On my mind

Welcome to Savannah, GA.

As the new school year awaits me (and a new school- hello SCAD), I have been easing myself back into the design mentality by reconnecting with my favorite blogs and magazines. Here's a quick list of some of the pieces I've enjoyed lately. Check them out.

- "Nerding out on Shit Hot Ceilings, Part I", over at Yellowtrace. How could you not be enticed, with a title like that? An amazing ceiling separates the pros from the novices in the design world. There's also a part II!

-Speaking of shit hot ceilings, SOM's Nada Andric's design for the Burj Khalifa in Dubayy, UAE, is a must-see. The ceilings in particular carve out playful geometries that make for incredibly interesting spaces, and the amount of detail in such an enormous project blows my mind. Take a peek at the slideshow on interiordesign.net.

-My dear friend Max Wastler has an essay in the October issue of Dwell magazine entitled "Ain't That America." Pick up a copy, and in the meantime, swing over to his blog, All Plaid Out. Max is an expert on all things Americana, and All Plaid Out is much beloved in the design world. Last summer we spent an entire afternoon in Brooklyn searching for vintage wooden coat hangers. You'll see what I mean when you read his blog. Read it!

Renderings

Hello, dear Readers. As you've probably discovered, I've resigned myself to putting aside my nest feathering during the semester, but I wanted to let you know that I have not dropped off the face of the planet!  Here's a taste of what I've been working on in school.Our last project was an integrative health facility in Soho. Enjoy!

Above: the entrance to the lobby from the elevators. I wanted to create an environment that counters the pollution and concrete outside. Guests are greeted by a "living wall;" in addition to being a balance to outdoors, green walls serve as air filters. There's a reveal at the bottom and top of the wall, so it appears to float.

More after the jump!

Muddy Bay Brownies

Food and design blogs are my procrastination poison—those dark holes on the internet that suck you in for hours, hours that you could spend oh, I don’t know, doing homework or writing on your blog, which you love but is too often ignored. Two blogs I frequent had a very similar recipe for some pretty delicious (read: gooey-looking) brownies, of which I made a mental note and moved on to my next procrastination portal.  The truth is, I’m a little low-brow when it comes to my brownies. I’ve made Ina Garten’s brownies from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, and they were wonderful. But they felt like a lot of work, and I have to be honest, I’m fond of brownies from a box. They just always seem gooier than their more high-brow counterparts, and gooiness is my top criteria for brownies. Then, over Christmas, I came across that same recipe again (there’s a lot of sharing on the web, it would appear).  And this time, I noticed that these brownies looked suspiciously like boxed brownies (remember, fellow bloggers, this is a compliment in my book).

Lo and behold, these were the EASIEST brownies I have ever made in my entire life. They might actually be easier than boxed brownies, if that’s at all possible. The ingredients are easy and items that I normally have in my pantry, it uses the microwave and only one bowl.  AND, you line the pan with parchment paper, so clean up is a snap. SOLD.  I have no dishwasher, so more important than easy ingredients are minimal dishes.

The first time I made the brownies—for my pregnant sister, aren’t I saintly?? Although I don't remember her actually getting to eat any...--  my mom commented that they reminded her of the pluff mud in Muddy Bay, off the South Carolina coast near the little fishing village of McClellanville, where we have a house. She’s exactly right, so in honor of my favorite Lowcountry haunt, I’ve christened this recipe Muddy Bay Brownies and made a tweak or two.

MUDDY BAY BROWNIES

Makes 16 brownies, 25 if you’re stingy

Time: 10 min. prep, 25 min. in the oven

Oven: 325 degrees

10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 stick + 2 Tbsp)

¾ C. unsweetened cocoa powder (*people make a big stink over Dutch processed versus natural—I made this recipe twice, once with Dutch processed, and once with Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder, which uses both Dutch and natural, and they were both stupendous. Just don’t used sweetened cocoa powder. That’s for chocolate milk.)

1 ¼ C. sugar

¼ tsp. salt

½ tsp almond extract (*see note for variation)

¼ tsp. vanilla extract

2 cold large eggs

½ C. all purpose flour

Note: You can omit almond extract if that's not your thing (we can't be friends anymore, but I understand that everyone's allowed their own preferences.). If so, increase the vanilla to 1/2 a teaspoon, and if you'd like, you can add 2/3 C. pecan pieces at the very end before baking. This was the first incarnation of the recipe that I tried, and it was a big hit.

Preheat the oven to 325.

In a large (4 C. or so) glass measuring cup, dump the butter, cocoa powder, sugar and salt. Microwave on high for 1 minute, 30 seconds. Stir until smoothish. It will look gritty (like wet oreos, I tell you.) but don’t fret. It’ll smooth out later.

Set aside to cool for a few minutes (you want it warm, not hot. If you add eggs to hot batter, you get scrambled egg brownies, and no one wants that.). Once your mixture’s cooled down a bit, add the almond and vanilla extracts.  Stir to combine. Then add the  eggs, one at a time, beating vigorously with a wooden spoon between each egg. Now the mixture should start to look smoother and shinier. Once everything’s mixed up, add the flour. Stir in until you can’t see any white, then beat vigorously with the spoon for 40 strokes (I will admit, I find this EXHAUSTING. Must go to the gym more so I can be in better shape to make brownies.).

Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper leaving an overhang on two opposite ends. Pour the batter into the pan and smooth out so it's even.  Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean (or clean-ish… remember: it’s better to have underbaked brownies than overbaked. Gospel truth.).

Allow to cool in the pan, then pull out by the parchment paper by the ends and cut. Store in an airtight container, and hide from your husband.

If you're interested, here are the other blogs with the original recipe:

http://www.honeyandjam.com/2010/11/gooey-cocoa-brownies.html (the one that finally got me to try the  brownies)

http://mattbites.com/2010/12/14/alices-new-classic-brownies/ (this Matt fellow is a HOOT)

http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/01/best-cocoa-brownies/  (Deb of smitten kitchen is a blog-lebrity. Even my dad wants to try her white bean and chard stew!)

Crack Cheese Available online!

It may be possible for a Lowcountry southerner to survive above the Mason-Dixon after all:

http://palmettocheese.myshopify.com/collections/vendors?q=Pawleys+Island+Specialty+Foods

They even have a crack cheese blog!!!! with VIDEOS.

http://palmettocheese.wordpress.com/

If you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, click on the first link and buy yourself a container of Palmetto Cheese (I vote for the jalapeño variety). My dad, who knows a lot about everything, is convinced that the lady on the lid (again, you'll know what I mean when you buy some which I assume you are doing RIGHT NOW) puts heroin in the secret recipe. You can't just have one cracker. Next thing you know, it's dark out, the tub is empty, and you're ten pounds heavier. But happy. Very happy.

UPDATE: They also sell shirts that say "I'm addicted"-- proof, I tell you! Proof! I may have to buy one. Or four. I know a lot of addicts.

UPDATE AGAIN (I clearly posted this too quickly): Apparently the lady on the lid is Vetrella Brown, who is credited with adding the, ahem, "soulful" touch to Palmetto cheese. I think we all know what soulful means.

Deer Me (it's been a long time since I posted last)

Much to my dismay, grad school doesn't leave much time for crafting. If I'm being analytical, grad school doesn't leave much time for anything, including but not limited to, husbands, friends, cooking, family, cats, exploring your neat new neighborhood, going to museums, exercising, etc. It also doesn't leave me much time for shopping, which is a very good thing. But I struggle with the loss of the other activities, especially the husband/family ones.

Last weekend, the last thing I wanted to do was pick up my drafting materials and draw out floor plans. While procrastinating feels good in the moment, the accumulation of it = eventual anxiety. How do I deal with anxiety? Crafting, of course (this may be interpreted as more procrastination... but I think that would be inaccurate. But that's just my opinion of course.)

New Nest!

You may have noticed that my posts have been rather infrequent (non-existent?) lately. I haven't forgotten about you, Dear Readers, not at all; rather, Miles, the cats and I have packed up and moved to Brooklyn, NY, and it's taken quite a while to get adjusted and back to regular life. We're still not quite there, but we're probably as close as we're going to get for a while! I started my Master's program in Interior Design at Pratt this week (the reason we moved), so wish me luck on what I anticipate to be a very difficult but rewarding 3 years... Fingers crossed.

Our new nest is perhaps the polar opposite of our LA nest. We live in the basement apartment of a brownstone with a little excitable Italian landlord who doesn't speak English (I told him our sink wasn't draining and he told me I probably put too much paper down it. Most conversations don't go that well.). It's taking some adjustment not having some comforts like a dishwasher... or sunlight... but it's starting to come together. I'm determined not to let a NY apartment (or grad school) keep me from my nest-feathering pursuits, so keep tuned in for my next few posts... Thanks!

(here are some pictures from our trip to the Big Apple last fall... because let's be honest, who wants to read a blog without pictures???)

Catnip Crafts

As you may have guessed, I'm borderline obsessed with my two cats, Chandler and Whitey Ford. They're such an active part of our little family! I send their "grandmaggie" (my mom) pictures of them every day, doing things that I'm sure signal their obvious genius, but to others probably just look like cats being cats. I think they're brilliant (it's true, they are.).

Anywho, when they were babies, Miles and I bought them little catnip toys shaped like fruit. Whitey adopted the bananas and Chandler, the strawberry. There's also a cherry-at-large, which gets passed around. They can entertain themselves for HOURS with this fruit. It's adorable. Unfortunately, one day tragedy struck.

I sucked up the strawberry in the vacuum cleaner.

I spent a half an hour rooting through the very full bag looking for Chandler's baby with him by my side. Short of dumping the dirt out in the kitchen, I realized I would not find the toy, and even if I did, it would be so dusty that it would probably choke him. I felt like my mom must have felt when she left my sister's blanket, Fuzzy B, at McDonald's and it got thrown away. I searched high and low across three states for replacement catnip strawberries, but they had been discontinued (damn you, Petco!). Chandler adopted the cherries, but you could tell he just didn't feel the same about them. Then, to top it all off, when we moved the cats across the country two weeks ago, I LEFT THE STUPID CHERRIES IN CALIFORNIA. Poor Chan just can't catch a break! So, to make up for my shortcomings, I decided to make him his very own strawberry. Plus, this one would be made in South Carolina, not China, so I wouldn't have to worry that it was dipped in formaldehyde, which isn't so good for cats. Or people.

Whitey was pretty jealous of the strawberry, so I made him a jalapeno.

Chan playing with the jalapeno...

Whitey, molesting the strawberry (Whitey has a tongue to match 70 grit sandpaper, so the strawberry is in rough shape right now. I'm investigating ways to make it sturdier, because at this rate, the strawberry will be demolished in about 18 hours...)

Not bad, right?? Maybe I could have a cat toy side business. I'd call it "Fuzzy Drumsticks and the Chan Chan Man"! (that's also the name of the children's book I'm planning on writing, but that's another post).