I was powerless against their typographic wiles

I logged on to Etsy just to see what was going on and I found the DoNotDestroy shop packed with vintage fun. These canisters popped up on the second page and before I had a conscious thought the four were in my shopping cart and I was entering my Paypal password. What's more fun than Helvetica canisters? Nothing! Nothing at all. I've had the accompanying "Salad" bowl for a few years now and hadn't realized I should have been hunting for this canister set. Don't tell Thomas, but the shop owner said she'll see if she can find the matching "Spaghetti" jar. HEYOOH!!

What are you reading, NPR confused about trends

(Screen shot of npr.org taken 2/10/11 at 9:35am)

Between yesterday and today NPR completely shifted its take on trends and trend forecasting. Yesterday Linton Weeks wrote an interesting article about trends and how the idea of trends has really only come to light over the last 50 years, and in that time period we've seen trends come and go. Fashion changes and as products become trendy they fall out of populous favor. The article's final conclusion is that once a product hits trend status, it's over. Ubiquity decreases allure.

Then, today, Ilya Marritz wrote a piece about the Pantone color system and how the company sets the trend forecast for the color palette of new products. They hire designers and whisk them away to a secretive white room in Europe to develop and influence the color trends for the next year. The article ends with this gem, "But if designers disregard the trend, they risk irrelevance — just about the worst thing imaginable for any label." Disregard and become insignificant.

So here's my take away...
Article 1: If you're trendy people will ignore you.
Article 2: If you're not trendy people will ignore you.

Great! Thanks for clearing that up NPR. Well done. I'm going to stick with what I love. It's not what you wear, it's how you wear it. Own your style and people will follow, trendy or not.

Garden to table: Eggplant {Recipe}

Eggplant harvest! Last spring I planted a variety pack of eggplant seeds and was really happy and surprised by the results. Eggplants of all different shapes and sizes started appearing. So fun! I had a few big harvests and as a result we've been eating eggplant with eggplant for weeks now. I tried making roasted eggplant, babaganoush, sweet and sour eggplant, but this Thai basil eggplant recipe is by far my favorite. I made a big batch for friends and the wok was practically licked clean!

Thai Eggplant Basil Dinner
(from thaitable.com)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 bunch Thai basil, leaves picked from the stem
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 eggplants
2 chili peppers

Slice the eggplants into irregular shapes for easy turning in the pan. When it is sliced into a small disk, it tends to stick to the bottom of the pan and makes it difficult to flip or turn.

Chop garlic and slice chili peppers. Pick the leaves from the stem of the Thai basil.

Heat a pan or wok over high or medium high. Add oil, chili peppers and garlic. Stir until the garlic turn golden brown. Add eggplant and stir. Add a cup of water and cover the pan or wok with a lid. Keep the lid close until the eggplant is cooked. It should take about 5-7 minutes before the eggplant is done. The eggplant turns from white to translucent when it is done. Almost all of the water should have been evaporated at this point. If the eggplant is still not cooked, add a little bit more water and keep lid closed until the eggplant is ready. Add fish sauce and sugar and stir. Add Thai basil and quickly stir to heat the basil, so that it retains it color. Turn off heat immediately.

Serve hot with rice.

Buyer Beware: Shrinking packages

Good has a great infographic on the amazing state of American goods. If you're paying the same price for a product as you were last year, odds are the product itself has gotten smaller. Thanks big business! I'd love to pay the same money for less reward while still earning the same amount of money. Isn't this partly why Egyptians are rioting?

{Recipe} Bacon & Chocolate Chip Cookies

My new love affair. Salty, chocolatey, sweet, savory. It's all right here in one perfect little package. You brown the butter to add a rich nutty flavor and then the bacon takes it over the top. Yum!

Brown Butter, Bacon & Chocolate Chip Cookies
(from Mouth From the South)

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
4 oz semisweet chocolate bar, diced into 1/4" pieces
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chops (I like Ghirardelli 60% cacao)
3 tablespoons milk chocolate, grated
1 cup bacon that's been fried until crispy and diced into roughly 1/4" pieces

Adjust your oven rack so it's in the middle position. Pre-heat to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk flour and baking soda together in a medium bowl and set aside.

Heat 10 tablespoons of butter in a 10 inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly. Watch this carefully - butter can go from brown to burned very quickly. When butter is dark-golden brown and has a nutty aroma, remove from heat and immediately transfer to a heatproof bowl. Stir the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter into hot butter until melted.

Add granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, salt and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until completely mixed. Add egg and egg yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth and there are no lumps of sugar remaining.

Let sugar/egg/butter mixture stand for a few minutes. Then whisk again for 30 seconds. Do this several times - you want to make sure that the sugar has "melted" into the liquid. When ready, mixture will be smooth, thick and shiny.

Using wooden spoon, stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in grated chocolate, chocolate chunks, chocolate chips and bacon pieces. Don't overmix but make sure no flour pockets remain.

Using a teaspoon, place a heaping teaspoon of cookie dough on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I get about 14 on a baking sheet. Bake for 10-14 minutes (my oven takes 11 minutes) until cookies are golden-brown and set along the edges but the middle is still soft. Remove from oven and set baking sheet on a wire rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes.