Jack of all trades

A place to track my progress on fun stuff

[fallofrome]

Three games with hexes. I still think the game of thrones Catan is a great version - probably more fun than the base game. Takenoko is cute although it feels a little repetitive. But I tried out some solo rules and it was a lot of fun. And Scythe is always fun although I did terrible this round.

[fallofrome]

My white/yellow plumeria finally bloomed

[fallofrome]

Making my first loaf of gluten free bread went about as well as any of my previous attempts at gluten bread. But my yeast was old so I will try again with new.

[yamelcakes]

What Big Food Did to Ice Cream

The “encrapification” of the American pint — a chemist’s plain-language dissection

Really good article by a chemist on why most ice cream sucks now— it’s because it’s not really ice cream.

[jmtorres]

part of me wants to be like "do people really not know this" and part of me knows full well i only read the labels because i have gut problems and don't want to suffer

anyway i've had my eye on the fat content for years. actual ice cream made with real cream won't trigger my lactose intolerance, because the higher the fat content of dairy, the lower the lactose content. my personal tipping point is around half-and-half so if you make "ice cream" with with skim milk, the enshittification i experience is unfortunately literal

[fallofrome]

Three more co-op games. I love Hanabi and it's appropriate for the season! Also a big fan of MicroMacro and I'm going to be sad when the cases are over. 5 minute mystery is also fun to play on occasion.

[fallofrome]

I don't like bluffing games so I only keep a couple for larger groups. I like Saboteur since it isn't much bluffing but the scoring mechanism needs work.

[fallofrome]

Built a quick drying/storage rack for sports gear since I'm accumulating more stuff. A little wonky since I wanted cheap and just bought 5 furring strips and used up a bunch of scraps for the rest of the wood. I'll probably add some stabilizers in the top corners but otherwise I'm happy enough.

[rederiswrites]

There really really ought to be a book about how the staple crops of different civilizations shape and influence those civilizations, and I really want to read it.

[alexseanchai]

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky and A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage (three are alcohol, three have caffeine) are not quite that, but may still be of interest?

[rederiswrites]

I read Salt back in the day and it's so so good, second the rec. I have heard of 6 Glasses and not read it but I am sure I would probably love it. Gotta see if the library has it. Thank you!

[pandorasquillandquotes]

Gonna throw Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert in the ring here! You'll never see the modern world the same way again.

[vaspider]

A Short History Of The World According To Sheep by Sally Coulthard blew my mind. So many things are tied to wool and sheep and weaving and so many words and phrases are tied to wool, people have no idea.

Example words which come from textiles/weaving, if not specifically wool (go look them up!): subtle, shoddy, tabby, Brazil, rocket, twit, warped, going batty, on tenterhooks, text...

[foxofninetales]

I'll throw in a rec for Pickled, Potted, and Canned by Sue Shephard - a very interesting look at food preservation and how the availability of different types of food preservation shaped cultures and cuisines.

[electronsprotonscroutons]

Sweetness and Power is this but for the topic of sugar

[magneticdeclination]

The Lost Supper: Searching for the Future of Food in the Flavors of the Past might also be up your alley. It's about "forgotten" foods and staples. They talk about different types of wheat, sauces, veggies, etc and a little about the cultures from whence they come

[doctornerdington]

Also: Much Depends on Dinner by Margaret Visser. One of my favourite books.

[bitchwhoyoukiddin]

DO I HAVE A SERIES FOR YOU. University of California Press has a gift for you and it is a 80+ book series on food studies. There are even some that are open access (legally free), but the rest are in libraries.

I also highly recommend Frostbite by Nicola Twilley. It’s about the impact refrigeration has had/is having on food preservation and culture, globally. It was one of my favorite books of this last year.

[fallofrome]

Pieced together 1/4 of the quilt so far and making decent headway on the next 1/4.

[fallofrome]

I like co-op games because a lot of them are like a very fun puzzle.

[paintmeanelephant]

This quilt is only four feet square, and it’s going to be eight feet square. This is the biggest indoor space I have.

I sewed the fans onto the white backing squares and then sewed the pink centres over top, but I didn’t measure where I put my fans I just eyeballed it, so some of my edges don’t match up. I also sewed one of these rows onto the wrong side of the quilt and had to unpick four feet of stitching. I try so hard to be precise, but I still manage to screw things up!

[fallofrome]

The next case study is a flaky pie crust, so I made it into a galette with tomatoes from the garden. The crust turned out delicious, crunchy, and flaky!

[fallofrome]

I saw this book was challenged at a public library for the most absurd reason I've ever heard so I checked it out from my library. I'm really glad I did because A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger was a really fun and interesting story.

[fallofrome]

Added the Halloween version to Welcome To. It's fun!

[fallofrome]

I don't think I've had British scones before so I can't compare, but these were tasty and rose a lot. Now I just have two versions of pie crust left for the case studies (and cheesecake but I have no interest in trying that).

[fallofrome]

My city in Everdell and my family tree in Legacy: The Testaments of Duke de Crecy. Both are really fun worker placement & tableau building games. Especially in Legacy I think the building part is more fun than worrying about scoring well.

[fallofrome]

Put off my other activities and finished book 3 over the weekend. I liked this one a lot!!