Cookie Monster: Chocolate Chunk Cookies

The classic chocolate chip is a favorite. So classic, that I have promised time and time again to bake the cookies as a thank you/sorry/congratulations for my friend Becky.

Here's to you Becky.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups of flour
• one cup or so of dark chocolate chunks
• two eggs
• a dash of vanilla
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar
• two sticks of softened butter
• a dash of salt
• one teaspoon of baking soda

Recipe:

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl (sans chocolate chunks).
2. Cream all wet ingredients together.
3. Gradually add dry to wet.
4. Mix in the chocolate.
5.  Chill in freezer till firm
6. Cut dough, place on baking sheet, and bake for around 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees.

And of course, share with someone you love.

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
³/₄ cup sugar
³/₄ cup brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 ¹/₄ cups unsifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¹/₂ teaspoon salt
Read more at http://www.ghirardelli.com/recipes-tips/recipes/chocolate-chip-cookies#MfPstTJfRmqm6MrW.99

11 ¹/₂ ounces Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Chips
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
³/₄ cup sugar
³/₄ cup brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 ¹/₄ cups unsifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¹/₂ teaspoon salt
1 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat oven to 375ºF. Stir flour with baking soda and salt; set aside. In large mixing bowl, beat butter with sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy and lightened in color. Add eggs and vanilla, one at a time. Mix on low speed until incorporated. Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed mixture. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Note: The 11 ¹/₂ ounces of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips can be substituted with any variety of chip flavor (i.e.- Milk Chocolate Chips, 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips, etc.)

Read more at http://www.ghirardelli.com/recipes-tips/recipes/chocolate-chip-cookies#MfPstTJfRmqm6MrW.99

Underneath this, there was something Roman: Towards a New Architecture: Part Two

Standards and Economy

A standard manifests through experiment of a stated problem: a sane morality.

Utility, comfort, practical arrangement within an emotional relationship: architecture.

On this lovely December day, I realized that I had left my home to attend to a need that a house should be able to fulfill. Was it being able to sit outside and enjoy fresh air and a breeze that I found appealing? Or, perhaps the social need to be among other people was the element of place that my apartment lacks? (My room actually doesn't have a window in it, so a hunger for daylight and air is understandable."...a house is only habitable when it is full of light and air...".) However, is my living room not engaging enough with its typical windows and standard leasing furniture?

I ask myself these questions as I find myself sitting at Starbucks.

Food for Thought

Le Corb suggests that the "modern man is so bored to tears in his own home that he goes out," and I am proof that the home doesn't constitute proper gathering or comfort (Le Corbusier 121). Yet, architecture, like a car, has a simple "function" and many complicated "aims," as a machine for living is (Le Corbusier 137). All people have the same needs.

Towards a New Architecure: Part One

With the increase in sleep and leisure that winter break allows, I am currently reading Le Corbusier's Towards a New Architecture. Being away from studio even for a few weeks makes me anxious- sadly- and mournful of my laziness, but this reading provokes thought and gratitude towards the built environment which influences mankind's being.

I definitely found a study that excites and amazes me, for architecture- moving man's heart and understanding- is the soul of humanity; how beautiful? Architecture allows society to extend remembering, questioning, reasoning, and creating to move.

The Plan

Le Corb argues that plan, "the generator," helps clarify and organize rhythm and modulation in design (Le Corbusier 47). Consequently, I love drawing plans the most in studio and find plans gravely important, even though some older and wiser students have expressed preference for sections as more intriguing and sexier architectural drawing (cough, cough, Steven...).

The City

 

The City of Towers was Le Corb's vision for a healthier tomorrow, as the dwellings stack to improve views from within the building and green-space from within the streets. Increasing sense of place, the "efficiency of time and effort" consolidates residence to allow for ameliorated recreation, while dialogue with light and shadow from shifting the placement of towers along an axis challenges man's experience betwixt the constructs (Le Corbusier 58).

Why are the Towers relevant? Well, besides exhuming the essentials of meaningful architecture and the shortcomings of today's designers, Le Corb's words have supported my vision for my future: dwelling in the city's form.

The city form, in theory, becomes the closest to pure harmony and regulation within the mind and heart because of the metaphorical "fresh air and clean daylight" that proportion, symmetry, mass/light, and the deviation from established rhythms conjure.

Food for Thought

Suburbs lack the gumption and panash that the city evinces. 

   

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Browned Butter Apple Sauce

Gnocchi. Gnocchi. Gn-oooo-cchiiiii. I had to try this recipe because its name is entertaining to say.
(PS. I'm a sucker for sweet potatoes too.)

Ingredients

• three sweet potatoes
• one egg
• one ounce of goat cheese
• 1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese
• pinch of salt
• pinch of sage
• pinch of cinnamon
• 2 1/3 cups of flour
• three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• one apple
• 1/8 stick of butter

 Recipe for Gnocchi

1. Wash sweet potatoes.
2. Puncture potatoes and cook on high in the microwave for about 5 minutes per side.
3. Remove the sweet potatoes from the microwave, cut in half, and scoop the flesh into a medium bowl.
4. Mash the potatoes
5. Add the goat cheese, Parmesan cheese, egg, and salt, and then start adding the flour, 1/2 cup at a time until a soft dough forms.
6. Shape the dough into a large ball.
7. Lightly flour a counter top.
8. Divide the dough into 6 pieces, and take a piece and roll it into a snake shape.
9. Cut the dough into 20 pieces to form each gnocchi, and then transfer to a floured baking sheet.
10. Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the remaining five pieces of dough.
11. Use a fork to make fancy indentations in the gnocchi.  
12. Cook gnocchi as one would pasta: boil water, add gnocchi, stir, remove when the darlings float to the surface (about a minute).

Recipe for Brown Butter Sauce

1. Wash and chop the apple.
2. Brown with sage, balsamic vinegar, cinnamon and butter in medium/medium-high heat.

Toss the warm gnocchi with the prepared brown butter sauce. Garnish with Parmesan cheese, and of course share with someone you love.

Beanie Babies: Dark Chocolate Black Bean Brownie Bites

So, this dessert is inspired by my Nana; she has Celiac disease, so every holiday she misses out on the goodies. Well, not this Christmas...and I for one will NEVER use store mix/flower again when making brownies. Dare I go so far as to extend to all my baking?
 

Ingredients:

• three tablespoons of vegetable oil
• one teaspoon of vanilla extract
• three eggs
• one can of strained and rinsed whole black beans
• (at least) 1/2 cup of 60% or more dark chocolate chips
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 2/3 cup of brown sugar

Recipe:

1. Strain and rinse the black beans.
2. Blend the black beans, chocolate chips, oil, eggs, and vanilla together until smooth.
3. Mix in the brown sugar.
4. Grease muffin tins.
5. Pour mix into muffin tins.
6. Top with more chips.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes (if using tiny muffin tins; eye ball the baking time depending on the dish size and shape).

Let cool, pop out of tin, and of course share with someone you love.

Twist on a Classic: Eggplant and Mushroom Pizza

 

Two things first.

One: I've never tried cooking with eggplant before today, but I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Two: Don't neglect the goat cheese; it makes the world of difference

The veggie seems to be fairly docile and flexible as an ingredient; one can chop, slice, cube with ease because of the firmness and body of the plant, so eggplant's stalwart character naturally lends itself as a staple in the kitchen because its array of uses suggests status as both company member or leading lady- as is the case with today's cooking whim.

Ingredients

• one eggplant
• tomato sauce (take this as you wish: kicked-up marinara, pesto...)
• one package of white mushrooms
• feta cheese
• goat cheese
• olive oil
• garlic 
• oregano and basil
• salt and pepper

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Wash all vegatables.
3. Slice eggplant into roughly 1/8th of an inch slices.
4. Slice mushrooms and crush the garlic.
5. Drizzle eggplant and mushrooms with olive oil, and season the veggies with the herbs and garlic.
6. Lay eggplant flat on casserole dish.
7. Add about a tablespoon of tomato sauce on top of the eggplant.
8. Sprinkle with as much goat cheese and feta as one's heart desires.
9. Place mushrooms on top of the eggplant slices.  
10. Bake for around 30 minutes/until golden brown.

Don't you dare use silverware with this recipe, and as always share with someone you love.

Getting Started: Why a Blog?

Architecture consumes my person, which is completely sweet, but cooking keeps me sane. There are parallels between architecture and cooking hmmmm...

In my life, I celebrate through food. At home, my dad always makes dessert, and after every final studio crit my friends and I go somewhere for a good meal not only because we were malnourished from the previous week but because breaking bread with people you love is how to soothe the soul and become human again.

Why not explore humanity and all its deliciousness?