Welcome to this first edition of “Cooking like a nerd”. If, like me, you don’t have time to cook and are merely unable to make something without burning it, I think this post will be some help.
As we need to feed ourselves once in a while, us, Geeks, Nerds, Designers, and other species their mums didn’t teach about the basics of social relationships and cooking, we have to find recipes that can fit our overcrowded schedules. We must be able to cook it in 5 minutes,  take it at work, and eat the left-overs after a party, at 4 in the morning — wathever is in our fridge at the moment. The first recipe that comes to my mind is : the savoury tart!

Budget : $
Difficulty : ♦ (Beginner cook)
Categories : Vegetably challenged, Cheap’n'Easy, Empty fridge.
Caution : this is a non-vegan recipe, and contains eggs & milk.

Ingredients :
The basics : Puff or short pastry (Home or ready-made), 3 eggs, some milk, salt, black pepper, nutmegs, and mustard.
The filling : Any vegetables to convenience (leeks, onions, spinach, tomatoes, whatever is in your fridge.) and for a non-veggie version, thuna or salmon, sliced bacon, cheese…

The whole idea is to get a “basic” tart that you can customize any time.
So first of all, wash and slice your vegetables. If you’re a designer, you’ll probably have a thing for colors, so try to make a nice colorfoul mix (makes things funnier). For this one, I’ll use leeks, onions, spinach and mushrooms. Slice them in tiny bits, and brown them a bit in a frying pan. (I use grape seed oil, but if you prefer olive oil, go for it!). If you use a protein source cook it now.

Tips: Don’t overcook the spinach. Fresh spinach have a strong taste that gets really bland when overcooked. Just let them cook for a minute or two.
If you use juicy vegetables such as tomatoes, try to get ride of the juice before getting it on the pastry, as a damp tart is not that fun.
When cooked, get them on the side.

Get your oven on, to let it get hot.
Prepare the tart pastry: get it in a dish, and pick some small holes with a fork in there. Now take your mustard, and spread the pastry with it — don’t be shy, it’ll give the whole thing it’s tasty side.
In a large bowl, get your 3 eggs, a splash of milk, pepper, salt, and a pinch of nutmegs. Other spices are welcome, regarding the nature of your filling. Whisk the little bastard (he likes that anyway) until smooth. I like to put my old cheese in the mix for the taste (I often have cheese in my fridge that has come close to life. I prefer to know it’s dead before eating it anyway).

Now put your vegetables on the tart pastry, and pour your egg mix ton top. Decorate to liking.
Get in the oven for 20 good minutes, medium hotness.
Eat it hot or cold, with a salad, and a bottle of San Pellegrino (sparkling water is chic I heard, and I can’t suggest a wine for work-lunch anyway).
A french variant involves only eggs, crême fraîche, and sliced bacon as a filling. Say Hello to the quiche lorraine!

Bon appétit, and enjoy!
Love,
Zélia.

Howdy everyone!
As ever, I was caught in a storm that fored me not to upload my pics on flick’R. Actually, my cat ate my USB wire. Errrr…. Then, here we go, for some random cool links.

Politically related :
The French internet is suffering from an intense political debate, intending to attack the privacy of web users. Firstly made to prevent illegal downloading, we’re now confonted to an insanely stupid law, which intends to cut your internet access for at least a year if you’re suspected of downloading illegaly. As we all know, knowing exactly who has been using P2Psystem is almost impossible. Of course, people in charge of this law have an an astronomical knowledge of the internet. Such as: ” if you download a file in Japan, it’ll take 3 days to come from there. The farthest, the longer the downloading…” (That was saif by Pascal Nègre, the actual president of Universal Music France.) Anyway, if you’d like to learn more about France becoming the democratic republic of China, give a read to this website.

Type-related :
Watches the watchmen. Ilovetypography published this link to an interesting interview of Corey Holms, the designer of th film logo. Interesting insight on the design process from original material to massive printed posters.
The art of ligatures, for type nerds only.
A letterpress-made gun. Beautiful.

Design related :
Cool books hooks. I could really use this.
The new Chanel bag is ace. Though Karl is a proven alien from transexual transylvania, I must admit he has somewhat of a talent tomake me want to become rich.

Creativity related :
My friend Samir posted an interesting blog post about spring-fling creativity. Be sure to check his other posts, as you might find valuable informations about creativity, and procrastination too (he’s as good as me at that game).

Nerdy related :
On a funnier side, an extract from Om Shanti Om, that I find particularly hilarious.
I’m learning hindi guys. Hence the bollywood complex. But I highly sugget you to take a look at the devanagari alphabet: a good load of headaches to come. Remind me when I started to have a look at Malay language, only to discover that they were counting with ananas and rocks. Why so complicated?!!

Have a great week everyone,
Time for a glass of milk and a good night of sleep.
Geez!
Zélia.

What would be the best way to discretely talk about my week-end in Glasgow,  but to talk about the city’s most famous designer and architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh?
My friend wikipédia says :

“Charles Rennie Mackintosh (June 7, 1868–December 10, 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, and watercolourist. He was a designer in the Arts and Crafts movement and also the main exponent of Art Nouveau in the United Kingdom. He had a considerable influence on European design.” If you are not familiar with his work, I highly suggest you to take a look. Not only does his work features fantastic examples of geometric patterns, but it also have a strong graphical impact. His furniture design is incredibly modern, as is his architectural work: white space, light, dark, every thing he works on is rigorously built on an invisible grid. Meanwhile, he aslo plays on assymetry, which gives his buildings a strange sense of rigorous difformity. (I’m no Mackintosh expert, and there’s plenty of things you can find about him if you are interested in more of his work)

His main glaswegian realisation, the Glasgow School of Arts, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year — hence my little city trip there (plus the fact that ryanair held a special 2€50 tickets rate).Let me be clear: I’m not a big city person. I don’t like crowds, subways, and over-sized shopping mall. I knew going there, that the city would be too big for me. Fortunately, the city in itself isn’t surrounded by cars, and the bad weather prevented the streets to be overcrowded. The architecture is amazing, and the overall mood felt quite welcoming. All in all, it would have been a perfect trip.If it wasn’t for my city guide book, which was completely outdated. While being stamped as 2009 edition, most of the restaurants were not there anymore, rates had changes, and worst, opening hours were all wrong. That’s why I had to walk back and forth in different places of the city, and that I did missed most of the C.R Mackinthosh attractions. In Scotland, (and I believe in most of the UK), everything closes at 5P.M and only open at 10 A.M on week-ends — this far too short period of time was not sufficient for me to complete all the schedule I’d plan. I just don’t tell you about plane problems, airport security checks (I always controlled heavily, do I look like a terrorist?)

Anyway, random facts, because we all love random facts:
UK girls are the result of an infamous human experiment. Their bodies were horribly mutilated inside, to make them acclimate the cold. How could they walk under the snow, sporting only mini skirts and tees, while I was freezing with a coat and a scarf? The mystery remains.
Glasgow is actually San Francisco. No one told me that it was such undulating place. You have to climb some streets as you climb a moutain.
Haggis is for sissys. We were told that Haggis was quite a tough dish. The kind that make you think twice before you eat it. 1/ it’s pretty good. 2/I live in a place were the local speciality is animal guts, cooked in all the possible forms. Tripes, Chitterlings, blood pudding… I eat this on breakfast lads.
Scottish people really talk another language. I don’t practise my spoken english often, but I mainly do understand everything. Burger King guy, sorry if I had you repeating twice, but I really didn’t get a word of what you said.

Next time, I’ll ask for help to a “local”, I’m sure I’ve missed most of the great things there was to see. I’ll be uploading pics on Flick’R for the curious. See you tommorow for an inspiration post.
Love and aftershave,
Zélia.

We are Friday, and, as ever, I didn’t find the time to post all the amazing stuff I stumbled upon this week. You never know when you won’t find the time to post, and as I’m not a professionnal blogger, I don’t write my posts on week-ends. Anyway, let’s go for the weekly cool stuff round-up.

• The wonderful photographs of Alyz are a must see for retro/moddy effects lovers. 
• 20 corporate brand logo evolution. As the title says. Pretty inspiring, and shows the tendancy to overwork logos nowadays.  
• Things graphic designers like. Okay, this is just scary.  
• 15 inspirationnal pink websites. Pink is good.  
• Augmented reality makes such a fuss. This is a really cool example of it’s numerous use. 
• 15 things I wish I had known when I started my first blog. Very useful.
•  My friend Purdey made those cute sequin-made pacman thingies. I’m in love.
• What makes a good creative director?  
• Love to make list? Makefive. 

• Some yummy vintage japanese stuff. That’s why I love graphic design.

• Your inner bits have never been so sexy. Cune fashion wear. 

And now for something completely different…
I’m off to a little week-end in the charming country of Scotland. Let alone my lack of laptop there, I won’t be blogging much there, as I’ll probably spend my time in pubs or museum, or drunk in museums. Have fun and thanks for reading!