foodage : fruit trifle

strawberry + banana trifle


my first batch this semester for linda's easter potluck,
taken w/ the trusty cell phone

i usually don't write out recipes, but this time i was spurred on by an email from fennie asking for recipes. for this dessert, i just about never measure, so writing out something more formalized so someone else could follow was pretty amusing to me. all you really need is the ingredients and "method" (if i can even call it that), and then you get an extremely tasty but equally simple dessert to satisfy on a summer evening.

(this is my healthier version of the typical trifle, which usually uses whipped cream or custard and sometimes preserved fruits instead.)


fills a medium sized serving bowl, ~picnic full of people (estimate)

ingredients:
1-2 containers of strawberries
1-2 bananas
1:1 ratio of vanilla to lemon yogurt (i.e. 16 oz. vanilla yogurt like stonybrook, 16 oz. lemon...)
equivalent of 1 full (round) angel food cake (or any light, spongy cake)

method:
1) the day before serving, wash and quarter the strawberries. sprinkle with sugar to taste, mix in a bowl, and place them in the refrigerator overnight. [note: if you don't have time for this step, even an hour or so in the fridge will help.]
2) the day of: mix together the 2 flavors of yogurt in a separate bowl
3) cube the angel food cake and cut the bananas into thin slices, place aside.
4) in a medium to large glass bowl, lay out each ingredient one layer at a time in this order: cake, yogurt, fresh fruit. [note: make sure to layer the yogurt so it fully covers the cake below.]

note: transparent is preferable for visual effect, but really,
any container works, like this mixing bowl.

5) repeat the layers until the bowl is just about full. the top layer should be fruit, and here's where you can make an aesthetically-pleasing pattern if you wish. (after all...i'm a designer.)
6) serve with a large spoon, making sure to scoop several layers at a time.

substitutes:
this recipe can really easily be modified for anything you have in the fridge. i've used blueberries instead of the strawberries and bananas, and also substituted the angel food cake with ladyfingers. you just need to have a certain consistency in sweetness for the fruit.


et...voila! easy, but light and tasty. and fast - the turnaround will be lightning quick.

artifex : the vault

the project.

our team signature - not in the vault, but in one of our projects

in the practical portion of the workshop, we worked on about 3 projects simultaneously: a dry stone wall, a more traditional single-curvature vault, and a pebble stone floor. (another project, which involved banging at a water basin to smooth out the surface, quickly faded into the background.) i worked mostly on the floor but also a bit on laying some of the tiles for the vault.

our main creative project, however, started the 2nd week of the workshop and was preceded by a series of design charrettes. there was a lot of discussion about what exactly we would be building...but eventually we settled on a vault that was the synthesis of our preliminary designs. i'll let the process speak for itself (thanks to cynthia for her dedication to shooting all those photos!):

lunching

ingredients:
brioche roll (or challah)
fresh mozzarella
fresh basil leaves
apple cider jam (courtesy of my cousin jennifer and an apple orchard in the midwest)

combine.
makes for good company to trader joe's tomato and roasted red pepper soup, too.

mmm.

the City with new eyes

weekend of liberty.

i promised reem we would go together to nyc, and finding that this past weekend was the only time when we'd both be around together, we figured it would be a good moment. and hey, july 4th in the City is fun :D

and so we went!

the partner in crime, who introduced me to the joy of color filters (thanks, also, to canon).
who loves nyc at first sight?

alice's teacup was our first official stop for tea + scones.



other fooding included:
spitzer's corner (ludlow + rivington, lower east side) : tuscan omelet
gregory's coffee (park ave. + 24th st.) : sandwich in a tube!, cappuccino



along the way we came across allen and reem's friend, dasum, and discovered our namesakes in the form of signs (too bad, no "reem road").
[ note : confetti, i had the first photo taken for you! ]



a beautiful sun setting sky from pier 54, seen with lovely college friends and visitors
as we waited for the evening's light display.

happy 4th!



and then, the long-awaited highline!

it's been years since i first heard about the project back in college, and now it finally opened its doors for the first time just a few weeks ago. (thanks to juliet for reminding me!) although i was excited to see in person what diller scofidio + renfro (ds+r, the architects) and field operations (the landscape architects) did with the project, i also was bracing myself for some sort of hipster tourist trap, after hearing about the park's overcrowding.

we grabbed sandwiches from amy's bread in chelsea market and headed up to the old converted railline. thankfully, it was well populated but not stifling, and we had a chance to sit in the 10th ave. square (@ 17th st. and very akin to the ica's mediatheque) and munch away. reem was completely in awe of the park, after having heard about it for the first time just before our trip to the city. i was also impressed with how both urban and wild the highline could be. sure, there were flocks of people with cameras stuck to their faces (my camera actually ran out of batteries after those few opening shots - thankfully so, actually, so i got to do a bit of sketching), but you could still sense both the openness and narrowness of the space. the careful selection of flora. the transitions from concrete plank to well-worn wood and back again. even the water fountain drained elegantly into grates on the ground!

i'm looking forward to the day when the highline is no longer an architectural darling or celebrity spectacle, but instead becomes truly integrated into the surrounding urban fabric. then, i think the park will reach its potential as a city icon. until then, be prepared to fight the crowd.

for a (perhaps) more "official" review of the highline, see the nytimes article.