smart people

I found an article on dwell.com about this couple who bought an old 19th century apartment in Barcelona. Very smart people. The apartment building is in a land zoned for redevelopment, but they loved the apartment so much that they bought the apartment and renovated it anyways even though they risked the possibility of getting evicted. The original decorative plasterwork on the ceiling and the original tiles are still there. But the cool thing that they did was renovate the rooms so that the appliances are all in one piece of furniture. For example...


All the appliances for the kitchen - refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, etc. - are all in one big piece of furniture so nothing is attached to the wall. This way they don't have anything connected to the wall in the case they do get evicted so they can just take everything with them. Pretty cool huh? And it saves space and makes cleaning a lot easier. Btw, don't those tiles look ridiculously awesome??? It has this cool indie hippie style to it but very classic at the same time. Totally love it.


Again, the tiles and ceiling.....boooootiful.


Okay, how cool is this? They built this freestanding bathtub/sink to save space in their bathroom because they were sick of the tiny shower and the tiny sink in their previous apts.


I've always wanted a cool vintage door like that.

I Heart Panko

I was watching Food Network today and came by a great new recipe. Now that I live in my own apartment away from the gross yet convenient campus food, I've been cooking a lot, mostly Korean food. And so far, they've been pretty successful. Definitely not as good as my mom's, but I've also been trying new recipes. Anyways, I was watching Food Network today and Paula Deen's show came on. Make fun of me if you want, but I think she's fabulous.

Anyways, her and her son were cooking oven fried chicken crusted in panko bread crumbs. I hate it when they eat it after it's cooked, and you're just looking at the TV with the saddest, most disturbed look on your face cuz you can't have any. Well, NOT TODAY!!! Mu ha ha ha!

So it's basically like katsu that you order at Japanese restaurants but American style I guess. I've made katsu before which is basically fried pork loin covered in flour, egg, and panko bread crumbs, and you dip it in katsu sauce when you eat it. But the oven fried chicken was way better cuz there was parmesan cheese, olive oil, and parsley, and basil mixed into the panko. F-ing awesome. I would never have thought of that. The ingredients and direction are below if anyone wants to try it or you can look it up on Food Network. I highly suggest you try making it though. It's super easy. I changed the ingredients a little because I didn't have some ingredients like the dijon mustard, so I just covered the chicken in flour and then a beated egg like I would for katsu and it tasted great. Oh and instead of cooking it in the oven, I just fried it in a frying pan if you're not a big oven person. I forgot to take pictures of it but I'll upload a picture of the left-overs tomorrow. :) I also made carmelized onions, but that was kind of a big failure so no pictures for that one...maybe next time.

Ingredients

* 2 cups Panko bread crumbs
* 1 cup grated Parmesan
* 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
* 2 tablespoons freshly minced thyme leaves
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
* 2 tablespoons water
* 2 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/4 -inch thickness

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Place a cooling rack over pan and spray rack with nonstick cooking spray.

In a shallow dish, combine bread crumbs, cheese, 2 tablespoons olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper, to taste. In a separate shallow dish, combine mustard, water, salt and pepper, to taste, and remaining olive oil. Coat each chicken breast with mustard mixture; dredge each in bread crumb mixture. Place on prepared rack in pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until chicken is golden brown. Serve immediately.

black and white

I don't know what it is about black and white photography but it's amazing...These are just some of my favorites by Richard Avedon (1923-2004). He photographs everything - fashion, celebrities, artists, politicians, random people. His work is on exhibit at SFMOMA. I haven't seen it yet but definitely planning to check it out soon.

Many of you might recognize this photo. LOVE the dress. Dovima with elephants, dress by Dior, August 1955

*sigh* timeless. Carmen, coat by Cardin, Paris, August 1957

Twiggy, hair by Ara Gallant, January 1968

Oh, she's so pretty. Sophia Loren, actress, October 1970

I can't tell if she's making fun of herself, but she still looks pretty. Barbara Streisand, October 1965

Brilliant, but crazy mo-fo. Andy Warhol and members of The Factory, October 1969

The one and only. Pablo Picasso, France, April 1958

She looks like she's going to fly. Sylvie Guillem, Ballerina, March 1991

This kid's got swagger. New York Life #8, Harlem, September 1949

The man behind the camera. God, can't he at least look nerdy or something? Richard Avedon, Self Portrait, August 1980

New Beginning

Hello first blog! It's taken forever to get myself to write this, but I'm glad I'm finally getting to it. (I spent WAY too much time making it look the way I wanted.) It's been a while since I had a blog. I had a blog back in high school, and it was completely useless because I can't remember what I wrote about which obviously means I wrote about nothing important. But this time, I'm hoping it will be different. As I've mentioned on the right of your screen, much of this blog will be me sharing with other bloggers things I find about architecture, design, photography, food, basically anything that I like. So essentially this blog is about me. Sounds vain and it is vain but that's what blogs are for, right? It's a New Age way for people to get attention. Haha...most importantly though, this blog is mostly for me. The past couple of months have been rough. So this blog is one of my ways of starting fresh and moving on with probably what will be the most important years of my life. So hopefully if i'm good about it, this blog will keep me in touch with my passions and keep my juices flowing as I attempt to make something of myself in this crappy economy. SO congratulations to me for my first "real" blog entry, and here's to starting fresh (pretending I have a nice, cold beer in my hand).