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mastraco.la
nicholas
@mastraco.la
260 followers 450 following 720 posts
Coder, Dr. Pepper enthusiast, and general food enjoyer. I know Portuguese as a 2nd language, learning Italian as a 3rd. I own a couple funny domains like zodiackiller.org and everythingsucksandimtired.com. Archeanthus on a bunch of other platforms. he/him
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mastraco.la
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.
November 24, 2025 at 7:28 AM
mastraco.la
The person who took this photo I grabbed from the web had a similar issue
A Whirlpool photoregister code taken from google.
July 4, 2025 at 10:29 PM
mastraco.la
An image that says "You wouldn't buy a politician" in the style of the anti-piracy campaign messaging that says "You wouldn't steal a car"
April 29, 2025 at 12:21 AM
mastraco.la
Homemade lasagna tonight!
Nicholas is wearing oven mitts and holding a 9x13 tray with Lasagna with a big smile in his kitchen.
April 28, 2025 at 1:02 AM
mastraco.la
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.
April 18, 2025 at 12:13 AM
mastraco.la
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.
April 17, 2025 at 12:09 AM
mastraco.la
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.
March 28, 2025 at 11:53 PM
mastraco.la
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.
March 28, 2025 at 11:27 PM
mastraco.la
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!
March 18, 2025 at 10:57 PM
mastraco.la
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.
February 26, 2025 at 8:47 PM
mastraco.la
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.
A side view of a porchetta. A cross-section cut of a porchetta.
February 24, 2025 at 3:31 AM
mastraco.la
All tied together. This sucker weighs almost 9 lbs.
A porchetta tied up and resting in a dish.
February 23, 2025 at 5:45 AM
mastraco.la
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.
February 23, 2025 at 4:04 AM
mastraco.la
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.
February 22, 2025 at 1:45 AM
mastraco.la
Pizza night!
A buffalo chicken pizza. There are green onions on top with a buffalo sauce swirl. A sausage and green pepper pizza.
February 22, 2025 at 12:53 AM
mastraco.la
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.
February 14, 2025 at 1:50 AM
mastraco.la
Meatball sub!!
A meatball sub sitting on a plate, it is cut in half and you can see its cross section.
February 10, 2025 at 3:06 AM
mastraco.la
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.
February 10, 2025 at 2:59 AM
mastraco.la
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.
February 10, 2025 at 2:58 AM
mastraco.la
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.
January 19, 2025 at 1:12 AM
mastraco.la
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.
January 19, 2025 at 1:09 AM
mastraco.la
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.
An uncut cheeese pizza. The bottom side of a pizza. It is well browned and slightly charred in places. The bottom of a single slice of pizza.
January 11, 2025 at 4:06 AM
mastraco.la
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.
January 7, 2025 at 3:39 AM
mastraco.la
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.
January 7, 2025 at 3:39 AM
mastraco.la
Nevermind, they couldn’t resist the allure of these beautiful rolls. Midnight cheesesteaks, baby.
A homemade Philly cheesesteak sitting on a plate.
January 4, 2025 at 7:57 AM