Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Home Fronts

If I had a million dollars, besides buying a lot of fancy catsup, I would have a beautiful home taking ideas from these lovely abodes..

Love this house. But all I can think of is allergies.
check out the fantastic green 'living wall'  how it connects the exterior to the inside- Suzuki would be so proud.


no bad chi in an oval house...from artechnic architects



this fantastic flooring reminds me a little of snake skin, or one finish that has worn away to reveal another.


lovely stair storage for all your kitchen stuff (images above from Oui)


I love the open-ness of this space it makes me want to start placing my own furniture in there.
(image above from got Arch)


from the same home, this exterior glazed tile is just beautiful.

okay lastly-not a house for you or me- but God... and a strange one at that...

Pinned Image

I don't know about you but this is kind of freaking me out..
(deconstructed photo of a church-by Michael Jantzen)

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Summer Fun

Okay, okay, I know I said in the last post I would get back to Design fun, but did I also mention I might talk about food from time to time? Well, at the beginning of the summer I purchased half a share of a farmer's crop and every week we recieve different types of organic vegetables and eggs from them. Every week is usually a surprise - we never know what we are going to get, or how much we will get.

 This last week I recieved the mother of all zucchinis- and it was an adventure trying to think of some good ways to use this vegetable (or is it a fruit?? it has seeds??) Anywho- I shredded the heck out that zuke and then divided up into three portions.


For the first attempt I made a very typical Turkish dish called Mujver or Zucchini Fritters and the recipes goes like this:

5-6 small firm zucchinis, grated  (makes ~4 cups)
3 eggs
1/3 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
1/3 cup chopped fresh dill
2-3 tbsp or 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint (depending on how much you like mint)
3-4 green onions, finely chopped
1 cup white cheese/feta
1 tbsp paprika
salt
black pepper
~1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup olive oil for frying

-Put grated zucchini in a colander. Sprinkle with salt and let drain for 10 minutes. Squeeze and place in a bowl.
-Mix well all the ingredients except for flour and frying oil.
-Add flour in slowly and mix well.
-Heat oil in a frying pan. On medium drop scoops of Mujver mixture in hot oil. Make sure they don't touch.
-Fry them on each side until golden brown, 4-5 minutes.
-Drain excess oil by placing fritters on paper towels.
-Serve with plain yogurt or garlicy yogurt sauce. For garlicy yogurt sauce beat every 1 cup of yogurt with 1 clove of minced garlic.



 
 
Then I decided to make a savory zucchini cheese bread with walnuts- it's my mother-in-law's recipe, which she makes superbly :)
The recipe:
-3 eggs
-1 cup yogurt
-1/2 cup canola oil
-1 cup grated cheese (mozzerella or cheddar is fine or even feta)
-2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
-1/2 cup grated zucchini
-3 green onions diced
1 tbsp of dried oregano
1 tbsp of sesame seeds and  1 tbsp of caraway seeds for sprinkling on top)
 
Mix all of the ingredients together and pour in a greased glass 9x12 pan at 375 degrees for 40 minutes
 
 

 and lastly a more typical sweet zucchini bread but with cocoa added and chocolate chips (and walnuts- I went to Costco, so I had ALOT of walnuts :))

 2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups zucchini, grated
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup bakers chocolate, chopped (optional)


Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, baking powder and cinnamon together.

Combine eggs, oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat until well mixed. Add the flour mixture from the waxed paper. Mix until smooth. Add chocolate and nuts and mix. Pour mixture into a greased 13x9x2" pan or if you have a similar size just check with a toothpick until it comes out clean.

Bake at 350ºF for 40 minutes.


 okay that was fun--Bon Apetit!