How do I get started baking bread?

May 6, 2016

...Five Minutes a Day type loaf? No problem, that’s the first loaf in Baker’s book. Want to make a Tartine style loaf without reading a hundred pages of directions? No problem, that’s also in the book. Wan’t to graduate on to a style of whole wheat/sourdough breads pioneered by people like Baker and Miller? He’s got you covered. If that’s not enough, Baker also shares the excellent Cooks Illustrated Chocolate Chip cookie recipe as well as a recipe fo...

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Spider Bite!

Mr. Homegrown

December 4, 2017

Pests

10 Comments

...rom the ER and it looks exactly like the Long-legged Sac spider in the NHM book. Don’t worry, he later released it to the hipster wilds of Echo Park. Unlike the Brown Recluse, Long-legged sac spiders employ reputation management consultants to keep their nefarious activities out of the news. They live in the corners of rooms and even, according to the NHM book, take up residence in household appliances. So dust out that Vitamix periodically! Lest...

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Sensuous Space: How to Create Romantic, Seductive and Sensuous Settings

Mr. Homegrown

April 21, 2023

Design

1 Comment

...e see our first hot tub. The power nexus of the erotic panopticons in this book are, naturally, your disco control centers because your house must have its own private discotheque. I don’t know how you keep the blow from gumming up the electronics. Of course, such idiosyncratic spaces are the domain of the ultra-wealthy who can afford serial remodeling. Reznikoff notes that many of these spaces are second homes. A particular class of nouveau riche...

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I Built a Set of Gerritt Rietveld Crate Chairs and So Can You

Mr. Homegrown

November 30, 2020

Design

3 Comments

...shelf, can be made with a few hand tools. The rest of the projects in this book would require a table saw and varying levels of skill. The book contains measured drawings for all the projects and tips on how Rietveld did the joinery as well as colors and finishes. If I had a modernist house or office I’d go crazy and make everything in this book. Pro tip: learn even a modest amount of carpentry skills and you can have furniture by famous designers...

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How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

Mr. Homegrown

May 13, 2019

Reviews, Thoughtstylings

3 Comments

...l know how these “influencer” nightmares play out. If you’re looking for a book about how to be more productive in a world of Facebook notifications, text messages and endless emails How to Do Nothing, despite the deceptive subtitle ain’t that book. But, perhaps, that’s the point. Maybe the problem with our culture is the need to “be productive,” to live in the myth of endless growth on a planet with finite resources. Central to Odell’s book is Wa...

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