I came across the work of New Zealand based Sara and Emma quite by chance when reading comments to the blondies by Whimsy and Spice this summer. I envy the fact that they have their own creative space within their company to write about their passion for food. Their recipes are great as is the photography on their site. This week, given that it’s spring in their part of the world, they are sharing with us a (vegetarian) recipe for a layered vegetable ‘torta’, or savory pie. Next week, Sara and Emma’s colleagues, the other half of the “our kitchen” team will be here with a sweet recipe.

*sorry guys! i missed the non-veggie part of this recipe when i coded this last night. just remove the anchovies and ham and you’re home-free*

About Sara and Emma: Sara and Emma are half of the Fisher Paykel ‘our kitchen’ team. They are based in Auckland, New Zealand, and their colleagues (who you will meet next week for a sweet recipe) are in Dunedin. Sara, a trained cook, with a Bachelor degree in Human Nutrition got hooked on food as a child watching TV personalities like Graham Kerr, Jaques Pèpin and Martin Yan. Emma got the food bug from her mom and from the time she spent in Asia as a teenager. This passion has carried on into adulthood. Today she finds her inspiration in her vegetable garden which provides plenty of food to prepare fresh seasonal and unprocessed meals.

CLICK HERE for Sara and Emma’s Vegetable Torte recipe after the jump!

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last year when we first announced the penguin cloth-bound classic series everyone went crazy about these incredible book covers designed by senior cover designer, coralie bickford-smith. the only catch was that the books were only available in the UK – that is until this week! in honor of the US-release of the series we’re so pleased to have a very special interview with coralie all about the project, her work and where she finds her inspiration. this was such a special treat for me because beautiful book cover designs were one of the major influences that inspired me to become a graphic designer. we can’t thank coralie enough for taking the time out of her busy schedule to welcome us into her world. don’t miss more of her amazing work right here, and you can pick up your very own cloth-bound classics right here (scroll down to access more titles). {thanks, coralie!!} -anne

How was the Cloth-bound Classics project conceived? How did it evolve? Was coming up with patterns one of the original concepts?

The series grew out of my mild obsession with cloth bindings, which I’ve been able to indulge on an occasional basis for a while. Titles including Hans Christian Andersesn’s Fairy Tales and Penguin’s Poems for Life were well received and – crucially – sold well, so it was decided that I would bring a similar aesthetic to this series. I decided early on to use patterns that all conform to the same grid – it seemed the best way to impose a recognizable style that could work across a series of ten or more books, while allowing the covers to convey something of the character of the individual titles.

How did you choose the motifs for the patterns? Was it hard to narrow down an entire novel into one icon?

One of the great things about designing for the classics is that the material is so rich and full of possibilities – it’s not about finding the one and only perfect signifier for a book, but one that works within the context of this series, and perhaps which takes a slightly new angle on a familiar work. I read the books and discussed them with one of out picture researchers, Isabelle De Cat, then we created mood boards full of ideas, and narrowed it down from there. Some of the final patterns are more literal than others. The peacock feather on Dorian Grey, for example, plays on the book’s themes of vanity and the superficial, whereas the leaf motif on Jane Eyre refers directly to the lightning-blasted chestnut tree, a concrete element in the text that serves as a potent symbol of the book’s central relationship.

How did you go about picking the colors? Were they predetermined or did the books themselves evoke certain colors through associations?

My palette was limited by the available materials, so I began by finding compelling combinations and then matched them to the titles. Again, the connection with the text is more obvious in some cases – the black and white of Dorian Grey suggests stark duality, and also references Aubrey Beardsley’s Wilde illustrations – while others are more about capturing a certain mood.

CLICK HERE for the rest of coralie’s interview after the jump!

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For the first eight years of my life, we celebrated Halloween in my house. From Wonder Woman costumes to Lambchop get-ups, come All Hallows Eve, we got down. Things changed when Mom became a born-again Christian. During the remainder of my time at home, I have recollections of church soirees, with my brother and I dressed as Mary and Joseph, or something similar. It was…different, to say the least. You can only imagine, then, the fervor with which I embraced the holiday back into my life once college rolled around and I’d moved away from home. I was shameless, hitting up houses dressed as a nun. I looked forward to the dark evening with a fever possessed by children on Christmas Eve. Or their birthday. Or a trip to the toy store. [image sourcing, clockwise from top left: blue jake, the farmer's wife, strite's orchard, mariquita, the daily green]

While I still feel this way, as I’ve aged, I’ve begun to look at Halloween through a new lens-through “green-colored glasses,” if you will. The holiday is ripe for critique, from an ecological vantage point. From the synthetic, packaged costumes to the additive/preservative/synthetic-everything content of most Halloween candy, this holiday could use a green make-over. I’m certainly not advocating an abolition of the night and all its attendant guilty pleasures (I don’t yet have children, but when I do, this might be the one time of the year that this high fructose corn syrup-free, all-natural, mom-to-be lets her hair down and gives the kiddos carte blanche). I’m merely suggesting that it might be worth giving the annual night of debauchery a once-over. Here are a number of simple, easy, small measures that will help in greening up the ghostly hour.

CLICK HERE for Ashley’s Hallow-Green (Putting the Eco in Ectoplasm) ideas after the jump!

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good morning! i am so glad it’s finally friday- it’s been a seriously TGIF kinda week. but before we get started with the rest of today’s posts i wanted to thank lucy for her amazing guest posts this week! today she’s wrapping things up with a great guide to her favorites in melbourne’s fitzroy area. click here to check it out!

i also wanted to share these gorgeous leather bike seats from leather artist kara ginther in madison, wisconsin. she creates these incredible hand carved brooks saddles that are almost too pretty to sit on- though i think i could get over that eventually ;) click here to see more of kara’s work online. thanks, kara!

[click here for this week's ask d*s column about vintage bike sources]

When we realized that we’d be doing a post so close to Halloween we decided to look for inspiration beyond a cleverly carved squash. We wanted to assemble an arrangement that embraced the darker, more macabre side of the holiday. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the terror-ium!

Right up the road from San Francisco, California Carnivores looks to be merely a little greenhouse off the main drag. Upon closer inspection we found the equivalent to a botanical bestiary: hundreds of little meat eaters all under one glassed roof. The grounds of this carnivorous plant farm are more like a B-movie set than greenhouse, decked out with plastic creepy-crawlies and vivisected vegetation. But don’t let the campy decor fool: proprietor Peter D’Amato is a serious guy. He’s a walking, talking encyclopedia of carnivorous knowledge, having written several voluminous books on the subject. He guided us through the selection of our plants and gave us all the information we needed to successfully raise our little ankle-biters for years to come.

CLICK HERE for the rest of Studio Choo’s Terror-ium post after the jump!

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