The Hipster Home

One Thing I’ve learned in my 20+ years on this planet is that when someone excitedly sends you a recipe and asks if you want to make it, you say YES. Such things cannot be ignored. To be truthful, I’d never envisioned myself cooking duck or having anything to do with that particular meat outside of a restaurant. THH guest blogger, Juliette Melton, had sent a link to a New York Times recipe for Really Easy Duck Confit. A time and date was set and ho’boy, we ate well. Lesson learned: duck confit is really fricken tasty. Double points for serving it with a duck fat veggie mix and a simple dino kale.

The hard part (it seemed to me) was finding where to buy 8 duck legs. Julie was up to the task and I was lucky enough to have her bring over the pre-chilled salt/pepper/bay leaf/thymed bird legs. That’s step 1. Let’s just jump right into an adjusted recipe…

Really Easy Duck Confit

adapted from a New York Times recipe by Melissa Clark

• 1 1/2 teaspsoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf, crumbled
• 8 duck legs, rinsed and patted dry

Combine the salt, pepper, thyme and bay leaf in a bowl. Sprinkle over the duck. (The original recipe didn’t specify but Julie says she only had enough mixture to sprinkle on the top of the duck legs. Top being the opposite of the fat side which there is NO mistaking. Eww, fatty! The duck legs should lay in a single layer on a baking pan. Cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours.

The next day, preheat your oven to 325 F.

You’ll first need to render most of the fat off the fatty side of the meat. Heat one well-seasoned skillet (or two as we needed) over medium-high heat. If you’ve got splatter screens, bust those guys out. If you don’t, beware a mess.

Place the 8 duck legs in the hot pans and allow to cook for approximately 20 minutes. You’re looking for a 1/4 inch deep fat pool. Once they’ve cooked at least 10 minutes, you may want to check the browning process and rotate the legs around the skillet to cook evenly. If you try to pick one up and the skin sticks, let it keep cooking!

Since we used two pans, we placed the duck legs upside down in one large roasting pan. Pour the duck fat from each skillet into the pan. Cover the pan with foil and set in your pre-heated oven. Roast for 2 hours. (*see veggie recipe below*) Remove the foil and roast for 1 more hour until browned and lovely.

Remove the duck legs from the fat, place on a paper towel and tent with foil until the rest of your dinner is ready. Reserve the duck fat for more delicious projects at a later date!

During the foil removal, we snagged a few spoonfuls of duck fat to use on top of an improvised hearty veggie roast. How does one make a veggie roast? Easy!

A Duck Fat Veggie Roast

recipe created by Laura Brunow Miner & Co.

• 1 leek, well rinsed and cut into 1/2 inch segments
• 2 potatoes, cubed
• 3 large carrots, cut into 1/2 inch segments
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 tsp+ rosemary
• 2 tsp+ thyme
• salt and pepper, to taste

Combine the prepared vegetables and herbs in a roasting pan while the duck is cooking at 325 F and covered in foil. When the time comes to take the foil of the duck after 2 hours, remove the duck pan out of the oven and ladle 4-5 spoonfuls of excess duck fat into the vegetable roasting pan. Stir the veggies around until evenly coated with fat. When you put the duck back in to cook, uncovered, for 1 hour, add the pan of vegetables to the oven as well. Continute to cook until the duck is finished and the veggies are soft and caramelized.

Serve the duck with veggies, some simply prepared dino kale and crusty bread. Presto! You’ve got a fantastic meal for you and a few friends.

Now for the next fun task: what does one do with a jar full of duck fat in their refrigerator?? Cooking tips? Suggestions?

Ahoy there Hipster Homers! I’m Julie and I’m the very first guest blogger on this fine site. Today’s project involves breaking stuff, plants, found objects, and miniatures. Fun, right?

Let’s get started! We’re going to go through the steps to create your very own little terrarium. I like building terrariums inside of lightbulbs because of the inherent challenge of working in such a small space as well as how the simple, industrial beauty of a light bulb complements the intricacy of natural elements. (I was inspired to try this out after seeing this post on Apartment Therapy a couple of months ago.)

We’ll get into the nitty gritty of how to make one of these. But first, let’s go through some key dos and don’ts of light bulb terrariums. I assembled these tips and warnings through extensive trial and error as well as helpful advice from the folks at Flora Grubb Gardens and Hortica in San Francisco.

Dos and Don’ts

DO:

• Do use sand or small pebbles; these are good because water drains through them easily. (Wet soil will get moldy in a confined area. You don’t want this.)
• Do use Tillandsia, also known as air plants; these are a great choice for your tiny terrarium because they take all the nutrients they need from the air and a small amount of water. No roots means no wet soil which means no mold. You can buy tillandsia at garden stores or online.
• Do choose preserved moss instead of live moss. Preserved moss isn’t living, but it will hold moisture; this moisture raises the humidity level in the terrarium, which makes the tillandsia happy. You can find sheet moss, reindeer moss, and other preserved mosses at garden and floral stores.
• Do keep your terrarium in partial sunlight.
• Do give your terrarium some water. The tillandsia is alive and will need a small amount of water to stay that way. Water it by either removing it and soaking it in water once a week or, using a spray bottle, give it a small spritz of water every week or two. Pour out any excess water.
• Do feel free to use little rocks, pieces of glass, or any other bits of things to help give your terrarium character.

DON’T:

• Don’t use soil. Again, you don’t want a soupy, moldy terrarium. That would be gross.
• Don’t use live moss. Moss is really picky and isn’t likely to survive well in this environment.
• Don’t keep your terrarium in the dark.
• Don’t keep your terrarium in full sunlight, either.

How To:

You’ll need a few tools to make a tiny terrarium but nothing complicated to get started.

• Needle-nose pliers
• Scissors
• Long tweezers or chopsticks
• Flathead screwdriver
• Glasses or goggles

Let’s start with the light bulb. I like the globe kind that are used to light bathroom vanities. You can buy them at any hardware store, or preferably, use one that’s burned out to save resources. For those of us in northern California, one option for buying burned out bulbs (if you don’t have any on hand) is the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse in Oakland. Don’t use “soft white” bulbs or else your terrarium will just look like January in Minnesota. I don’t think this is what you’re going for.

We will be removing the inside parts of the lightbulb. This step involves breaking glass, so wear glasses or goggles to protect your eyes. I recommend doing this over a box to contain any flying pieces of broken glass. And, obviously, this is an “adults only” kind of task.

First, remove the metal tip from the bottom of the bulb. Using needle-nose pliers, carefully nudge the sides of the metal tip from the black glass part.

Then, when enough of the sides are raised to get a good grip on them, hold one of the sides with your pliers and yank out the metal tip. You will feel a couple little wires snap when you do this.

Next remove the black glass. Hold one side of the glass with the pliers and firmly twist up to snap the glass. Repeat around the other sides and pull out any remaining bits of black glass. This glass is pretty thick and will take some force to break it; so be careful and hold onto the bulb firmly.

Now you will be able to see the interior parts of the light bulb.

Using the flathead screwdriver as a sort of lever, snap the interior tube from the side. It will make a totally satisfying little sound as the argon escapes. Then twist the screwdriver around to smash the containing tube. It takes some force to do this; be careful, but also don’t be afraid of the bulb itself breaking. It probably won’t. Hold tight to the bulb while you do this.

Pull out any remaining wires with the pliers.

If there are any last bits of glass around the interior edge, break these off with the screwdriver.

And now you have an empty light bulb! That is definitely the hardest part of the endeavor. Next, put adhesive silicone bumpers on the side of the bulb to keep it steady.

We’ll use sand as a substrate for the terrarium. You can buy it at a garden store or collect it from a beach. If you use beach sand you will need to thoroughly rinse it to remove any salt.

The sand in this tutorial is from the beach, so our first step is to rinse it.

To dry it, either spread it in a thin layer on a cookie sheet and leave it sitting for a few days, or dry it in the oven at 300 degrees. Be careful taking it out, because it will, hopefully obviously, be pretty hot.

The sand should be completely dry before continuing.

Once it’s dry, put a couple tablespoons of sand into the lightbulb. Make this easier by either using a funnel or a folded piece of cardboard.

This terrarium includes preserved sheet moss, reindeer moss, and tillandsia.

Cut off a small bit of sheet moss and put in the bulb. Position it using a chopstick or long tweezers. Tear off a few small pieces of reindeer moss and add this, as well.

Put a tillandsia in the bulb, pushing the smaller end in first. Position the different elements to look nice together and add more moss or rocks if you’d like. It might take some poking to get everything in the right place; be patient and experiment with different arrangements.

For extra fun, tiny toy animals can enliven your terrarium. I used a miniature horse for this one, and stuck a piece of gold wire in its head to make it into a makeshift unicorn. Any other found objects, like rocks, sticks, marbles, etc., would also be fun.

And voilà! You have a lovely terrarium.

More of my lightbulb terrariums are online at tinyterra.com and for sale on Etsy. I’d love to see your terrarium creations! Contact me at juliette@tinyterra.com.

A NOTE OF CAUTION FROM APRIL: Wise THH reader Shadus recommends using gloves when extracting the bulb guts. (S)he says “I would add– wear gloves while performing the delicate work on the bulb, they’re stronger than most people expect but a slip with the screwdriver could lead to a hand full of glass shards which is no fun and also doesn’t make for a nice evening at the hospital. Better safe than sorry!”

Betcha miss my regular features. I sure do. What happened to the wwwant thats of the world? The weekly CSA box?!? All in due time, dear readers. Oh, how the holiday season does disrupt! In celebration of a less commercial season (and thus a manageable covetous stuff per blog ratio), I’m bringing back my ode to internet shopping. For the girl who has everything a click away but not the wallet to support such frivolous action, I wwwant that! At the bottom, I posted some updates for several of the sellers I’ve wwwanted before.

Sometimes delicious web wares don’t come from a specific blog referral. Sometimes these items are waiting for you. Just cruising by it with my eyeballs is enough to do a double-take and launch an investigation. That happened one day, right after logging into flickr. “What’s that? Oh look!” Almost hidden within Poppytalk’s Flickr group The Art of Display, was the work of one Ninainvorm. In some mystical, magical formulation, she fires original screen-printed designs onto new and vintage housewares. The effect is quite fun and really, who doesn’t love a good mismatched houseware collection and color fiesta? Beware: her Etsy shop will tempt and tease you.

Yet another internet bread crumb trail led me to this next find wwwantable piece, which I’m likely to actually just BUY already was cheap enough to warrant purchase. More important than the mug is the amount of awesome that led me to this point. In summary: super fantastic blog Point and Blog said they were reading The Hipster Home (exciting!) Previously being unawares of facinating Point and Blog, I wanted to learn more about the writers, Emma Hovel and Katherine J. Oh look! One of them has a etsy link, does she make things? Wow, she’s got some pretty items favorited on her Etsy profile. Wait a sec, that mug has a space shuttle on it! And bad grammar! SOLD. Thanks for the mention, ladies of Point and blog!

Once upon a time, the Mr. and I ate at Spork. We were too full from dinner to order dessert but upon seeing the delicious list of sweets, decided to pick something up for home. The next day, we tasted the first bite of a Humprhy Slocombe specially made Spork ice cream, After School Special. WOW. Malted vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered potato chips and a caramel swirl. Heaven on a spoon. The best part was the chocolate covered potato chips, which since then, Happy Lady Eats shared a review of a particular brand. YUUUM. I definitlly wwwant that.

If there is a #1 entry on things I need around the house, it would be serving trays, especially for baked goods. Pyrex gets the job done but dang it, those things are not the pedestal on which to place your final delicate creation. Tangarang recently shared a way to make your OWN cake stands. Keyword: EPOXY.

This is a non digital I wwwant that! find. I know, I MUST BE LEAVING THE HOUSE! A Real Simple Magazine spoke to me at the airport last week and I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit. One of the pages celebrated several mirrored lamps. The main attraction, from West Elm, whispered that it might look good in our living room. I heartily agree.

Even though it could catch on fine fabrics or drag you straight to the bottom of a river because of its heft, these fantastic crystal rings by Elseetee, as seen on Poppytalk, are super fantastic. Look at the color! The irregular shape! The sheer earthiness of these rings! Blows the mind. I was ready to say how I absolutely, without a doubt, I could not afford these but to my surprise, they are a reasonable price for such statement jewelry. If you are also a fan of such things, go imagine yourself in another one of Elseetee’s wares in her Etsy shop.

There was some good news for internet friend (and one-time real life encounter) Polly of Pollyannacowgirl. Homegirl is the new ReadyMade Craft blogger. HUZZAH! She’s got excellent taste and I’m excited to follow along with her. Already, she spotted a calendar that would look so dapper up here in my craft loft. It’s a forever calendar by Claire Nereim. Whuzzywho? A forever calendar means that it’s just got month numbers and the California Wildflower that blooms every year at that time. Clever and beautiful, that’s a winning combination!

I wwwant that! alum updates:

• While at the Renegade Craft Fair, I met Brenda of Phydeaux Designs! She was quite nice even though I was nervous to say hello! She’s busy with helping Haiti so if you’ve ever thought of purchasing one of her terrific cowls, DO IT NOW! (from I wwwant that! #10)
• Helping Willotoons at Bazaar Bizarre, the booth was next to The Harbinger Co. Again I shyly said hello and even though I didn’t have any money on me at the time, I ended up receiving the Bamboo Cube  posts from the Mr! What a generous soul he is. (from I wwwant that! #2)
• Finally, while spending some quality time inside the completely wwwantable Mission shop Gravel and Gold, I spotted MAKIT PLATE KITS! That’s right, kiddies! You can buy them online OR you can make the trip to this well-complied shop of treasures. (from I wwwant that! #1)

Let me first start with an apology. Lo siento!  There is no reason (except overwhelming business) to keep you guys in the dark about recent THH developments. Pardon my radio silence, even in the face of an epic amount of attention brought by a certain design*sponge post. If you didn’t see from my recent tweets (which I just learned weren’t showing in my sidebar), I was in Austin last week to celebrate my sister’s marriage! Although she’s halfway across the country, my family was able to plan all sorts of activities and events including a bridal shower, an important BBQ visit and more. Yeehaw.

One of the tasks I assigned myself was to create a Love Mixtape. Little known fact: I was a debutante my senior year of high school and as a result absolutely DETEST most event DJs. That includes weddings. I figured that if I was going to make it through this, there better be high doses of delightful lovey-dovey tunes hand picked with a certain amount of discretion. My friends were good sports and sent numerous examples of their favorite love songs.

Between making salted citrus caramels, packing a travel cooking kit and taking pains for personal beautification, I updated, tweaked, and expanded the mix to its current glory. As a reformed music biz professional, I know better than to post the whole thing in its entirety as a download but thought that you may already have a majority of these tunes in your music library. Bold songs denote favorites you should download! When I can, I’ve linked to the songs around the web. (UPDATE: wow, The Hype Machine had them ALL!)

A Love Mixtape: for F&S

1. First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes
2. All is Full of Love by Death Cab for Cutie
3. H in New England by Mac Richter (From an instrumental piano album that is worth the purchase)
4. Not Going Anywhere by Keren Ann
5. Heartbeats (A Knife cover) by Jose Gonzalez
6. Anyone Else But You by Moldy Peaches
7. Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (amazing new musician)
8. All I Want by Barry Louis Polisar
9. This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) by Talking Heads
10. The Look of Love (Part 1) by ABC (from one of my top 5 albums of all time, excellent and VERY 80s)
11. All I Want is You by U2
12. Heart of Chambers by Beach House
13. The Book of Love by The Magnetic Fields (from the greatest collection of love songs ever, 69 Love Songs)
14. Can’t Help Falling in Love (An Elvis cover) by Ingrid Michaelson
15. Make You Feel my Love (A Bob Dyland cover) by Adele
16. Row by Jon Brion (instrumental track from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack, which is all fantastic)
Row – Jon Brion
17. More Adventurous by Rilo Kiley (my favorite love song, get the whole damn album)
18. If This Ain’t Love (Don’t Knw What Is) by Nicole WIllis & The Soul Investigators
19. Sea of Love by Cat Power
20. The Luckiest by Ben Folds
The Luckiest (Album Version) -…
21. 3 Rounds and a Sound by Blind Pilot
22. I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie

Wow, TWO Death Cab songs? What was I thinking?? Speaking of love and Ben Gibbard, we finally sat down to watch (500) Days of Summer last night. It left me in a strange mood, mainly that of dissatisfaction. But as the Mr. pointed out, that was kind of the point.

Let’s hear it, do you have any favorite love songs that I missed? Did a certain Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie leave you sour on Los Angeles love?

(PS I also made a sexy mix featuring the likes of R. Kelly, Ludacris, Color Me Badd and CSS. Are you interested in that playlist too?)

Without writing a full-on tutorial, I thought I’d give you some information on how to make your very own bike chainring clock. I’ll admit that my original inspiration came from the talented Etsy seller 1 by Liz but being that I’ve got way more time than money at this juncture in light-employment, I decided to try my hand at making one. If you’ve got the cash, 1 By Liz clock’s are pretty fantastic so support a maker of great things.

How I Made a Bike Chainring Clock

The first challange was to find a free or inexpensive bicycle chainring. (Ok so the REAL first step was researching and figuring out exactly what the spiky circle  that the chain goes around was called. NOW YOU KNOW TOO.) Since we’ve got a handful of bike shops in the mission, I first tried Valencia Cyclery. While the guy was extremely helpful when I asked if they had “any junk box busted bike chainrings”, they didn’t have the any laying around. I tried again at Pedal Revolution and BINGO! There was a stubborn metal peg stuck in a hole but it ended up being a great clock 12 o’clock marker. If your chainring is greasy, give it a good wash to start.

Next, you’ll want to find a craft store with a clock kit. I found a gold version of this at Joann’s Fabrics. For about $10 you can make a clock out of ANYTHING! Just imagine the possibilities.

Now you’ll want to figure out some sort of clock backing and what color cloth you’d like to use to cover it. I found some thin cardboard and cut out a circle small enough to not stick out behind the chainring spikes but large enough to cover the various holes in the rim. Using a pen and ruler, find the center of the circle and cut a hole big enough that will snugly fit the clock backing through it.

As for the fabric choice, there was a nice dark gray fabric of dubious origin in my craft cart. It was heavier and seemed plastic backed which meant when I glued it over the cardboard, there was minimal wrinkling in the finished back. Sorry I can’t tell you exactly what fabric I used. Get something heavyish.

So now you’ll actually want to use some craft glue, a ruler and a piece of your cloth big enough to cover one side of the cardboard. Your fabric should also be big enough to fold over and cover the other half of the backing. I spread glue on the cardboard, laid down the fabric, used the ruler like a squeegee to ensure even glue coverage and eliminate air bubbles. Flip the cardboard over, spread glue again, fold the cloth over and flatten again. To make sure the cardboard doesn’t curve while drying, I set a few heavy books on it and allowed a 24 hours dry time.

If you take more time to find the clock components than I did, you likely won’t need this step. Since my clock hands were gold but the chainring had silver features, I had silver enamel to get them to match. If you need to do this, take your clock hands  outside and sprayed two coats of silver paint and let the dry according the the enamel dirctions. No need to spray any of the nuts or other clock parts since they’ll be mostly hidden.

When your fabric disk is dry, cut the fabric off around the circle! You should also check that there are no loose un-glued fabric around the edges and use a glue stick to fix any flaps.Using an exacto knife, make an x in the fabric where the cardboard hole is.

Time to assemble! Because I was in a hurry, I used a little bit of hot glue to adhere the chainring to the fabric covered cardboard backing. I’m sure you could use another type of glue to make it prettier.

Attach your clock as instructed on the clock kit packages. Stick the clock backing through your hole and tightly (but not too tightly or it’ll warp the fabric) screw on the washer and nut with pliers.

Now comes the hour hand. Then the minute hand with a little nut and finally the second ticker. They hands and clock mechanism on the back all need to point to 12 o’clock.

Presto. You’re the proud owner of a classy chainring clock for any of your favorite bike enthusiasts. Pat yourself on the back. And go wash your hands.