Fair food day. Sorry belly gut. (among other things i put in my stomach today, above is a deep fried twinkie. finally. except mine really looked more like this one. a lot less classy. it was on a stick, for one.)

Holiday weekend project? (via @karlakampars)

sweettoothgirl:

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon mint extract
• 6 to 8 drops green food color
• 1 egg
• 1 cup creme de menthe baking chips
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, extract, food color and egg until soft dough forms. Stir in creme de menthe baking chips and chocolate chunks.
2. Using small cookie scoop or teaspoon, drop dough 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Cool 3 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Serve warm or cool completely. Store tightly covered at room temperature.

Following up from the recent post re: Smitten Kitchen, friend Lauren sent me this link. I don’t really follow food blogs for recipes, but for the great photography and stories about intersections between food and life. I find that food photography has a better chance to be good or interesting than a lot of other subjects - but that could be because I’m a sucker for macro. Also the recipes don’t hurt.

Thanks very much to goldstatus for passing on this blog. Beautiful food pictures, great copy, and a welcome addition to my reading list which is awash with fashion blogs right now.

A good portion of what I post here, besides my random reviews and new exciting purchases, will likely be links via Notcot.org/Notcot.com and Kanye West’s blog when I can make it over there. Can I help it if I have a soft spot for design? I think I can’t. And some of this stuff is really really cool. So just go with it. The first roundup of these cool things are:

1. Artist Jay Horinouchi does some cool stuff combining robot-ism and traditional Japanese painting.
2. Stefan Bruggeman also does art, this time using strictly text. I’m a textophile myself and when art incorporates text, I’m pretty close to sold. (ps: what would someone obsessed with text/words be called? textophile is not it and google didn’t help)
3. If you’re interested in special effects that don’t have to do with Doomsday/natural disasters/monsters, then you might be interested in this short video by Bruce Branit. It’s 10 minutes long, a solid love story, and really amazing/beautiful/inspiring to watch.
4. This sparkling chocolate powder sounds delicious and fun!
5. Michael Wandelmeier does some really cool, surreal art. Usually prints for stuff I see like this run into the $50-$75 range. At $21.22 a pop, these may end up on my wall sooner than later.
6. Maybe you’re a little morbid like I am, or you just really like architectural photography (also like I do) - anyway, this new photobook from Richard Ross looks particularly intriguing: Architecture of Authority looks inside prisons and other institutionally authoritative buildings to examine how exactly they work as mechanisms of authority. Amazon has it priced lower than most hardcover photobooks you find, too.
7. And finally, if lit light bulbs as art is your thing - or if Norweigan electronica is your thing - then this video may also be your thing:
   Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.