Because 2 days is never enough.

On the train to Philly this weekend, I was binging on old This American Life episodes and I came across a favorite, “Meet the Pros” (#192). This episode profiles various amateurs coming face to face with the professionals they admire. The whole episode is great, but of particular interest to me is the David Rakoff piece, which also appears in a slightly altered form in his hilarious book, Don’t Get Too Comfortable.

Rakoff is a passionate maker (”my salvation lies in time spent alone with an x-acto knife and commercial grade adhesive”) and he makes a pilgrimage to his own personal Mecca: the crafts department at Martha Stewart Living. He is driven by a question that’s been lurking in my mind for several years, but has been getting louder as I have become a-no-doubt-about-it grown up. Rakoff describes the blissful state he enters when making stuff. This state, called flow, was proposed by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to describe the optimal human mental state that includes a loss of self-consciousness, deep concentration, a distortion of time, and sense of intrinsic reward. Rakoff asks

Is it possible for one’s job to be an exercise in having that feeling or does the act of doing something for money automatically rob you of that feeling?

At Martha Stewart, Rakoff is in awe. My favorite moment is when he squeals to the Crafts Editor, upon seeing her desk “You’re the luckiest person I ever met” and proceeds to describe what he calls “an embarrassment of craft supplies.”

But in the end, among these RISDI hipsters he finds at Martha’s, he learns that, for him at least, going from avocation to vocation just isn’t the same:

Dream over, I can’t work here. I just don’t want to expend that kind of effort to get to a place that I can get to without any work at all. Under that kind of pressure, I’m not even sure I could get there at all. To paraphrase the old saying, ‘don’t flow where you pro.’

The rest of the segment, in which David tracks down friends who have received his wares in the past, is truly hilarious. I highly recommend listening or checking out his book.

I’m still left wondering, though, should I have pursued a more creative career. I care about what I do and I actively chose it for a reason, but I wonder if I’d be more happy spending my workdays doing things I love: cooking, writing, reading, designing, making, traveling. What would that look like? And would I actually like it?

I made this dish once before when Jess and Karl were over for dinner, but the consistency was a bit off so I knew I’d have to give it another try at some point. This time I used a can of Westbrae organic soybeans since I had one lying around (and since I had no other form of soybeans in the kitchen). The taste was fine, but the color was more on the brown side, like chickpea hummus, than on the green side like soybean hummus made from fresh beans. I served it with crostini (also known as baguette slices drizzled in olive oil and broiled for a few minutes in the oven), but it would definitely go well with sesame or rice crackers.

Soybean Hummus

3 large cloves garlic
1 1/2 cups cooked soybeans
2 tablespoons tahini
1 tablespoon olive oil
juice from half a lemon
salt to taste
2 tablespoons water or vegetable broth

1. Broil garlic cloves for 5 to 10 minutes in the oven, or until they just begin to brown and can be pierced easily with a fork.
2. In a food processor, combine garlic, soybeans, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice and parsley. Blend until smooth, adding salt to taste and water or broth to reach desired consistency.

Michael Pollen is a genius. His book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals” was the best book I read last year. In fact, I just bored a group of strangers at a party in Philadelphia last night by recapping, oh, well… basically the whole entire book to them. Oops.

His writing about the American food supply, diet, and food culture has given me a has given me a context for understanding the impact of the choices I make. Every decision I make about the food I purchase has health, energy, ecogolical, economic, labor, and ethical implications. Just like Francis Moore Lappe’s “Diet for a Small Planet,” which motivated me to become a vegetarian as a teenager, Pollen’s writing has shifted the way I understand my own impact on the world.

Pollen has a great article in yesterday’s Times Magazine called, “Unhappy Meals.” He writes about “nutritionalism”, the attempt to understand food based on it’s nutrient components. He argues that “food science” decontextualizes nutrients from food, food from diet, and diet from lifestyle and results in shelves full of Frankenstein like foods in the grocery store, much of it claiming to be health food.

Here are a few of his suggestions (greatly abridged) for a healthy, sane way to filter out all the crap.

1. Eat food. Though in our current state of confusion, this is much easier said than done. So try this: Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

2. Avoid even those food products that come bearing health claims. They’re apt to be heavily processed, and the claims are often dubious at best.

3. Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number — or that contain high-fructose corn syrup.

4. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. You won’t find any high-fructose corn syrup at the farmer’s market; you also won’t find food harvested long ago and far away.

5. Pay more, eat less. Not everyone can afford to eat well in America, which is shameful, but most of us can: Americans spend, on average, less than 10 percent of their income on food, down from 24 percent in 1947, and less than the citizens of any other nation. And those of us who can afford to eat well should.

6. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.

7. Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks. Confounding factors aside, people who eat according to the rules of a traditional food culture are generally healthier than we are.

8. Cook. And if you can, plant a garden. To take part in the intricate and endlessly interesting processes of providing for our sustenance is the surest way to escape the culture of fast food and the values implicit in it

9. Eat like an omnivore. Try to add new species, not just new foods, to your diet. The greater the diversity of species you eat, the more likely you are to cover all your nutritional bases.

I learned a lot of this as a child. I was lucky to be raised by parents who brought a mix of hippishness, the pragmatism required to raise a family on a student budget, and the footsteps of my grandmother who raised 10 kids on a shoestring by making everything she could herself, just like her mother and grandmother before her. This all filtered down to a DIY attitude about food that included gardening, producing what we could at home, and devoting time each evening to cooking family meals. But Pollen helps me to understand WHY my decisions are some of the more important that I make on a daily basis.

I went a little crazy with zucchini this weekend, making both a sweet recipe and a savory recipe.

For breakfast, I made the infamous savory zucchini feta pancakes from Erik’s sister, Carrie. Her recipe is below. They were great topped with my fresh batch of homemade yogurt.

Zucchini Feta Pancakes

Ingredients
4 eggs (yolks optional)
4 packed cups coarsely grated zucchini (about 4 7-inch zucchinis)
1 cup finely crumbled feta cheese
½ cup finely minced scallions (or red onion)
1 tablespoon dry dill (optional)
Salt to taste (optional)
Black pepper to taste
1/3 cup flour
Oil (for frying)
Yogurt (for topping)

1. Separate egg yolks and white. Beat the egg whites in a small bowl until stiff.
2. Combine zucchini, egg yolks (optional), feta, scallions, seasonings, and flour in a large bowl. Mix well.
3. Fold the egg whites into the zucchini mixture.
4. Heat a little oil in a heavy skillet. When it is very hot, add spoonfuls of batter, and fry on both sides until golden, and crisp.
5. Serve topped with yogurt.

Serves 4.

Next I made sweet zucchini and orange marmalade tea cake from my new Tartine cookbook (given to me by Carolyn). I am already a big fan of zucchini bread and I was intrigued by the addition of marmalade in this recipe. We just sliced into it and it is divine! It makes a massive loaf though, so we might need help polishing it off. Next time I make it I’ll have to throw a tea party.

I stumbled on these ceramic coasters with knitted patterns (from an artist in Brooklyn) when I was googling around for ideas on how to knit my own coasters out of twine. The knit and cable stitches are pressed into the clay before it is glazed.

There is something extra cool about melding two types of crafts together. Can we do this in pottery studio? Now I’m trying to think of all the other cool designs I could press into my pottery… Alas, I wish I was more advanced in my skill level.

Craft projects come and go, but reading has been the only abiding passion in my time on the planet. I’ve had my head in a book since before I could read them.
When I had roommates, we’d swap books and end up talking about them and for the past few years, I’ve been in book clubs. These are both great ways to make reading a more shared experience. But, living in New York the last few years has added a new layer to my community of readers: the subway. I love watching what New Yorkers are reading on the train: Russian and Spanish newspapers, manuscripts, classics, “urban lit”, the ubiquitous New Yorker, the Tanakh, everything.

My commute affords me about two full hours of reading time a day and I am usually transported (figuratively, away from the literal transporting). I’ve missed stops and looked up from my book to find myself in strange stations.

This morning on the train, while I was reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (a Christmas gift from the lovely Alison) a woman walked over to me on her way to the door and said,

That book is the most compelling thing I read all last year. It is such a pastiche of voices, a mélange of genres. Don’t you find it just so compelling?

I do. And I got to have a little mini book club on the train with a woman who effortlessly uses the words pastiche and mélange in the same sentence!

Jess and I were lucky to be audience members at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Tuesday evening (with special guest Terry McAuliffe). We knew to expect a long wait both outside and inside the studio so we brought along books, iPods, and knitting. Normally, I would be excited about the prospect of standing in line with all of these activities in my bag, but it was sub-zero weather so it took some fun out of it. We ended up talking about books, music and knitting which is almost the same thing.

Although it was great to be in the audience, it was also a bit disheartening to see how canned some of it is.  The staff and talent have the taping down to a science and that makes it seem less awe-inspring somehow. It was like taking a peek behind the wizard’s curtain.  There was a fantastic off-the-cuff banter between Stewart and Colbertwhere they took turns dissing Bill O’Reilly, and it showed how talented they really are. I learned later that their conversation wasn’t even part of the show - it was for our in-house pleasure only.
After the show we had yummy hot and spicy Thai food at Wondee Siam on 9th Ave. It was warm and cozy in the tiny restaurant - just what we needed. We ended up in Whole Foods (because it’s near the subway stop) perusing the “whole body” section and inspecting the labels on products for sodium laureth sulfate. I was suprised to find that there is almost no such thing as toothpaste without it. In fact, we only found two brands that omitted it from the ingredient list. As we were looking at every possible type of facial wash in the store, Jess turned to me and said, “this is definitely more fun that going to the Daily Show.” I agreed.

I just bought a plane ticket to visit my Mom and Larry for President’s day weekend. Yes, it’s a 3-day weekend — and the last official one for awhile… [sigh]

In true 3dayweekend style, Larry wrote me about his plans for my visit:

I have two breads we can make while you are here, and I’m looking for a third. You can take some loaves back with you to New York, and you’ll have recipes you can use when you get back, too. Also, we’d like to plan some meals while you are here, such as roasted meats or casseroles — typical winter fare. We can also schedule to see some sights around the area. The art museum is free effective as of the first of the year, and we can walk to some museums along the canal while the bread is proofing.

Erik was teasing me that it qualifies as a “vocation vacation” and I couldn’t be happier about that. This is precisely why I want 3-day weekends every weekend. I can’t wait.

Finger nails clipped. Check.
Rings and bracelets removed. Check.
Hair pulled back into ponytail. Check.
Old clothes on. Check.

This is my new routine before going to pottery class. I am in week three of the eight-week course at Mugi Pottery Studio in Morningside Heights. I’ve been intrigued by ceramics for awhile, ever since my friend Elaine (who is brilliant at ceramics) gave me a hand made mug many years ago. My intrigue turned into a desire to learn when Jess started taking pottery classes a year ago. I was in grad school at the time without a moment to spare for crafty indulgences, but now I have time to add another hobby to my list so I promptly signed up after the holiday.

I have thrown a total of three bowls successfully over the three week period, either during class or during the open studio time on the weekend. I have a long way to go…

Jess, Erik and I went to a pottery exhibit at the Japan Society this weekend called Contemporary Clay: Japanese Ceramics for the New Century. The works are all from Kyoto artists who started movements in the 1940s challenging “the assumption that clay objects should be made in utilitarian shapes, using a potter’s wheel.”

Contemporary Clay: Japanese Ceramics for the New Century is a vibrant survey featuring creative and iconoclastic works by the finest potters working in Japan today. Including numerous objects created by artists working in Japan’s medieval ceramic centers as well as works by those influenced by the avant-garde Sodeisha group, Contemporary Clay celebrates the rich history of Japanese ceramics and those who have made lasting contributions to the art form over the past half century. Through a kaleidoscope of colors, forms, glazes, textures, and sizes, pieces range from finely crafted porcelains to rough-hewn vessels that revel in the “happy accidents” of wood-fired kilns, and to ironic objects that mimic newspapers, discarded trash, and body parts.

My favorites included Horse Turning Its Head Upward by Suzuki Osamu, Listening to the Waves by Sakiyama Takayuki, Nesting Bowls with Pale-blue Glaze by Yagi Akira (where the smallest bowl was made with a needle and a magnifying glass), Sliced Form 05 by Nage Shigekazu, and the Round closed vessel by Kitamura Junko that had an amazing design of circular shapes made with tiny triangles.

This morning I tried a new twist on pancakes inspired by Deborah Madison’s cookbook - I added quinoa. It was not the prettiest looking dish, but it was very tasty with some cinnamon and ginger mixed in.

I was first introduced to quinoa the super grain when I visited my brother in Bolivia in 2000 where he was living for 2 1/2 years. It is native to the Andean region and is found in many different types of dishes. I ate it in soup and as a hearty side to a nice meat entree.

From wikipedia:

Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete foodstuff. This means it takes less quinoa protein to meet one’s needs than wheat protein. It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is also gluten free and considered easy to digest.

I’ve been obsessed with quinoa again lately, adding it to all types of breakfast and dinner dishes. Homemade granola is great with uncooked quinoa - it gives it a nice crunchy texture. I made some for holiday gifts this year.

I also really enjoy making the lemon-scented quinoa recipe from 101cookbooks. I like to make this on Sunday so I can take it to work for lunch in the early part of the week. It’s healthy and flavorful with a nice mix of tahini, lemon, and cilantro.