it’s july, which is national parks & recreation month, and i’m writing 4 different pieces for LAist about parks around LA. the first one is about echo park, so i thought i’d collect some of my favorite photos of the park. enjoy!
this invitation to the natural history museum’s halloween event “haunted museum” brings together retro thriller movie design with vintage travel posters. see the entire profile at fpo.
thanks to fastcodesign.com for sharing the comfy cargo chair, which can be stuffed with anything you’d like to display while sitting in it. i only hope there’s a suggestion to add a cushion to the seat.
H&FJ has just announced a new typeface, ideal sans, a clean, highly-versatile sans-serif that tinkers with space and proportion while maintaining high readability.
the 2011 brand new conference is open for registration.
for those of you following trends in logo design, logo lounge’s logo trends for 2011 is out.
i recently watched this “talking funny” show on hbo as well, but michael beirut was able to grab from it 7 things graphic designers can learn from stand up comics.
if you’re a designer working with a developer when it comes to web development, maybe your relationship could use some guidance. smashing magazine offers two cats in a sack: designer-developer discord.
it’s never too early to incorporate design into a development process, so why not revisit your research process and integrate it wherever you can. parse can help you get started: design-research process.
this week in food, we’re talking all about cherries over at LAist: seasonal eats: cherry season is upon us!
last week, the first cherries appeared at the farmer’s market. the ones i found ranged in color from a bright cranberry to a deep wine color, so i thought they might be a bit tart, but these were all sweet and delicious. normally, i love to eat them raw, so the challenge for me is setting some aside for my LAist recipe [seasonal eats: cherry season is upon us!]. cherry recipes are almost always desserts, so rather than fight it, this time i decided to experiment with adapting a dessert to be low-carb, low-sugar and gluten-free [an unintentional benefit].
i read a few suggestions about roasting cherries, which sounded interesting because the stones are supposed to impart an almond-extract flavor [perhaps this is why maraschino cherries taste like almond extract to me]. i’d also tried out blending cottage cheese smooth with a bit of milk and found it to be a really tasty dessert alternative, so i thought i’d bring the best of 3 worlds together: a coconut almond meal crust, roasted cherry filling, and whipped cottage cheese on top.
recipes suggest to roast cherries about 30 minutes at 325, in anything from just oil to a mix of sauces. i found that mine all boiled away, but if you wanted to reserve the sauce, roasting covered would be a good idea. i decided to live dangerously and wing it, adding canola oil, balsamic vinegar, red wine and vanilla extract. i roasted 42 cherries to cover the bottom of a shallow 8″ pan, but once it was done, i could see more would have been fine. also, a deeper pan would allow for more fruit.
you might think cherries split and wilt with roasting, but very few of them did. they are a lot easier to separate from their stones after a roasting, so work with a knife and fork. if you want to be neat about it, you can cut them in half and scrape away the cherry from the stone and get perfect halves, or do like i did, mash the cherry with the fork, and then use the knife to separate the stone from wherever it is still attached.
for the pie crust, i used equal parts almond meal and shredded coconut, mashing and mixing together with coconut oil and an egg white. i prefer coconut oil because it solidifies around room temperature, so i could hand-form the crust in the pan and then chill until baking time. this crust bakes up quickly, 15 minutes at 325. if you time it right, you can get the cherries going, then stick the crust in the oven, and everything will be ready to assemble at once.
for the whipped cottage cheese, put 2 cups cottage cheese in the blender with 1 tb vanilla extract and 1 tb honey [or more, if you’re so inclined]. blend until smooth, scraping down the sides and mixing with a spoon and a splash of milk if it’s too thick to continue. if you choose to do this ahead of time, chill it so it thickens. if not, pour it over your cherry-filled crust, and chill to set. i found mine was a bit thinner than anticipated, but some time in the fridge will thicken it up.
and there you have it! this cheesecake is not for everyone. some of the more sugar-inclined out there won’t like it much, but i find it to be a fun treat. also, after a few days, some of the cherry juice settles into the crust, which is quite delicious. ultimately, i think using mixed fruits is a great idea for this setup, roasted or raw, throw them in and enjoy!
roasted cherry cottage-cheesecake
cherries:
42 cherries
1 tb canola oil
1 tb vanilla extract
1 tb balsamic vinegar
1 tb red wine
– tossed in a pan, coated & roasted at 325 for 30 min
crust:
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup shredded coconut
2 tb coconut oil or butter
1 egg white
– mash together & press into pie tin
– bake 325 15 minutes
cottage cheese:
2 cups cottage cheese
2 tbs milk, as needed
1 tb vanilla extract
1 tb honey
blend until smooth, chill
assemble! eat!
Loose Leaf – Edition One from Manual on Vimeo.
more good news for the print’s not dead files, two new publications have emerged this spring worthy of note. eureka magazine, profiled on iso50 is a fresh, clean & colorful approach to scientific matter, while codex is dedicated to typography.
we’re ramping up for the creative freelancer conference in june. i talk about what a good pep talk does for me while longtime HOW magazine editor, bryn mooth, talks about joining us in her transition to freelance. dang, we’re in good company.
i spent the weekend with students at AIGA LA’s student portfolio day, and met some really nice people and promising designers. here’s one for you guys: 50 things every graphic design student should know.
and one for back to basics / back to awesome, if you’re not asking these questions, or questions like them on every design project, it’s time to start: 5 questions every designer should ask their clients.
this week in food, we’re all about fresh fava beans over at LAist, seasonal eats: get fava beans while they’re fresh! and look at this nasturtium love over at hot knives!
finally, in semi-food & semi-hollywood news, cahuenga alley adjacent to where the hollywood farmer’s market sets up has been approved for a makeover?! that would be incredible!
Voices of Youth Identity from Hyperakt on Vimeo.
i’d put up the before & after intro that under consideration usually posts, but it just doesn’t do this redesign justice. this highly versatile identity system is everything a great brand can grow from and use to communicate. take a closer look at all the fantastic details at underconsideration.com.
what a precise endeavor, not only to cut such thin type out of dough, but then to bake it without burning anything. thanks, howdesign.com
house industries has just launched photo lettering, where you can set type using their highly stylized & versatile fonts, and download a vector file for use. check it out!
very cute & clever idea of pairing grape varietals with typefaces to give each even more personality. not to mention pretty amazing labels. see the whole preview at thedieline.com
some interesting things are circulating about the behavior of women as consumers, for one women dominate the global marketplace, here are 5 keys to reaching them, from fastcodesign.com, and study finds women more likely to choose eco-packaging.
HOW has 10 reasons you’ll love the creativity issue, and if you have it and read into reason #5, you can hear from myself and some greatly respected colleagues talk about transitioning to freelance, which is very fun indeed.
after reading the profile of GOOD’s LA issue, i decided i’m going to have to go buy a hard copy to curl up with this weekend. but that’s not to say you can’t read it online. digging deeper, if you want to see how designers and writers who do amazing things all over town live, design sponge sneak peeks alissa walker & keith scharwath’s pad in silver lake.
i picked the first loquats of the season this weekend, made some chutney, and researched as many things as i could find on how to prepare them for seasonal eats: forage your local loquats!
with easter around the corner, you’re going to have a lot of hard boiled eggs. if you need help with them, check out happy spring: 5 deviled egg recipes. and then, really, think twice about eating too much easter candy, because sugar is really more problematic than most of us think, and that’s putting it mildly. sorry to end on that note, but i care about your health. and my chutney is sugar-free.
when we first moved to our current place, none of my neighbors had plants outside, and all the landscaping was meticulously cut into round topiary shapes, so closely that flowering plants no longer flowered, and the 2 loquat trees bordering my patio no longer bore fruit. finally, one day, one of my neighbors said “um, hey, quit cutting the trees!” and after 3 years of rehabilitation, we have full loads of loquats ripening on 2 trees. this is going to easily double what we can eat off the land here in springtime.
i grew up with a loquat tree, so i am totally thrilled about this. while i agree with most assertions that eating them fresh while standing in the yard is the best way to enjoy them, anyone who has these trees knows there’s only so much you can do of that, as the yield is too copious to keep up with. i’ve been looking for all the things i can do with them for LAist and came up with some pretty great projects, including loquat wine, loquat-infused brandy, and homemade italian loquat seed liquor. in the meantime, i just tried the very first firm fruits, and found they were already quite sweet, so i got to work picking what i could, and put up a jar in the freezer.
to prepare loquats for use, start by slicing around the fruit lengthwise. i like to start at the flower-bud end, because it’s often hard to slice, but easier to cut out afterwards. roll your knife around the fruit, meeting the starting cut, and twist the 2 halves apart as you might with an apricot or peach.
once halved, you can simply pinch the seed membrane in the empty half with your fingernails, and peel it out [this isn’t critical, as the membrane is both harmless and edible]. then pop out the seeds from the other half, peel out the other membrane and then chop as needed. there are all kinds of recipes asking for blanching and peeling, which i find entirely pointless. in general, i think peeling fruits and veggies when the peel is inconsequential to the texture is a total waste of time, and only contributes to food waste. and pettiness! there, i said it.
oh—and if you ever wondered what the relation is to kumquats? it’s in name only. they both have names deriving from their old cantonese names, so they sound the same while being totally unrelated. there ya go!
after researching a few chutnies, i altered a recipe i liked and will be making a good quantity of it for the next LA food swap, among other things. it’s delicious, with a satisfying ginger-mustard spice. then, it’s down to the home brew supply to see about this loquat wine idea.
Loquat Ginger Chutney
1 TB canola oil
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp curry powder
10 loquats, peeled, pitted, and roughly chopped
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbs fresh ginger root, minced
1 fresh serrano pepper, minced
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
Salt to taste
Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the onion, and garlic and sauté until tender. Add the cumin, mustard, and curry powder, sauté another minute.
Add the loquats and toss to mix through, 1 minute. Add the vinegar, serrano pepper, ginger and salt, and simmer on medium heat about 30 minutes until reduced to a thick sauce.
Store in a jar in the refrigerator, or let cool for use in your next meal.
despite having done my taxes weeks ago, i had been catching up with straggling details right up until last friday when i noticed that my menacing list of things to do had finally been finished. so, today i get to enjoy the first admin monday i’ve had in months—cleaning, organizing & getting ahead, both in the office and in the garden. i’m hosting my monthly biznik mixer, but if you’re looking for more design fun, the LA design events, april 2011 wrap-up is ready for your plan-making at LAist.
tuesday, april 19, 5:30-8pm LA east-side mixed up biznik mixer at the griffin in atwater village. take this tail end of over-castedness to cozy up to one last fireplace before we go strictly patio until november.
CicLAvia 04.10.11 from Nicholas Dahmann on Vimeo.
an estimated 100,000 people came out for cicLAvia this past sunday, were you there? check out LA streetsblog’s 5 cicLAvia stories you shouldn’t miss.
i love it when 2 worlds i adore collide. brand session assigned a different pantone chip to each varietal of wine and used it all over the packaging. see the whole profile on thedieline.com
one part great sustainability idea, one part diy, why not cut the top flap of your greeting cards away from the personalized back flap and reuse them as postcards? thanks, greenlagirl!
if you find yourself in need of meditation but not sure where to start, get on this 30-minute method from utne reader.
a few tools circulating like wildfire around the web this week include what font, a droplet that will allow you to identify fonts on the web, and print magazine’s how to proofread like a pro, because everyone needs to do it, but nobody really thinks they can.
in other news, one day for design is an online open forum to discuss the future of design, and it’s happening all day TODAY!
as we move into spring, more fresh fare appears in the markets. seasonal eats: fare from the ancients with asparagus! because maybe you didn’t know, but we’ve been eating it as long as recorded history.
it’s also the season to throw all kinds of things in salads. i love this round-up from the kitchn: chicken, tuna, pasta: 15 fresh, filling lunch salads.
i hope a lot of you are somewhere in this picture. for me, this is a changeover week, finishing up a lot of straggling projects ready to go to final, and starting up all the new ones next in line. but i’ve got time for some fun, if you do too, check out this week’s round-up for LAist. among other things, i’ll be checking in on one day for design on wednesday.
wednesday, april 13, 5:30-8pm april LA biznik happy hour at jerry’s in the marina FREE with rsvp.
thursday, april 14, 7-10pm behance / aiga meetup FREE with rsvp.
parlato design studio 