Fun with Illustrator

I love playing around with new software, especially Adobe. Although Adobe Illustrator is not new to me, I hardly consider myself an expert. So just for funsies, I decided to experiment with the different live-trace filters just to see how they all looked next to each other. And of course, I had to use a photo of a familiar building in NYC, the Hearst Tower. Just some fun facts...It is the first high rise in NYC to achieve LEED certification and it is LEED Gold. The tower portion of the building was designed by Norman Foster (One of my favorite architects), and it was completed 80 years after the original 6-story building was built.

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies

A few days ago, I had the sudden urge to bake some chocolate chip cookies. I don't know where this urge came from, since I'm not really an avid baker. All of the chemistry and precise measuring just drives me crazy. I like to just throw things into a bowl and hope something works, which is probably the reason I have had so many baking failures.

I googled chocolate chip cookie recipes and found this gem at allrecipes.com. (I basically only picked this recipe b/c I knew I had all of the ingredients in the house and it only has 3 steps. SCORE! Of course I am stubborn and can't follow simple directions; I had to make it my own. But how could I make this different/better?

So I looked into the fridge and what do I see? An entire untapped bag of luscious cherries that would go bad if I didn't eat them immediately! Sure why not? I sliced and diced these up, took out the pits of course, and threw them into the batter. (Disclaimer: I did alter another step of the recipe. Before I put them into the oven, I put them in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes. I guess it makes the cookies spread out less, or something?)

Anyway, here's my recipe (As altered from allrecipes.com):


Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened (I use Smart Balance)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped cherries (without pits)

Directions

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2.) Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour and chocolate chips. Add the chopped cherries to the batter last. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans. ( I ignored this and Pammed mine.)
3.) Chill dough in the oven for at least 10 minutes
4.) Bake for about 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.
5.) Cool on a baking rack.

End result: Pure ecstasy in my mouth! Soft and warm gooeyness! And an added bonus, my boyfriend didn't scarf them all down because he was weirded out by the cherries in them. More for me! They did end up spreading out to make one large cookie on the pan, so make sure you leave extra room.

Chillin in the fridge

Fresh out of the oven

Slacking

I know, I know, I have been a huge slacker when it comes to this blog. (Perfect example of a fail-blog, lol!.) But I am bound to change that. I have done a few "design-worthy" projects in the last few months and I am definitely going to work harder at posting them. Here's a painting I made for my best friend's son's new nursery.

As you can tell, it is safari themed, and matches all of the things she already got for her nursery. It is acrylic on a 40" x 18" canvas. I worked on it every day after work for a week. You can see the composition I laid out on photoshop before I started. The end result looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

And some details...