Nermo

Old calypso music was blaring as I revved up the whisk drill to whip my first batch of mayo.

1 large, fresh egg yolk
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon dijon mustard (optional)
¾ cup vegetable oil

• Whisk together all ingredients, except oil, until combined.
• Continue to whisk, while ever-so-slowly adding oil.
• Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Note: Baconnaise, while brilliant in concept, is a vegetarian product, which makes it dumb. To make your own Baconaise, follow the recipe above, replacing two tablespoons of oil with bacon drippings (not just the rendered grease, because most of the flavor is in the brown flecks on the bottom of the pan).

            

Here’s what I’ve been up to now that I am ready to teach at noon:

1. Picking out a weekend rental in wine country. I like Le Petite Olivet because it’s on a vineyard, but Mark West Retreat for the architecture.

2.Listening to DIEHARD, my muse Liz’s new band. I wish they had more than 3 songs up.  Catch them Tuesday 3/31 at Union Hall in Brooklyn.

3.Warming up for the opening night party at YBCA for the Nick Cave (not of the Bad Seeds) exhibition.

4. Working on some recipes for homemade bitters that I hope to make some time soon.

5. Playing with how to structure the new dresser that I am designing so that it is Ikea-easy to assemble, sturdy and visually perplexing.

            

I’ve been distracted of late (spring is always so busy for my “real jobs” and so my passion projects tend to get the red-headed stepchild treatment), so I haven’t done much in the realm of designing furniture, but this morning I had an image in my head that I need to get on paper.

Actually, paper was the tough part, so I ended up using 3-D modeling software to “sketch” the dresser I was picturing. It’s a chest of drawers that swing on a pivot rather than sliding out, and the outside of the dresser is a rhombus, rather than right angles, but the inside spaces of the drawers are regular rectangles. Take a look at the pictures to get the gist. I realize I need to do a little structural work, but this is just a concept. Thoughts?

            

I was too busy making t-shirts to eat anything at BaconCamp, so I don’t feel bad for turning back to my sizzling mistress as quickly as Monday night. I’m in he midst of a major apartment overhaul and decided I needed a supper break. Sitting in my fridge was a half-pound of bacon, a bunch of asparagus and a round of goat cheese. I grabbed a bottle of wine and got to work.

I ended up in a bed of red cabbage topped with an egg over medium-easy and bacon-wrapped asparagus with a chèvre sauce (I poured off the bacon fat, deglazed the pan with a couple splashes of Pinot Grigio and stirred in about an ounce of goat cheese).

Sorry about the grainy photo. I’m cleaning, so I have no idea where anything is, including both of my cameras.

            

I’ll recap BaconCamp soon, but for now, I need to follow up on the silkscreening.

I had a blast, printing about 20 BaconCamp t-shirts and then, upon refilling my ink bottle, the screens locked up and wouldn’t print.  I had to send away another 20+ unsatisfied baconistas, promising to print more in the coming weeks.

Making a Bacon T-Shirt for the Mad Meat Genius

If you want to order one, they will be $10-12 and all proceeds will still go to the American Heart Association.  Once I am done giving midterms today, I’ll figure out how to make this happen. In the meantime, just email me and I will reply to everyone with ordering details once I have them. Click here to order.

My sign photographed by Ekai

I also want to credit Pete Hottelet for the fantastic Bacon Camp logo that we printed on one side of the shirts.

Another satified bacon t-shirt customer by kveton

            

Here are the tutorials I’ve been skimming of late:

Craft

Handmade Detroit give us the Yudu How-To, which is poised to be the successor to Gocco. I need one.

Photojojo‘s 12 awesome photography business card ideas remind me that I have a few new sets of cards to make.

Craftynest‘s bamboo veneer flowers + Ikea Lack tables runs through a simple process yielding snazzy results.  I have other projects where I intend to use a similar application.

Urban Threads showed me how to make do manly embroidery.  The stencil bleaching part of the tutorial is most useful, and I think the little “punk” patch is a mis-matched design element.

My favorite Instructable that I am sure I will never get to:  The Paracord Bracelet.  Will someone please just make one for me?

Tech

Piclist is teaching me to be an engineer, because I didn’t listen to my father as much as I should have in my youth.

The Make Blog is giving me ideas for how to make my own photobooth and giving me the rundown on jigs, clamps and helping hands.

DealNews will tell you how to make spare cash online.

Plants

Apartment Therapy SF is greening my thumbs with articles on Fun with 4-Inch Succulents and  How to Care for an Orchid.

Food and Drink

The Kitchn has been telling me How (and Why!) to Preseason my Meat and How to Make Pasta, as well as planning ahead with how to make golden chocolate Easter eggs.

Jaime Oliver explains something he calls gingerbread.

The SF Chronicle offers a piece on do-it-yourself cocktail ingredients.

Eddie Ross teaches us how to set the table.

            

I love the aesthetic of wood strips or chunks recomposed into solid furniture.Being made from castoffs bound for the landfill makes them that much more impressive. The style reminds me of the gorgeous cutting boards my father makes from the scraps of hardwood cabinetry projects.

• Prism Stool by Brave Space Design
• Green Sawn Furniture
• How To: Make a Reclaimed Wood Table and Bench
• Brent Comber Tables at Vancouver’s Salt Tasting Room

            

I’ve long been fascinated by transforming a discarded shipping container into a house.  Yeah, I was that daydreaming 8th-grader scribbling container dream home blueprints in my notebooks during class. Living in the Bay Area, the ports provide a surplus of containers, while housing prices rule out all other options, so if I ever want to own, I think this is my only hope.

Anyone have open land in SF they want to give me?

Prefab Friday from Inhabitat

Stylish Modern Homes from Shipping Containers from Re-Nest

2+ Weekend House from Arhitektura JureKotnik

Recycled-Container Chic from the New York Times

Home Sweet Repurposed Shipping Container from Poetic Home

Container House by Leger Wanaselja Architecture from Apartment Therapy

Bob Villa is kind of a d-bag, but he has a decent how-it’s-done overview page

            

Late Edit:  Bacon on one side (as below), and on the other, the Official Bacon Camp San Francisco logo that was just sent to me.

Not everyone can visualize the inner workings of my mind, so here are some variations to peruse.

a. horizontal, white, full back

b. diagonal, white, full

c. horizontal , white, full

d. diagonal, white, partial

e. silver, horizontal, full... OK, the chrome effect sucks, so just imagine the images above in silver.

            

I thought I mentioned this in more detail, but apparently not.  BaconCamp San Francisco is next Saturday (3/21/9).

People keep asking me what BaconCamp is and the best I can offer is that it is an afternoon devoted to the celebration of bacon.  There will be bacon-based food, presentations, demonstrations, vendors and even a bacon poetry slam.

My plan was to silkscreen the image above in white ink on a red t-shirt. Having toyed with the idea, my question for y’all is if I should print in white or silver and if the bacon should be horizontal as you see it, or diagonal, like a sash  (vertical looks like a bacon tie).  Opinions?