"designsponge" news and stories

Grown-up sodas. Image: Details.

A few of the best stories spied elsewhere on the Web this week:

BoingBoing picks up The Economist's story (and awesome graphic): "How many minutes do people in your city have to work to buy a Big Mac?"

Adult sodas from the stylish fellas at Details.

Starbucks-lovers, alert! They are lowering prices on some drinks but kicking them up a notch on others.

The L.A. Times reports: Facebook has created "Restaurant City." You may never get work done again.

Another ephemerally gorgeous piece from Design*Sponge's "In The Kitchen With" column, featuring a meringue-raspberry ice cream cake and some enviable dishware.

Portland, Oregon continues to rule, with a Fermentation Fest on Thursday of next week. (Clearly either our invite was lost in the mail, or they do not know about our pickling problems.)

Have you sampled the blackberries in the market right now? They are super-sweet. This Blackberry-Cabernet Caipirinha from Chow had us drooling.

The best Bruni interview of the bunch -- from the New Yorker.

Every Friday, Design*Sponge posts a recipe from an artist or designer. The featured food is always some tasty little tidbit that is photographed so beautifully that it makes me want to run to the kitchen with laptop in hand and start cooking. This week's guest blogger, Sarah Fox of Cursive Design, decided to get in on In The Kitchen act by featured recipe some lovely Goat Cheese Pear Tarts. This recipe particularly speaks to me because I've eaten a pear every day this week and I adore the combination of goat cheese with the gentle sweetness of a crisp pear.

These simple little tarts would make a great addition to your Thanksgiving table (maybe as a starter or dessert?). Head over to Design*Sponge for the full recipe.

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101 Cookbooks was one of the very first blogs I started reading, way back in the fall of 2004, when I was first discovering the wonderful world of the blogosphere. I was thrilled when Heidi released her gorgeously photographed and thoughtfully written book, Super Natural Cooking, in 2007.

If you're looking for a way to incorporate more whole grains into your diet (as all the studies say you should), this is a great book to turn to. Not only are there lots of recipes that include whole grains (as well as natural sweeteners, super foods and greens), Heidi is careful to tell include an exhaustive section that details the benefits, cooking times and flavor palates of the different grains that she uses.

If that bowl of soup on the cover of the book looks tasty to you, you're in luck, as the recipe for it appeared on Design*Sponge a couple of weeks ago. It's for Spring Minestrone (how appropriate!) and sounds delicious.

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