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I Built a Folding Dog Gate
I built a folding dog gate to stop our labradoodle from walking on the carpet when her paws are muddy. It’s based on one my wife saw on Pinterest, but this specific design is mine. I modeled it in SketchUp first to make sure that I had the hinge layout correct. I wanted it to…
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Cooking Around the World: Antigua, Bahama, Come on Empanada
In the fourth week of my “world food tour,” I teamed up two of the top eleven countries that start with A: Antigua and Argentina. Antigua provided Caribbean butter bread, and Argentina brought the main course: empanadas. I used Laylita.com’s recipe for empanadas and this recipe for butter bread, although I combined techniques from a…
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Cooking Around the World: Algerian/Andorran Fusion
Week three of my “cook a dish from every country” challenge saw the classic combination of Algerian and Andorran food that we all love. I made Cannelloni Andorrana (a lamb and pork-stuffed pasta) and Algeria’s maaqouda (potato fritters). For the pasta, I used a combination of recipes from around the Web: I made the pasta…
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Cooking Around the World: Tavë Kosi from Albania
In week two of my “cook every country’s national dish” challenge, I made Albania’s tavë kosi. It’s cubed lamb shoulder covered in rice and then baked in a yogurt sauce; I also made pite në tigan, a fried Albanian flatbread. While I didn’t care for the tavë kosi (the lamb was quite tough, and I…
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I Built a Mid-Century Modern Nightstand
When I was tasked with making a 31″ tall nightstand for my mother-in-law that would fit in a 9″ wide space next to her bed and provide drawers and a shelf. I decided to use the opportunity to try a furniture style I haven’t tried before: mid-century modern. From what I can tell, “mid-century modern”…
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Cooking Around the World: Kabuli Palau from Afghanistan
In an attempt to broaden my culinary knowledge and my family’s palate, I’ve challenged myself to cook the national dish from every country (or something close to it). First on the list: Afghanistan. I made Kabuli Palau (a.k.a. Qabili Palau or Kabuli Palaw); it’s chicken topped with rice topped with sugar-glazed carrots and raisins (and…
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Introducing The Endonym Project
An endonym is a name that people give to the area where they live. For example, you might live in a city that is officially named “Brooklyn Heights,” but you and all of your neighbors call it “The Heights.” This is an endonym. I’ve always wondered about how well-defined the geographic boundaries are for endonyms…
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Reenact is back on iOS, baby!
Five years ago, I wrote an iOS/Android/Firefox OS app called Reenact that helped you reenact photos. Four years ago, I abandoned the apps in favor of a web app that only worked in Chrome and Firefox. Today (zero years ago), I’m happy to announce that the web-based version of Reenact works in all major browsers…
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She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy Now That It Has a Fresh Coat of Paint
I repainted a toy pedal tractor that we bought off of Facebook Marketplace to give to my son for Christmas. Actually, I repainted a toy pedal tractor TWICE because the cherry red spray paint that I used the first time never dried, so I had to scrub it off with mineral spirits and sand the…
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I made some picture frames (banana for scale)
I made some picture frames for my sister to put her daughters’ school photos in. I’ve included some bananas for scale. The frames are walnut with red oak inlay and a chamfer around the inside edge. The inlay strips were added after the frames were assembled. I finished them with a couple coats of clear…
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COVID Christmas Ornaments
Inspired by a picture my wife sent me of almost this exact same thing, I made some COVID-themed Christmas ornaments for the family members I won’t be seeing at Christmas this year. You can make your own too, if you have an X-Carve; the Easel project is right here.
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How to use your router to install your router lift for your other router
I bought a JessEm Rout-R-Lift II router lift for my shop. It needs to be recessed into a workbench, but it doesn’t come with a template for cutting an appropriately sized hole. You can buy an MDF template for $27, or you can do as a I did, and make your CNC router carve the…
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Today’s Functional Print: Adjustable Shelving Leg Inserts
In today’s adjustable shelving news, I’ve printed an insert to join two vertical sections of a boltless adustable shelving unit. The part looks like this, pictured next to an original: To make it easier to print, I split it into halves and nested the parts, printing four full inserts at a time: The shelving unit…
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Turn your Mac OS Photos library into a Web photo album
Six years ago, I released iPhoto Disc Export, a tool for exporting an iPhoto library as a standalone website. Now that iPhoto is no longer supported on the newest versions of Mac OS, I was force to update the software to work with Photos. Enter Photos Disc Export. Photos Disc Export is a a PHP…
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Box with a Vengeance
My son needed to bring a box to school earlier this year for holding valentines, and he asked if I would make him one, so I made him one. It’s walnut with a maple inlay, and it has a slot in front so that valentines can be put in without opening it. This was my…
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Shake, rattle, and… Oregon???
I made these baby rattles for some friends and family who were unfortunate enough to give birth outside of Oregon. The bodies are maple, the beads are walnut, and the holes are filled with sweet sweet Oregon air.
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What do bees from Silicon Valley make? Kumail Nanjihoney
Made with my X-Carve Halftone app.
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This pear bread is the best banana bread I’ve ever made.
The great taste of a banana bread-type quick bread without the mushy spots or occasional bitter aftertaste. From Taste of Home. Also, this site is a recipe blog now.
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Look Who’s Talking (About David Tewes) Now
TPT (Twin Cities Public Television, also known locally as channel 2) did a story on David Tewes and his museum exhibit, which grew out of the website that I created in 2017. Amateur photographer David Tewes captured scenes in Minnesota and out west after World War II until 1955. About 800 Kodachrome slides were found…
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Look Who’s Talking (About Shoreline) Now
This happened last summer, but I forgot to mention it: Minnesota Public Radio ran a story about my research from 2013 on which state has the most shoreline. “Chris Finke is a software programmer who is originally from Minnesota. He remembered watching an advertisement in 2013 from “Explore Minnesota” that claims there’s “More to explore…
Got any book recommendations?