thing-a-day 2008 over

Here’s a photo collage of the most photogenic things I made for this year’s thing-a-day. Edit: If you can’t view the video below, the original is here.

I’d recommend thing-a-day to anyone who is looking to push their comfort zone and prove to themselves that they can be creative, and can produce something a day. It was eye-opening for me.

bacon breakfast twisties

Ingredients:

  • 2 c. never bleached flour
  • 4 tsp. baking powder
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 7 Tbsp. unsalted butter
    • 2 Tbsp. of that butter should be melted
    • the rest should be cold
  • 1 scant cup milk
  • 3 Tbsp. brown or demerara sugar
  • ½ Tbsp. ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp. cayenne pepper
  • 2-3 chopped jalapenos or pepperoncini
  • 8 slices bacon
  • 1 egg

Mix first three ingredients in large bowl. Cut in 5 Tbsp. of cold butter with fingers or pastry knife. Slowly mix milk until dough just forms a ball, no wetter. Roll out to a rectangular sheet about 1 cm thick, roughly 30cm x 40cm large. Brush with melted butter.

Cook bacon to desired consistency; if anything undercook slightly. Chewy is better than crispy for this recipe.

Back in the bowl, mix 2 Tbsp of the sugar, and all of the cinnamon, cayenne pepper and jalapenos. Spread over the dough sheet.

Lay strips of bacon on the dough sheet parallel with the short side, so that the short edge of the bacon is right at the edge of the long side of the dough sheet. Fold the sheet over the bacon, then cut through the fold, separating each bacon strip. Twist each bacon-dough strip 2 or 3 times, and place directly on baking sheet. Brush each twist with egg, then sprinkle remaining sugar over the tops.

Bake in a 450° oven for 12-15 minutes, until twists turn golden. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Serve with tea or coffee and fresh fruit.

bacon breakfast twisties

steampunk workspace

There’s been a lot of blog linkage recently to steampunk computing modifications – steampunk keyboard one-offs, commercial keyboard offerings, laptops, R2-D2s, etc. I love the aesthetic, but I don’t really have the time (or cash) to fully modify my computing setup. Instead, when it came time to soundproof my 2nd story home office, and I had to remount my Ergotron laptop/monitor/keyboard arms, I decided to add some “steampunk” appointments.

Behold the steampunk Ergotron pole mounts:

More pre-construction, fabrication and glamour shots are available. Details after the jump.
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