iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

Black forest rolls. Basically, cinnamon roll dough with a chocolate and dried cherry filling and a vanilla sugar glaze.

Photo of twelve black forest rolls with a trickle of vanilla sugar glaze.

Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

At an exhibit at the St Louis Art Museum about the 1920s and 30s. This Teardop Talbot-Lago is a definite attraction. I could see myself driving this......anyone have a couple million? I'd let you drive it once....okay twice....three times. Damn.

Side view. Teardrop shape, silver with red fenders.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Drive through bordello? No, a convenience store in Missoui.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

A plate of the cookies with the buttercream. Of course, now I have a huge amount of leftover buttercream....more cookies to come i guess

Frosted sugar cookies, green white and yellow

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

We had a lot of powdered sugar, so sugar cookies. These are cooling but the powdered sugar went into three buttercreams for after the cookies cool: white, yellow and green. Why those colors? No color, single color, blended color (available colors were blue red and yellow-blue and yellow make green).

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

After the gougères have been baked. Fluffy insides, cheese goodness

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

We had a lot of cheese. Leftover cheese means cheese scones or Gougères. Scones were last weekend, Gougères this weekend. This is before baking. Yes,I sprinkled a bit of cheese on top:very cheesy. I also used cayenne instead of black pepper to add pop, so not true gougères

Raw dough for gougères. The top is sprinkled with cheese.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

Orange Cardamom shortbread cookies. Very buttery with an orange-cardamom kick

Cookies right out of oven on cooling rack

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Costco had blackberries on sale i had buttermilk. Sometimes, things just work out.

A broken blackberry muffin, showing blackberries inside

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Playing this morning with a new idea: lemon poppyseed buttermilk biscuits. More savory than sweet (could add a touch of sugar if i wanted).

Seven lemon poppyseed buttermilk biscuits. Can see poppyseed throughout.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

We found a bunch of white rice and frozen veggies in the freezer yesterday, so before 7 this morning I decided to make chicken fried rice. I've got issues.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Cassoulet for dinner tonight. Had to hunt all over for the sausages, but it turned out great

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Schloss Schoenbrunn. I'm not really a big fan of castle tours. Yes, they're opulent and impressive. Truly, the part I found most fascinating was where they were performing renovation work: how often do you see what lay underneath?

Painted ceiling of Great Gallery painted by Gregorio Guglielmi and chandelier.

Brick walls underlying whatever had been covering them while renovations underway

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

The autographed ceiling at Griechenbeisl restaurant in Vienna. Supposedly, Mozart and Beethoven signed. Pavaratti, Mark Twain, Egon Schiele and many others definitely did. They really need a list.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Kind of creepy. Kokoschka had a relationship with Alma Mahler and commissioned the making of a doll in her likeness which he used for "inspiration." He eventually doused it in wine and beheaded it, but there is this reproduction.

Life sized doll of Alma Mahler, complete with breasts and pubic hair. Very creepy

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

You have to love the choice of cakes available in Vienna

Selection of cakes available at 9am at Haus des Meeres. Multiple types, sacher, esterhazt, erdbeeren, mozart among others

Mango schnitte and a Kirsch sacher torte

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

A friend's neighbor did not drink French wines, so gifts of French wines sat. Yesterday, we had a tasting. I think they discovered that the French wines were pretty darn good.

Older vintages of Figeac (96), Pavillon Rouge (96), Mayne (98), Chapelle de la mission haut brion (2000), Giscours (2000), Valandraud (03), Carmes Haut Brion (05), Nairac(01), Doisy Daene(96) d'Yquem(93).

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Orange buttermilk scones. We always zest oranges before eating for this reason

Orange buttermilk scones, baked and on a cooling rack

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

After a successful morning of chasing your prey, sometimes you just need to revel in it.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

So....um... What's in the drawer?

Cat crawling through a drawer filled with papers and memorabilia

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

Cooking Moulard duck breast for dinner. To me, Bordeaux works beautifully with this dish. Primarily merlot with a bit of cabernet franc.

Bottle of 2005 Rol Valentin Saint Emilion.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Humboldt fog (left) and a Langres. Edmund Tew from the UK is a favorite and unavailable here in the US. It's made like a langres-a washed rind cow cheese with a buttery texture. I'm hoping the langres is a close approximation.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

A few months ago, I wondered if they'd tolerate each other. Best of friends now.

Two cats curled up together in a cat hammock

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Sparkling wine tasting yesterday. No prosecco or Franciacorta, but a lot of good Champagne. We had 27 people, so the tastes were small, but many were delicious

14 bottles of sparkling wine lined up from a tasting.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

A close-up look at my cheese to show the white mold development. The white mold, necessary to cheeses such as brie, valençay and camembert, turns the interior into the delicious velvety goo.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

I love this. Mahler deciding, you know, Bach should have done this. Everyone has their interpretation, but we have Mahler's notes on his.

From the New York Philharmonic collection, Mahler's arrangement of the Air and Gavotte 1 from Bach's suite for Orchestra no. 3

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Texas style chili but with some cocoa added for a thicker texture and slight chocolate flavor with the jalapeños.

Texas chili (no beans) darker brown color from cocoa

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

For a cookie exchange: making two different types of chocolate chip cookies, traditional and chocolate chocolate mint-meltaway.

Cooling rack with both traditional chocolate chip and chocolate chocolate chip melt away cookies.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Third flip. Still draining quite a bit of whey and setting into the mold. This may require six or seven flips to complete draining.

Curds settling into mold, a few inches from top.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Cheese in the molds. The whey drains, the cheese settles into the molds and, after a few hours, I flip the mold over allowing the cheese to better drain. There are around five flips before the cheese completely drains. At that time, the cheese will be around 1/3 of the height if the mold

Cheese slightly above the height of a camembert mold, whey which has drained, can be seen surrounding the base.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

When making cheese, you start with a culture. The culture converts lactose to lactic acid and provides different textures and flavors. For camembert, I use Aroma B which provides butter flavors. The penicilium is a mold, which converts the interior into the melty texture you expect from camembert.

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Merlin likes to drop his toy into anything liquid. This requires a serious watch over iced tea, wine, or anything else in my glass

Black kitten with a small fluffy ball toy

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Aaron Mandel @aimandel.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Baked @kingarthurbaking.bsky.social maple pecan muffins. Cheating, but there will be a lot of cooking for Thanksgiving. Besides, my wife wanted these which is an added bonus.