iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

nicholas @mastraco.la · 21/08/2026

Wild-ass fit from the lead vocalist of Portugal. The Man tonight

The lead vocalist of Portugal. The Man, dressed in all Adidas with a mask and a hat.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 04/12/2025

Are smooth Twix a recession indicator?

3 Twix bars sitting on a paper towel. The wrapper is visible just above the candy. They are smooth instead of textured.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 24/11/2025

Kiss me in the Minion room the VRBO private vacation home in Kissimmee Florida so I know it’s real.

An VRBO as of a room in a vacation home in Kissimmee Florida. The room is adorned in minion decals, a wall with clouds painted on it and two beds with minion themed bedding sets.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 04/07/2025

The person who took this photo I grabbed from the web had a similar issue

A Whirlpool photoregister code taken from google.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 28/04/2025

Homemade lasagna tonight!

Nicholas is wearing oven mitts and holding a 9x13 tray with Lasagna with a big smile in his kitchen.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 18/04/2025

Must have made like 7 kilos of dough today. We’re doing cheesesteaks tomorrow, so I had to make 3 batches of dough for that and then we’re doing pizza on Sunday instead of ham so I made 4 batches of that.

A fridge full of drinks but also 10 containers of dough. The large doughs are for pizza, the small doughs are for rolls.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 17/04/2025

Made some focaccia tonight. At some point I’m going to branch out into some more fun focaccia flavors but plain with sea salt is still a hit.

A cooked focaccia loaf sitting in a cooling rack. There is a tub of Maldon sea salt and a cutting board viewable in the picture.

A cross section of focaccia sitting on a cutting board.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 28/03/2025

Follow up is a BBQ chicken cilantro pie in the style of a pizza of the same name from The Pie Pizzeria here in Utah. It has some smoked Gouda mixed in with the mozzarella. It came out pretty good. It was a little light on the chicken and bbq sauce but otherwise tastes similar to the actual thing.

A bbq chicken pizza topped with cilantro on 5 of the 8 slices.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 28/03/2025

Since we had steak chimichurri earlier this week for dinner, I decided to use some leftover sauce and some steak we sliced to make a chimichurri pizza. The time and the heat took away the bite from onion in the sauce and it came out pretty good, albeit a little heavy.

A pizza sitting on a cooking rack. The pizza has steak and green chimichurri sauce covering it. It is about 14 to 15 inches in diameter.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 18/03/2025

My mom threw together this video of the process of making Braciole on Sunday. We learned a lot (namely to tone down the cheese a teensy bit) but it was real fun!

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 26/02/2025

Used one of the leftover doughs from last Friday and some leftover meatballs to throw together a meatball pizza for lunch today.

A meatball pizza. The meatballs are cut into very small chunks.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 24/02/2025

Despite being skinless, this came out pretty good! We sliced it thin and made sandwiches in the style of All’Antico Vinaio. My mom made fennel, potato, and Parmesan cream.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 23/02/2025

All tied together. This sucker weighs almost 9 lbs.

A porchetta tied up and resting in a dish.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 23/02/2025

We be attempting porchetta. Sadly this pork belly from Costco does not come with skin attached, but I’m sure it’ll make delicious porchetta anyway.

A pork belly with various spices massaged into it. There is a pork tenderloin sitting in the middle, also covered in spices.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 22/02/2025

Followed those up with a BBQ Chicken Cilantro pie (not unlike what you’d find at the Pie Pizzeria in SLC) Another request tonight was Hawaiian.

A BBQ chicken Cilantro. There are bits of cilantro sprinkled on the cheese.

A Hawaiian pizza. There are pineapple chunks and ham on top of the cheese.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 14/02/2025

While it’s not technically fully authentic, we made Feijoada tonight. It is pretty close to what I had in Brazil. Made Fargo’s and Collard greens to complement it.

A table with a spread of food. In the middle is a Dutch oven with feijoada in it. To the left is rice and to the right is Farofa. There is also collard greens in a dish towards the bottom. All around are people’s plates.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 10/02/2025

Also made some buffalo chicken pizza. First non tomato base pizza I’ve made. Pretty happy with it. Will sub the spicy ranch for blue cheese next time.

A buffalo chicken pizza at a very sharp angle. It fills most of the view.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 10/02/2025

Did some rolls for meatball subs tonight. Need to stick to 2 rolls at a time with my setup. These stuck together and deflated a bit. Still taste good though!

3 rolls sitting on a cooling rack in a kitchen. There are various kitchen utensils sitting around the rack.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 19/01/2025

Attempt number one ended up collapsing due to not adjusting the recipe for altitude and several missteps along the way! Still edible but very thin.

Cooked cake sitting atop a cooling rack. The cake has 4 six inch circular cuts in it.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 19/01/2025

Making cake from scratch tonight in an attempt to recreate the Milk Bar birthday cake! I messed up trying to number one (as one tends to do trying something for the first time ever) so this is attempt number 2. Into to the oven to bake for like 30 minutes!

A half sheet pan with cake batter in it sitting on a counter top. The batter has rainbow sprinkles covering the top and throughout.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 11/01/2025

Mixed things up a little this week with pizza night. Between the diastatic malt powder and the bread flour I’m VERY happy with how the pizza came out this week. It browned so nicely. The sauce was okay. I really have to find a combo I like, I kind of winged it this time.

The bottom side of a pizza. It is well browned and slightly charred in places.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 07/01/2025

Some more shots as well as a less than stellar plating. We went with a saffron butter solace. Thanks to the saffron it has a bit of a floral taste complemented by the Pinot Grigio that served as the base. In the end, the plating doesn’t matter too much since it was quite tasty.

Red pasta dough sits in a ravioli mold with ricotta cheese piped into eat of the spaces.

A tray of red and yellow striped agnolotti.

Some red and yellow striped agnolotti with the two toned ravioli. The ravioli has yellow dough on the top and red dough on the bottom.

A bowl of cooked two toned ravioli and agnolotti. There is a fork resting over some sliced cooked chicken breast.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 07/01/2025

Had a bit of a pasta adventure tonight. We tried some patterned pasta and then pivoted over two two tone pasta as the agnolotti, the long ravioli shape, was a bit of work to get patterned quickly enough.

A counter top, there is red and yellow pasta sitting to the right side. A Cambro container has red pasta dough resting in it. In the middle there is a pizza cutter. To the left there is red and yellow striped dough and above it is a wooden rolling pin. You can also see a ravioli mold and a commercial pasta machine.

Red and yellow striped pasta dough with a rolling pin sitting near it.

Nicholas pipes ricotta cheese into the striped pasta dough.

Nicholas’ fingers are pressing down on a rolled bit of the striped pasta dough, forming agnolotti.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 04/01/2025

Nevermind, they couldn’t resist the allure of these beautiful rolls. Midnight cheesesteaks, baby.

A homemade Philly cheesesteak sitting on a plate.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 04/01/2025

I ended up doing it tonight. Forgot to score before going into the oven so the seam is smaller than it would have been, but boy, look at that color. Going to make cheesesteaks out of these rolls.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 04/01/2025

Color is great on the bottom too (though it’s a bit greasy as this had been cut for about 10 mins prior) Next pizza night we’re introducing diastatic malt powder to help with browning in the home oven.

The bottom of a slice of pizza. It is lightly browned with some noticeable grease near the tip.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 04/01/2025

Friday’s are pizza night now. Pizza no.2 of the night because the first got eaten too quick. We’re thinking about doing a Stromboli with one of the other doughs.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 03/01/2025

Another food post! We’re trying Philly rolls now. This didn’t rise as much as it should have (for reasons I’m not quite sure of) but it tasted damn good despite how small it was. Going to be trying something new this Saturday so keep your eyes peeled for a follow up.

A small torpedo shaped roll. It is light brown with a score down the middle.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 02/01/2025

Homemade American style Chinese tonight. We made everything fresh with the exception of the egg roll wrappers. Quite involved, but worth it in the end.

A bowl of American Chinese food. There is Orange chicken, 2 egg rolls and some egg fried rice.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 31/12/2024

Gave pizza dough with shortening another try (as well as using barley malt syrup for sugar) and I think this is the best combo so far. Great browning, nice and crispy where it needs to be. Fluffy crumb as well.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 30/12/2024

It ain’t pretty right now but we’re doing bolognese tonight. 1 hour down, at least 2 to go.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 29/12/2024

We decided to try out colored dough tonight. I wanted to try orange dough which we accomplished by pureeing some red peppers we roasted over the gas hob in the kitchen. Loving the color. We’re filling them with roasted butternut squash and brown butter. For sauce we did sage and butter.

A sheet of Orange pasta dough is sitting on a ravioli maker. There is butternut squash filling sitting in each of the divots of the ravioli maker. In the background is a rolling pin and two colored bowls.

A sheet of finished ravioli. There are 35 in total.

A serving bowl of cooked ravioli. It is in a butter and sage sauce with fried sage as garnish.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 24/12/2024

There certainly isn’t anything like a refreshing summer drink in the dead of winter.

An aperol spritz being held in front of a Christmas tree.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 24/12/2024

Butter chicken and naan tonight! Mom made the naan, I made the butter chicken. Good times.

An assortment of plates and dishes. There is a dish in the back left with basmati rice. In the front left, there is a dish with butter chicken, there are three plates with naan on them.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 22/12/2024

Decided to get a bit festive with my nails. Turns out giving yourself a manicure is as hard as I thought it would be.

Nicholas’ left hand. The fingernails are painted a dark green with the exception of the ring finger which is painted Louboutin red.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 22/12/2024

Very happy with the color on this. That extra time makes such a difference.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 22/12/2024

I let the dough I made on Friday cold ferment in the fridge so we’re gonna see how it tastes today.

An uncooked pizza sitting on an aluminum peel. The pizza has cheese all over it.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 21/12/2024

It’s a pizza night.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 16/12/2024

We made ravioli last night. I really ought to make fresh pasta more often.

A man (me) is standing in a kitchen in front of a powered pasta machine. He is holding a sheet of pasta dough as it passes through the machine.

12 halfway done ravioli sit in a ravioli presss.

Ravioli boil in a Dutch oven on a gas stovetop.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 14/12/2024

Saw this on a drive to the city today.

A Ford Fusion with a Utah license plate that reads ChuckyO

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 12/12/2024

Day 11: Pineapple + Yuzu. Not a lot to write home about with today’s fare. Still not a fan of citrus spreads but the pineapple did help with that. Posting this hella late thanks to a busy day. 6/10.

A small jar of pineapple and yuzu spread sitting on the top of a printer.

Two slices of toast with pineapple and yuzu spread on each.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 11/12/2024

Day 10: Raspberry + Rose. This was a pretty well balanced spread. Not too floral, and just enough raspberry to keep it all evened out. 9/10.

A jar of Raspberry and Rose spread resting on a bowl of cosmic crisp apples.

Two slices of toast with Raspberry and Rose spread on them.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 10/12/2024

Day 9: Rhubarb + Spice. I thought I would dislike this one but this combo was great. It is probably the least appetizing looking one so far but don’t let looks deceive. 8/10.

A jar of Rhubarb and Spice spread sitting on the top corner of a refrigerator

Two slice of toast with rhubarb and spice spread.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 09/12/2024

Day 8: Lemon + Elderflower. Forgot to post this yesterday. I generally don’t like citrus flavored spread, especially not lemon, but this was not too bad. The elderflower took the edge off of the lemon taste. Nicely floral and overall not too bitter. 7/10.

A jar of Lemon and Elderflower spread on top of some books in a cafe.

Two piece of toast in a blue plate with lemon and elderflower spread.

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nicholas @mastraco.la · 09/12/2024

I remember when I first saw Interstellar in IMAX I considered the viewing an almost religious experience. I’ve oft said to friends that if I had the money, I’d rent out an IMAX theater so I could watch it there again. I’m glad that I don’t have to now.

A movie ticket for a 10:20 viewing of the film Interstellar.

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