New addition to the Chicago Skyline

Growing up outside Chicago in the "Region", I was downtown often. Although not as often as I would of liked. Now that I am away from Chicago in the far off land of Boston I go back to the Windy City on my way back to visit the Region. I find myself making up excuses to spend some time in Chicago. The city has been one of the major driving forces for why I do what I do. Chicago has pushed the boundaries of the design world and has brought forth many of the great designers of the world. Well it looks like there is going to be another structure that will make ripples in the architecture world.

The new addition to the Chicago skyline is called Aqua and it is due to be completed in the year 2010. Aqua is a cast in place concrete structure that will be clad in Glass. The structure starts to escape the confines of the space creating a rippling affect along the facade. It is said that these curvilinear shapes are to become the balconies for the 82 story high-rise. It will be interesting how she plans to enclose those balconies. Seeing the pictures where there are not railings is very tantalizing.

I am glad to see that the curve is starting to show its face once again in the city. From Millennium Park to Marina city and Lake Point towers. Chicago has one of the most versatile and diverse skyline. It has always welcomed the new brush strokes that becomes the icons of Chicago.

Two Bite Orange and Rasberry Tart.

Orange and Rasberry tartlette? I am not really sure the classification for this dessert, but it sure is tasty. I guess you really cant go wrong with Fresh fruit, shortbread and whipped topping. For Easter I made a Lemon Curd Tart with fresh blueberries and strawberries. The tart was a success. It made the mad scientist in me come back out. I thought that if the lemon curd came out so well then what other flavors can I make. For this first adventure I did not stray to far from the mainland and tried Orange. OK, so orange is not so daring but the mad scientist did make a brief appearance when I tried one batch of chocolate. All it did was made a tasty frosting but that will have to be addressed at a later date, a lot of the kinks need to be worked out of that one. Back to the tastiness that was Orange. First thing that you do is make the orange curd, this can easily be made a day or so ahead this way it can fully set or you can just make them as you crave one. But if you decide to make it the day that you want to serve it make sure you give it enough time to chill.
Orange Curd:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup fresh Orange juice
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh Orange zest**
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1/2 tsp of corn starch
  

***I put in one well packed tablespoon of orange zest. you really can not go wrong with more zest because most of it will not make it past the strainer.

Put all the ingredients in a double boiler and cook on med. You will want to be stirring it very frequently. Once it thickens whisk very frequently (almost constantly, you dont want it to burn) until a curd forms appox 10 min. (It is one of those things that you need to see to believe, and don't worry, if you are stirring it then you will not miss it). Take off heat and strain through a fine strainer. This will remove most of the zest and any larger chunks. Then cool completely. I pulled it out of the fridge a couple of times while it was cooling and stirred it with a whisk. This seemed to help it say together and keep creamy, or maybe it was curiosity that would not let me leave it alone. I defiantly need to work on that.

After it was fully cooled then I spooned it on top of a shortbread cookie, added some fresh raspberries and topped with a whip topping. This two bite tart is great weather you are serving it for a party or if you just need that little bit of sweetness in the middle of the night.

Is there truly Architecture in Guatemala?

A couple of years ago there was a point in my career that I started to get really fed up with where my life was and not sure if I was going in the right direction. I was burned out and needed to get away. I looked for the most remote place I could find and through my searching I found lake Atitlan. It was the perfect place for a retreat from the city and I thought Architecture. But as I lost myself in the culture of the Guatemalan countryside a suprise I really was not expecting popped up.

To get to the lake I had to spend some time in Antigua. I will be posting at a later date about some of the other locations that I visited but right now I would like to focus on Antigua. This Spanish colonial city paved in cobbleston charged the paddles and recessitated my intrest in design. I spent a couple of hours just sketching in the Plaza de Armas. At the time i was not aware the the fountain that I was admiring, La Fuente de las sirenas (the Fountain of the Sirens) was designed by the city's renowned colonial archtiects, Miguel Porres, in 1739. The space is an utter success. People would spend hours around the fountains to stay off the heat of the day. If it was not for the fact that I had a shuttle to catch I could of spent days just in this area. I was lucky that I had to come through town once again on my way out of the country. Quick note to those traveling in Guatemala, private shuttles are great. I would not want to drive in this country and after seeing the public tranportation I was very happy that I spend the miniscule amount of money to have a private shuttle. Back to Antigua...

One of the other places that really caught my eye was the church of La Merced. This 1767 church has been kept up amazingly well. This intricatly patterned facade of yellow and white stucco patterns was the third church that the Mercediarian order had built. The first two had been destroyed by earthquakes. This church is a good example of the style of architecture that came about due to the earquakes in the area. The bell towers became shorter and more squat compared to the taller thinner towers in other areas of less earthquake prone areas of Mexico. La Merced is the starting and finishing point for the famos Good friday procession of antigua. This procession would take up to 8 hours of walking through the streets of antigua during Semana Santa (Holy week).

So there are two of the many things that I found in Guatemala, I ll be bringing you more because there is so much more. If you get the chance to go I would totally recommend it.

Brownies!!! Brownies!!!!

So Brownies, I never really thought of myself as an accomplished cook. Don't get me wrong, I have some skills, but I don't categorize myself as a great cook. I like to experiment, I would put myself in more of the "mad scientist in the kitchen" category. But lately I have had the best luck with cooking even more specifically baking. All the brownies that I made, weather they were a mix or from scratch they would come out too runny or too cakey. I got fed up with them all and decided that I would make up my own recipe. I have to say that I hit the jackpot with this one. Try it out, it is not only easy but it is a good mix of cakey and fudgie.

• 8 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 12 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x9x2 baking pan. Line bottom and two sides with a strip of parchment paper. Leave approx 2" of overhang on each side so that you can easily remove the brownies after they are done. I tried changing the size of the pan and they did not come out. The proportions work great for a 9x9 pan, just an FYI.

In a large heat proof bowl cut up butter into tablespoon chunks and add semi sweet chocolate chips. Set over (not in) a saucepan of gently simmering water. Heat, stirring gently until smooth.

I typically start this process first and while the water is heating up I then mix the dry ingredients.

In a medium bowl mix four, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, sugar. Yep all goes in at once. Make sure that there are no chunks and the salt and baking powder is fully incorporated. It is important that everything is mixed well.

Once chocolate and butter is fully melted take off simmering water. Fold in half of the dry ingredients. Then add the eggs, make sure that the eggs are fully Incorporated into the mixture, then fold in the remaining dry ingredients. By adding half of the dry ingredients first it cools down the mixture enough not to cook the eggs.

Pour into pan and bake for 30-40 min. My oven is really bad so check after 30min to be safe. You can tell when the brownies are done when you put in a toothpick and larger baked pieces com out. A fully clean toothpick will not come out with these brownies. They will also look evenly puffy throughout. Let cool in pan for about 20 min ten take out and set parchment and all on a drying rack. Try your hardest not to eat them right away so you don't burn your mouth. I speak from experience.

If you cant wait they are pretty good warm but they are even better the day after.

Eating about Architecture

So your probably thinking what the hell is Eating about Architecture. I am an architect that loves to cook, design, and solve puzzles. So I decided to start to write about all the above. The more I thought about it the more I realized that each has its place and each really influence the other. I will be posting my own crazy opinions about food, recipes that I make, and my own warped mentality towards the wonderful world of architecture.

A little more background on why I am writing this blog.

My roommate is seasoned blogger and she is the one that got me interested in the world of the blog. She would always be writing about the restaurants that we go to and the food that we ate.
We were out at a restaurant this past week and we were really early to our reservation. We sat down in the bar, had a couple of drinks and started to talk about the restaurants decor. It made realize that I not only have strong opinions about food but how spaces are designed. The more I thought about it, the more I started thinking about all the times I go out with my friends and there I am staring off in space thinking about how a light fixture is attached the ceiling or how the pattern in the wallpaper is really designed by someone who was high in the 60's. Needless to say I have a lot of opinions and the gravitate towards architecture and food.

So it always comes back to food and the built environment. Hopefully with a little kookieness mixed in.

I leave you now with the immortal words of Ford Prefect

"DON'T PANIC"