Baker's Dozen Eggs (a quick and manly brekfast)

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day (especially when that day is full of final exams before summer break) it gets your mind and your metabolism going. For a quick and easy, all inclusive breakfast-in-a-cup, try these "Baker's Dozen Eggs"



Ingredients
•5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
•12 slices extra-thin whole wheat bread
•1/2 pound prosciutto or Serrano ham, thinly sliced
•12 medium eggs
•Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
•1/4 cup heavy cream
•Chopped fresh chives, for garnish
•1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Manchego cheese, for garnish

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.Butter a 12-cup muffin tin. Butter one side of each slice of bread. Press each slice of bread, buttered side up, gently into the bottom of a muffin cup. Transfer to oven and bake for 3 minutes.
3.Gently press ham into each bread cup. Carefully, crack one egg on top of ham. Repeat process until all bread cups are filled. Season each with salt and pepper; top with 1/2 teaspoon cream.
4.Carefully transfer muffin tin to oven and bake eggs until whites are just set, 10 to 15 minutes. Using an offset spatula, remove bread cups from muffin tin and transfer to a serving plate. Garnish with chives and cheese; serve immediately.

100,00 toothpicks, some glue, and a helluva lot of free time

This amazes me! Thirty five years ago, long before I was even born,an artist Scott Weaver began work on this insanely complex kinetic sculpture, Rolling through the Bay, that he continues to modify and expand even today. The elaborate sculpture is comprised of multiple “tours” that move pingpong balls through neighborhoods, historical locations, and iconic symbols of San Francisco, all recreated with a little glue, some toothpicks, and an incredible amount of ingenuity. The artists says "I have used different brands of toothpicks depending on what I am building. I also have many friends and family members that collect toothpicks in their travels for me. For example, some of the trees in Golden Gate Park are made from toothpicks from Kenya, Morocco, Spain, West Germany and Italy. The heart inside the Palace of Fine Arts is made out of toothpicks people threw at our wedding."

The Airborne Toxic Event's "All At Once" (a very manly album)

From The Guardian: "The Airborne Toxic Event's 2009 debut pitched itself perfectly between Bright Eyes, the Killers and the Strokes. This time, they've muscled up, nodded to the blue collar and emerged somewhere between Bruce Springsteen, U2 and the Pogues. Frontman Mikel Jollett is as adept at songwriting as guiding his band through such changes: All At Once and Numb are instant, stadium-size anthems, and when the band sound as if they're trying to cover too many bases at once, Jollett's enthusiasm for a killer chorus and a good, dramatic yarn sees him home. The Kids Are Ready to Die's overegged line "I was 13 when I had my first taste of danger" – an age when most of us face no greater peril than falling off a bicycle – ventures towards self-parody, but when the song itself is so strong, it doesn't seem to matter."

TATE is one of the best bands I have ever heard, and by far one of the best live acts I have ever seen (3 hour non-stop musical mayhem last time around). Their new album is pretty fantastic, and they are on tour now. They will be in Cbus two weeks from today (Sunday 15 May) at the Newport Music Hall. Im counting down the days!

Ginger Pear Martini

The martini is a very manly drink. James Bond 007 himself drink them; shaken not stirred. Whether or not you are a fan of the martini, I ensure you that you will love this ginger pear variation. The other night. my boyfriend and I had dinner at Lemongrass, a "fusion bistro" in the short north neighborhood of Cbus (that Ben Folds frequents when he is in Columbus). I had their ginger pear martini, and I enjoyed it soo much that i decided to try and make it...hope you enjoy.




Ingredients:
Fresh gingerroot
1 fresh lime
2 canned pear slices in heavy syrup (from 15-ounce can)*
1/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) syrup from can of pears
2 ounces (1/4 cup) pear-flavored vodka
Ice

Directions:
Peel skin from ginger with the side of a spoon. Finely grate enough ginger to prepare as many drinks as needed.

To make one cocktail drink: Juice lime and pour into martini shaker. Add two pear slices to the martini shaker. Add thumbnail-sized portion of ginger and muddle ingredients together. Pour syrup from canned pears into shaker. Fill shaker with ice and add vodka. Shake vigorously 10 times and strain into chilled martini glass, making sure to keep solids out of the cocktail.

To Celebrate The Royal Wedding...A Buckingham Palace Jell-O Mold

Bompas & Parr was founded June 2007 and creates food art using gelatin desserts, colloquially called jellies. Named after the defunct food company of the same name, the company uses food molds to make edible decorations shaped like buildings and other architectural structures. Bompas & Parr (two manly-men with an affinity for bow ties) have been noted for their detail and have competed in culinary artwork competitions, an example being the Architectural Jelly Design Competition organised for the London Festival of Architecture.The company claims their projects explore how the taste of food is altered through synaesthesia, performance and setting. Currently the focus of their projects is gelatin based because they feel it is a perfect medium for an examination of food and architecture due to its plastic form and the historic role it has played in exploring notions of taste. Bompas & Parr also claims to be the first group to ever record the sound of jelly wobbling.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4X-TOP0RWo

Holy Earth Friendly Products Batman

Holy Man-Crafts Batman is not simply a blog about crafting; in the months to come Holy Man-Crafts Batman will feature recipes (for manly meals), gardening tips (for the manly horticulturist),prduct features (for manly consumers), book,movie,and music and reviews (for manly literature,cinema,and music) etc., Today I offer you the very first Holy Man-Crafts Batman Product Feature. A true man is one who cares about the world he lives in; he wants to take care of the environment. A true man is also someone who pays attention to his hygeine and cleanliness. Today the blog features a few products that you manly-men may enjoy. I use them myself;

1. Natural Elements Ultra Purex- #1 selling natural laundry detergent and delivers the deep-down clean you expect from regular Ultra Purex detergents, but contains naturally sourced ingredients with natural fragrance extracts. Hypoallergenic and dye-free, Purex Natural Elements detergents are perfect for sensitive skin.


2. Burt's Bees Natural Toothpaste- It's only natural to want to show off your smile! So the wonderful people at Burt's Bees created a natural toothpaste with added whitening power to brighten teeth in just two weeks. With cranberry extract, which emerging evidence suggests may help to inhibit certain plaque-causing bacteria from adhering to teeth, and calcium and phosphorous to promote strong, healthy teeth, Burt's Bees natural toothpastes also help ensure that your pearly whites are as healthy as they look.


3. Joe Grooming Products- Established in 2002, Joe Grooming's goal was to create a natural and organic line of hair products. By lowering surfactant levels in their shampoos, adding soothing, moisturizing extracts to both cleansing and styling products, and fragrancing with essential oils rather than synthetic fragrances,the people at Joe Grooming have created a style friendly, and earth friendly product.

Manly Sailor's Knot Bracelets

So summer is just around the corner, and with summer comes manly barbecues and yacht parties. Now what is the perfect man accessory for such occasions? A nautical knot bracelet of course. For years Girl Scouts have been making and exchanging friendship bracelets, and all of us boys have bee missing out on the fun. Well you and your man friends can now make and exchange these




Supplies you’ll need:

* 3.5 yards of twine
* 14 ounce can for a smaller bracelet or a 20 ounce can for a larger bracelet. Any other round object that has the appropriate circumference for your wrist will do.



Directions:

1. Wrap one end of the twine around the can to shape an X. Leave about a 4" tail. You will need this tail at the end to finish the bracelet.

2. Wrap the long end of the twine around the can again and bring it up to the middle of the X. Then pass the long end of the twine under the right, upper leg of the X and pull the long end all the way through.

3. Next, move the upper left leg of the X over the right leg of the X to create an oval shape.

4. Pull the long end of the twine through the oval shaped opening you just set up.

5. Turn the can a bit and you will see that the oval shape has created another X shape. Again, pass the long end of the twine under the right upper leg of the X and pull the end through.

6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 until you get to the beginning of your project.

7. You will now find a three-stranded braid. Follow the twine you initially laid out and create a parallel second line.

8. Continue around the can. If you find that it's getting too tight to pass the twine through the openings, you may want to take the bracelet off the can and continue with the knotting in your hand. If you take it off, be careful not to pull the twine too tight, otherwise your bracelet will shrink on your wrist.

9. Continue knotting the rope around the bracelet until each strand of the braid has one parallel line — a total of three passes. At this point you can stop or add another three passes to create the traditional pattern of three parallel lines, like the bracelet in the third picture in this step.

10. To finish, just knot the ends together and weave them into the inside of the bracelet.