This has been the go-to hummus recipe in our house for some months now, dialed in to everyone’s taste. The goal was something a step above a grocery store hummus, and something that could be made in large, family-sized batches. This one starts with the step of creaming together tahini and lots of lemon juice, which makes it smoother, brighter, lighter, and more acidic.
Take your condiment game to the next level with this flavour-bomb. The recipe Obligatory Recipe Story Following a trip, my sister and her fiancé gifted me a jar of mustard from Butterfly Bakery in Vermont. It claimed to be of the maple sriracha variety. It was delicious and changed many meals for the better. But as I was washing the empty jar to recycle it, I noticed something. The ingredients. The mustard come [sic] in an 8 oz jar and is made with organic Canadian yellow and brown mustard seed, organic…
One year ago, I made a video called Maker Resolutions for 2019, which said this: I’ve come up with 10 maker resolutions for 2019 that I think will help me be more productive, do more of the things I like, get away from some of the stuff that hasn’t been working for me, and generally make me less crazy about my various projects and makes. A growth mindset by itself is an important thing if you want to get better at anything, but equally important is doing a little self-reflection…
With 2020 fast approaching, I wonder a bit where the time went. In order to track that, I give you my maker year in review – a selection of projects I’ve started and finished in 2019! January Silicone moldmaking I started the year learning how to make molds with silicone and cast things in resin! This wouldn’t go anywhere huge in 2019, but I really enjoyed the learning process. February Bruno Valentine’s Day meant another project. NJ found herself enjoying having something to hold at night so I found a…
Originally written October 18, 2019 As I write this I am deeply fatigued. But I am very, very happy. Mostly. See, when NJ returns from her latest round of work travel, I will have been solo with the kids for about half the month. And in that time, I’ve made an effort to keep the wheels on the household. That’s just being a parent. But I’ve also tried to make NJ’s travel more enjoyable, make Thanksgiving really special for the kids, host my sister and her fiancé, keep ahead of…
Last year, I had a fairly stale, flat, uninspiring NaNoWriMo flop. And despite the fact that I think talking about failure in the context of creative endeavours is dumb and bad, falling so far short of my planned word count stung. But this year, I rocked it. I’m a NaNoWriMo 2019 winner, and it feels pretty good. I had an experience this year that I wasn’t really expecting. Other than a couple of days of weak output in the final week (thanks to a cold), I killed it. It was…
“Write what you know” is advice as old as time, and for National Novel Writing Month 2019 I’m going to follow it.
Why do we even talk about failure in maker circles, anyway? I love it when an idea comes together. You picture something in your head, hunker down with your tools, put time and effort into the project, and create exactly the thing that you imagined. And sometimes, exactly the thing you imagined just does not work at all. It’s long past time to address how we talk about this kind of thing in the maker community. I had a project go sideways recently that I think showcases how silly it is to…
A failed 3D print. Some scrap plywood. Leftover plaster. Dollar-store acrylic paints. Put them together and you get something special – a runabout crash diorama! The key to this, I found, was simply patience and layering. There’s nothing more to getting a good, satisfying paint job that tells a story than setting a goal, an idea you want to express, and adding layers until you get to where you want to be. A runabout crash diorama is only as interesting as the place it crashes! That makes this another great…
In January, I was in a car crash. I crashed my car. It was a good crash in the way you want it to be. I was the only one in my car. The other driver was the only one in the giant truck I rear-ended. Traffic was moving slowly. It was a freak accident that, if I had hit any other vehicle, I think we both would have driven away from it. We would have bounced around, and then squinted at each others’ bumpers and decided it wasn’t even…
The 3D printer repair is complete! New stepper motor, new belts and pulleys, new second hotend, and a full teardown and rebuild! I made our Velleman Vertex k8400 sing again and I’m very happy about it. A quick summary of what I did: Replaced the Y-axis stepper motor Replaced the second hotend’s heating block, thermistor, heating element, nozzle, and the brass block they all slotted into. Removed belts, pulleys, and rods, and cleaned everything with WD-40 and rubbing alcohol, then re-lubricated everything Replaced the T2.5 belts and 19-tooth pulleys with…
I can’t think of the last time I felt my enthusiasm drain away so quickly while reading a book. Recently, Lin-Manuel Miranda gave a full-throated endorsement of Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. First of all, enjoy the research, write down the details that resonate with you. Not anyone else, YOU. @GilbertLiz writes beautifully about research and writing in her book Big Magic, read that. What resonates with you is everything. It’s why you picked this journey. G’luck! https://t.co/DzZnDo4eN5 — Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) January 2, 2019 Since…
