight.

Each amount of dough will make six to eight Trick-or-Treat Cookies.

Note: I tried a number of cut out cookie recipes that spread too much for me and settled on a recipe from Real Simple that @seventenclark on Twitter pointed me towards and for which I ended up making a few changes. If you have a cut out cookie recipe you like go ahead and use it. I didn’t get to test the following recipes but they were also recommended on Twitter: Inchmark, Joy of Cooking, Dorie Greenspan, Annie’s Eats, and Jamie’s grandmother’s recipe. Thanks everybody!

Happy Halloween!

Sprizee :: A simple girl replete with complications: Roadtrip to Zillah. A teepee with an air conditioner on a working ranch, my kind of place! Sprizee is becoming my personal travel recommendation source.

Kinder Eggs and Codeine Cough Syrup: Contraband across the Canadian border | Ask MetaFilter. What to buy while in Canada.

On the Road: Good Beer & Food on the Las Vegas Strip.

A R D O R: DIY MINI SURPRISE BALL PUMPKIN. Via Say Yes to Hoboken.

Halloween Food: Piggy Coffins! | The GastroGnome.

Skull Votives | Freshly Picked. I love the glittery interiors of these, and I love that they are a pretty easy and impressive DIY.

Guide me home shoes « Variations on normal by Dominic Wilcox. These are amazing, go have a look.

Luminata « Tea & Cookies. I’ve been meaning to get to one of these for a while, so glad Tea was able to document this one so well (I was out of town).

Barbican’s Rain Room at Kottke. An art installation that tracks your movements so it rains all around you but you stay dry as you pass through the room.

I was in Boston recently and got a chance to tour the offices of America’s Test Kitchen. It was utterly thrilling! At the time we visited most of the staff were up in Vermont filming episodes of Cook’s Country so the upshot was that instead of feeling hopelessly in the way my group got a chance to have a nice look around. Huge thanks to Steph for arranging and giving us the tour, it was an excellent way to start our trip.

Thanks to Busywork, A and Scott for cheerfully joining me. Especially considering for some of us it was hideously early in the day and for others it was well past lunchtime.

We got to peek at their library of cookbooks and recipe related publications and learned that they have their own classification system. And they do have a full set of Modernist Cooking which I was too afraid to touch without gloves. (This being the second time I was too timid to grab these books makes me all that much more likely to carry my own cotton and/or latex gloves just in case I should encounter the set again.) We also got a brief look into their photo studio which is actually a corner room that gets fantastic light. Their room was full of bounces, which makes a northern-dweller like me feel better about what lengths I’ll to through to get a half way decent photo on dim days.

The offices and studio are in an old building and space is limited so shelves holding cookware are everywhere. Everything is organized and labeled and I desperately envy their collection of All-Clad. Know what? They do use paper plates to separate frying pans and plates when they are stored, just like the tip in the magazines.

They have two kitchens, the larger one you see during the show and a smaller one where recipes are developed. They have walls of ovens and Kitchenaid mixers and storerooms full of the recommended appliances, which they keep for two years in case they need to do some follow up testing with them.

They use gas stoves for recipe development but somewhere, hidden under a countertop, is an electric stove that they test all recipes on to make sure people with electric stoves (including myself) will have the same results.

The show is underwritten by certain brands so they are unable to test and recommend those brands’s products. On the other side they cannot accept underwriting from companies whose products they test and will potentially recommend, which is why you won’t see underwriting from cookware brands you might know and love yourself. They purchase all the equipment they test and never accept freebies.

The larger kitchen looks just like you see on the show but overhead are lights and cords, and when they are filming cameras and sound equipment are crammed all around one counter.

When you see people working in the background of filmed segments they really are cooking, but are doing so more slowly and quietly they they would normally. If they need activity to fill in the background beyond what would normally be going on, we were told, you can often see interns making batches upon batches of cookies.

One of the most delightful things we learned was that all their grilling is done in the alley outside the building. They test things on multiple grills (and we saw at least 20 grills while we were there) so if anything is being slow cooked or smoked there will always be somebody out there.

If you turn around you are looking at a few parking spaces which is where they film back yard segments. This is why they thank their neighbors at the end of each episode. They also send over cookies, which have got to be the very best thank you cookies ever. Gosh I wish I was their neighbors.

One of the most popular places to be at the end of the working day is peeking inside the leftovers fridge where all the food made that day is portioned and available to be taken home by employees. (Curse our 10 a.m. visiting time.)

This oven right here is the one you see Bridget using in the show. Which: Eeeee! I have seen so many perfectly finished things emerging from this oven.

The Wall of Awesome is updated each week with the good stuff people blog and tweet about. This photo was taken really early in the week and I can only imagine what it looks like by Friday. I have to admit I was inspired to know that the people there (who work six or more months in advance) could see the ecstatic results of what they do as they speed past on their way to making cranberry sauce in, say, June. So, cheers to America’s Test Kitchen! I’m amazed at how much quality you pack into such a small space. Here is to many more years of the test kitchen on public television!

What is your homebrew sanitization process? | Ask MetaFilter.

3 Female Craft Brewers to Watch | Serious Eats: Drinks.

DIY Friday: Make an Altoids Mini-BBQ. Perfect For S’Mores! | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.

A video pronunciation guide to Scotch, at Kottke.

Chocolate Butterflies with Wax Paper and Books · Edible Crafts.

I had an excellent time at AB Chao’s Design Camp here in Seattle. The Pantry at Delancey was a perfect and charming location (and so very convenient to Essex’s 4:30 opening time). I came away from the two day class looking at my house with a critical and organized view and with a clear plan for a whole bunch of problem spots (ahem, my window coverings). The second day of class included going over a room in each attendees home and mine was troublesome, I think all my classmates might agree. The exercise was amazing because I found myself applying everything I’d learned the day before and, this was great, feeling like I can do this. Among the swag that comes with the class is a USB/bottle opener (right?!) with the whole presentation on it including the resources that I completely forgot to write down.

My favorite bits, though, were getting to hang with the women whose sites I’ve read for years: da*xiang, Erica Mulherin and of course AB Chao. Ladies, it was an honor!

You can find more pictures of Design Camp Seattle over at AB Chao’s site because somebody forgot to charge her camera battery and needed to use my camera instead. Only with her way-better lens.

Three Apartment Makeovers | Making it Lovely. I like all these quick makeovers, excellent job Nicole!

Radar Sconces from Schoolhouse Electric. | Door Sixteen. Many colors.

Cool Tools – Tool Rental Know-How. Some neighborhoods in Seattle have tool lending libraries.

Cool Tools – OLFA Auto-Lock Utility Knife. A simple, safe and inexpensive utility knife.

Cool Tools – Strapworks.com. Recommendation for a store that carries all sorts of fasteners and buckles.

Laura’s Loop: Cashmere Cuff – the purl bee. These are chunky grown up friendship bracelets.

DIY Vintage Salt and Pepper Shakers | Say Yes to Hoboken.

Sally J Shim – Talking Hands Tattoos. Pretty brilliant temporary tattoos.

swissmiss | String Art Necklace.

New at Purl Soho: Utility Canvas! – the purl bee. I love the Utility Canvas bags, and they come in a bunch more colors than last time I checked in on them.

Earlier this year I bought a whipped cream maker and promptly used it to make a lazy girl’s Ramos Gin Fizz. During my research I found that a whipped cream maker has more uses for booze, it can fast infuse spirits in seconds by using the pressure inside the canister to push flavors into the liquor. So cool.

I’ve previously made grapefruit and tarragon infused vodka and love it so much I’ve wanted to introduce it to anybody that showed the smallest interest but it takes six days and I cannot tell the future. So I decided to test a few infusions and do a side by side tasting of the slow and fast versions to see how they compared.

I made slow and fast versions of Cucumber Jalapeño Tequila, Pineapple Ginger Rum and Grapefruit Tarragon Vodka. For the slow infusions I put the ingredients in a jar stored in the fridge for six days, taking a second to swirl the ingredients once a day then I strained them through a fine mesh strainer.

To make fast infusions you put your spirit and flavorings into your whipped cream maker. Put the lid on and charge it with your gas canister. Swirl (don’t shake) the canister for 30 seconds then let it rest for 30 seconds. Carefully, discharge the gas by leaving the canister upright (you want to keep the liquids inside) and slowly pulling the trigger, make sure to point the nozzle away from anything important like delicate stemware or your face. Then remove the lid and pour the ingredients through a fine mesh strainer. Why the swirling and resting for 30 second increments? I’m not sure but Cooking Issues and a few other sources recommend that so I go with it.

Results? My tasting panel (um, myself and Scott) took careful notes. The slow infused gin had more tarragon and more bitterness from the grapefruit peel. The slow infused tequila carried lots of green notes from the cucumber that the fast infusion didn’t show. The slow infused rum showed a little more pineapple, but the fast infusion had a much stronger ginger note. I’m not sure if the fast infusion is better at getting ginger flavor out or if the ginger I used was better, but it was such a clear difference that I might try again to see how it compares.

The winners were the slow infusions, at least for now. I’ll just have to learn to plan ahead if I want people to try Salted Tarragon Greyhounds. (You should make some, I’ll wait.) I think that the recipes could be adjusted to create better results for fast infusions, but I’m wondering if there are some things that just cannot be rushed. Clearly I’ll need to do a lot more research. It’ll be tough to sip so many variations on infused liquor but, for you, I’ll be tipsy any time.

While we were at it I did a fast infusion recipe that I saw demonstrated at the Northwest Distillery and Cocktail Festival by Jay Kuehner. He talked through his recipe so here is the best I could do from my notes from the night. He made enough for six cocktails:

Smokey infused whiskey
10x whiskey
1x lapsang souchong tea
3 vanilla beans

I made a smaller amount and used about 1/4th of a 750 ml bottle of whiskey, one vanilla bean split and cut into a few shorter segments and two pinches of loose tea. I strained the result and then poured it through a coffee filter to also get the the vanilla beans and smaller specks of tea. The tea imparted a nice smokey flavor into the whiskey and though the vanilla wasn’t too apparent in the flavor it imparted a lovely vanilla nose. It vastly improved my unfortunate choice of whiskey (which shall go unnamed).

Have a favorite infusion recipe? Please share it, I have jars and fridge space that need filling.

When I was getting ready to head off to NYC for the HP/Project Runway trip I ran into a neat series of coincidences. I asked Rena Tom for a recommendation and she pointed me towards Sarah Loertscher, a jewelry designer right here in Seattle. Rena wasn’t aware of this but it turns out that Mila Hermanovski (who appeared on Season 7 of Project Runway as well as Project Runway All Stars) had commissioned Sarah to create a jewelry line for her Fall/Winter 2012 runway show. Sarah has a set of earrings, Structure Earrings No.25, from the runway collection for sale on her site which happened to be the same as the pair of earrings Mila wore when she appeared on Episode 3 of the current season of Project Runway. And then I found out that Mila was working with Jamie of Design Milk and would be joining us for the trip.

Mila was delightful and I really enjoyed chatting with her. And on the first day of the trip she wore Sarah’s Hex Bracelets.

Sarah told me that Mila snagged this necklace off of one of the models after the runway show so it became known as Mila’s necklace. She was wearing it at the Project Runway 10th Anniversary Party, shown above.

The earring that Mila wore in episode three of season ten of Project Runway.

The three images above belong to Sarah Loertscher, used with permission. Top image, Left: Mila Hermanovski and Jamie Derringer at the Project Runway 10th Anniversary Party, Mila is wearing a necklace made by Sarah Loertscher. Right: Mila Hermanovski wearing Sarah Loertscher’s Hex Bracelets, photo taken with permission, obviously. Apologies for the small images, both are from my Instagram stream.

The Seattle Dog: An Oral History – Seattle Weekly.

Fresh Hop Beers are Here: Where to Get Your Fresh Hop Fix This Year, Seattle Beer News. I will actually be in town for a few of these events, yes!

Campfire Cook | Living Blogs | Martha Stewart. Making damper, “a simple bread that Australian bushmen made when they spent nights out under the stars.” I want to make this sometime soon!

Hand-blended organic teas, delivered monthly | Bird’s Eye Tea. A little birdie told me that Maria from Curio Confections has been baking small bites to include with the monthly tea shipments. I adore everything Maria makes!

The Pizza Lab: The Baking Steel Delivers | Slice Pizza Blog. We have a new winner in the “what to use to cook pizza at home” wars and it is available to us because of Kickstarter, neat.

In August I attended Hops Academy in Yakima, Washington. I don’t brew beer outside of kits but I have a deep love for hops, they are so darn yummy, so when I discovered that I could learn more about them I jumped at the chance. Also a friend of mine is expanding his brewery, Charging Hippo, and I figured knowing a lot about hops miiiight just be information that could be traded for beer. The academy was a two day class that ranged from basic introduction, how hops are grown, harvested and preserved to full on molecule diagrams. I learned that 75% of the hops in the US are grown in Yakima by ten growers, that in recent years the desires of craft brewers have dramatically influenced what variety of hops are grown commercially, that when you grow hops you need to wrap them clockwise around the cord (even in Australia) and I heard jokes like this:

“If you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the precipitate.”

One of the best things about the class was meeting the other attendees who ranged from a really huge beer company to large and small craft brewers and even a hops grower. I was wildly happy that women made up a fourth of the class. After the first day we took an unofficial “research” trip to The Beer Shoppe where we all bought bottles and tasted Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA which was sweet and potent. Oh so potent.

We were there about a week before the hops were going to be harvested so we got to visit huge fields full of ripe hops. They grow to 16 feet high and are very dramatic. It was a geeky thrill to get to pick one to crush in my hands, it smelled amazing. We also got to visit sparkling clean processing factories and, the most exciting, enormous cold warehouses filled with bales of hops.

If you’re a brewer or a grower I think the class would be well worth it. We learned that Haas is building an experimental brewery in Yakima and it will become part of the class so I’d wait for that to be up and running, hopefully by next summer. I might go back.

Home made tendskin recipe at Makeup Talk. Via Ask Metafilter.

Sarah’s 5 Minute Makeup Routine! – The Sarah James Show – Episode 5 – YouTube. She likes my favorite mascara too!

The girl we all wanna be – Girls of a Certain Age. Kim France on Andrea Linett’s new fashion memoir: “Anyone who came of age in the late 70s and early 80s—or whose universes were in any way altered by The Brooke Book, Fiorucci, Bow Wow Wow, Sun-In or Leif Garret —will be utterly charmed.”

I recently got to visit Tom Douglas’ Palace Kitchen restaurant to learn how they smoke tomatoes. It was pretty rad. I went home and made my own. And guess what? My tomatoes? Not so smokey. Let’s blame the underpowered two-burner grill. Or me not really committing to setting wood chips on fire. Or my tiny foil containers.

I’ll be trying again. Smoked tomatoes, I will conquer you.

The Setup / Interviews. What people use to get stuff done, I had no idea there was brewing software. Also, hi there Loobylu! Via Swissmiss.

Brian May performs Olympics closing ceremony in ‘badger coat’ | Farmers Guardian. Of all the things that happened in the Closing Ceremonies Brian May’s coat was the one that I had to Google.

Operation Let’s Build A Goddman Tesla Museum – The Oatmeal. “Help me raise money to buy Nikola Tesla’s old laboratory.” One of the fundraising perks is a poster “signed by Tesla’s last remaining relative, William Terbo”. Cool.