I Heart Papyrus (?!!)

Good God Almighty: I just found a site devoted to the glorification of Papyrus—arguably the most poorly designed, overused typeface of the contemporary era. What exactly is Papyrus referencing? Degraded calligraphy on rough paper? The ancient world? All things granola? Orientalism?

What is it about these awful display faces that captures the imagination of so many practitioners with access to Photoshop ("designers" who use Papyrus would use Photoshop for all their typographic stylings)? It rivals my old favorites Remedy and Fajita, which were at their zenith in the mid 1990s.

* I actually think the I Heart Papyrus site is tongue-in-cheek. It just has to be.

Environmental ABC's

I stumbled upon these fabulous alphabet prints by Grégoire Ganter via thetypejunkie. I have always loved urban vernacular typography, and Mr. Ganter's juxtapositions are simply charming. Apparently, Mr. Ganter started his collection of alphabet images when he and his wife could not find suitable baby room decor. Nice work—yet another designer rearing a typographically sophisticated child. I'm already teaching my Iain that Papyrus is the devil and should never be used.

Perfectly Simple Puddings

A lingering cold combined with end of the quarter malaise and general pregnancy-induced exhaustion prevented me from preparing an elaborate Easter dessert this year. What with the glorious Meyer lemon in season, I envisioned a fresh lemon tart with almond crust. But the thought of making and rolling out pastry dough proved far too ambitious. That's when I had my moment of genius: to adapt a Real Simple recipe for buttermilk pudding into a Meyer lemon delicacy. The recipe is, oddly enough, completely simple:

1 1/4-oz. envelope unflavoured gelatin
1 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 cups buttermilk
zest of 1 gorgeous Meyer lemon

Combine the gelatin with 1/4 cup water and let stand for 3 minutes. In small saucepan, over medium heat, combine 1/2 cup of the cream and the sugar. Cook, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and whisk in the gelatin. In a large bowl, combine the buttermilk, lemon zest, and remaining cream. Whisk in the warm cream mixture. Lightly oil (canola oil) six 6-oz ramekins. Divide the mixture evenly among the ramekins. Refrigerate, covered, at least 3 hours. To serve, run a knife around edge of each ramekin and invert onto plates.

I was able to take my puddings to the next gustatory level with the addition of the first sweet crop of Santa Maria strawberries: perfection.



*note: If you don't have access to fresh (non-wax dipped grocery store) lemons and strawberries, don't fret. Simply replace the lemon zest with one teaspoon of vanilla extract and garnish with any fruit in season.

Easter with Robots

Because nothing says the risen Lord like Transformers. . ."they're more than meets the eye. . .they're robots in disguise." Imagine my surprise to discover a Transformer-themed easter egg coloring kit. Well, actually, Iain discovered it with the eagle eyes of a two-year old. When I was a kid, I don't remember easter egg coloring kits with movie tie-ins—surely, my brother and I would have been all over a Star Wars-themed Easter. Ah well, no matter. It occurred to me that movies such as Star Wars and Transformers are not necessarily un-Biblical in nature. Witness Wikipedia's description of Optimus Prime:

Optimus Prime is a character in the Transformers universe. He is the commander of the Autobots, a faction of heroic Transformers from the planet Cybertron who wage their battles to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons for control of their homeworld, and by extension, peace in the universe. Optimus Prime is depicted as a heroic, brave and compassionate character who puts all his talent to use to improve the world around him. Optimus has a strong sense of justice and righteousness, and has dedicated himself to the protection of all life, particularly the inhabitants of Earth; he will battle his foes with unyielding resolve to uphold this belief.

I suppose Optimus Prime could be considered a Christ-like figure in that he is willing to sacrifice his own life for the good of both robots and humankind alike. Hmm, perhaps the Transformers are not completely out of place during the Easter season.

Letter Ice

I just discovered these super cool Letter Ice (jello?, cookie?) trays at swissmiss. How fabulous would little pomegranate juice letter ice cubes look in a tall glass of fresh lemonade? Apparently, Letter Ice is seeking a distributor in the U.S. and abroad. I hope they find one, because the typographic possibilities are endless.

My *Star* Turn

Check out my star turn on the Doodlewhore site. Only may pal Sugs could capture the true heinousness of la Sevigny:

Anyone Can Be a Designer

In general, I like my blog to be all about positivity. However, when my dear friend Jason alerted me to Chloe Sevigny's new line of clothing, I knew a rant was in order. I have long loathed Chloe Sevigny's unique and almost unequivocally figure unflattering fashion sense. Ms. Sevigny's wardrobe abominations and reluctance to powder her nose have gained her the rare status of "frequent offender" on the Go Fug Yourself site (my favorite guilty pleasure). Some would argue that Ms. Sevigny is a fashion impresario and if one sticks to the dictionary definition of "a person who puts on or sponsors an entertainment," this could be an accurate description. I'm just trying to imagine if Marc Jacobs or top American fashion designer Michael Kors or those cuties Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough at Proenza Schouler are amused by Ms. Sevigny's audacity at assuming the role of designer. I know it chaps my a** when type bastardizing buffoons with a cracked copy of Photoshop call themselves graphics (with an "s") designers.

By the way, the look above is the most tasteful of the entire collection.

Clafouti-licious

A couple of weeks ago, I can across a recipe for CLAFOUTI on Design*Sponge. A French dish with a great name that could be assembled in a blender: what more could a busy gourmand want. I knew instantly that I had to add the clafouti to my repertoire of puffy custardy pancake-esque dishes that could be served either for a brunch or at afternoon tea.

The original recipe courtesy of Karen Combs at nama rococo:

PLUM CLAFOUTI

Ingredients:
-4 or 5 fresh PLUMS, pitted and sliced (about 3 cups)

for the batter:
-2 eggs
-2 egg whites
-1 cup buttermilk (235ml)
-3/4 cup unbleached white flour (95g)
-1/2 cup sugar (100g)
-1/2 teaspoon fresh-grated lemon peel (5g)
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5ml)

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180C)
2. Butter a 9" or 10" non-reactive pie pan. Loosely arrange the sliced plums on the bottom of the pan.
3. Put ALL of the ingredients for the batter into a blender and whirl until smooth. Pour the batter over the fruit in the baking dish, and bake at 350 degrees (180C) for 45 – 50 minutes or until the clafouti is puffed and golden and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
4. Cool for a few minutes before slicing into servings. This tastes especially great if you can eat it while it’s still a bit warm from the oven.

****************

Since plums are not in season, I decided to try frozen sweet cherries (a 16 oz. bag). They worked like a charm and didn't require any pitting or slicing. Since I was too disorganized to thaw the cherries in advance, I just threw them right from the freezer into the batter. This definitely added to the cooking time and I nearly swooned in anticipation when the clafouti-licious aroma wafted through my kitchen, but it was totally worth the wait. I served the clafouti slices with some lightly sweetened whole milk yogurt to which I added some leftover lemon zest: a match made in heaven and a work of culinary inspiration, if I do say so myself.