Welcome to another weekly episode of Good Things where I give you a peek into my everyday life during the week, and roundup my good links, ideas, books, and more.
Abbreviated version tonight – I hope you are all having a lovely and relaxed holiday weekend. I wanted to drop in with a quick hello!
Good Things This Week
🖼 Creative Input: A quick trip to the Museum of Fine Arts. I’d been meaning to go see the Fashioned by Sargent exhibit before it closes in a few weeks, and it didn’t disappoint. In 2024, I’m going to prioritize more quick museum trips, even if it means just popping in for an hour for inspiration.
Tiny Treasures: The Magic of Miniatures. You’ve heard of Fabergé eggs, but have you seen his miniature bulldog, Cody? (This was in the miniatures exhibit, which left me rationalizing a collection of more tiny objects.)
Matthew Wong: The Realm of Appearances. There’s an exhibit by the late Canadian artist Matthew Wong which is really quite stunning. He died at 35. I love some of the inspiration from artists like Kusama (which you can really see in this one.)
Creative Participation! There was an interactive part of the exhibit where you could write a poem. I spent a couple of minutes going through the thick stack of patron contributions. Some of them were truly delightful. Some of them were as entertaining as you’d think giving a crowd writing instruments could be.
Take a seat. The MFA has a collection of chairs in the permanent collection throughout the museum that you can actually sit on. This pair of Conoid chairs were created by George Nakashima and are in the Toshiko Takaezu exhibit in the new wing on the top floor. They are *wildly* comfortable.
Toshiko Takaezu was a ceramist, but perhaps more interestingly she was an artist who worked in a range of mediums, inspiring innovative techniques. I enjoyed the layout of this exhibit which included photographs, video, and sound.
🍫 Chocolate Treats: checking off another item on my December intentions list – a fancy box of Burdick’s chocolates, acquired. Bonus: I got a spot directly in front of the store. After not eating much of anything for an entire week while my mouth healed from a tea burn, I managed to also get myself a warm dark hot chocolate which was the first food in days I finally enjoyed!
⏲ Time to Bake: Cocoa Gingerbread. I loosely adapted this recipe in the NYtimes, adding cocoa and chocolate chips a la Nigella Lawson. It tastes better on day two! I don’t bake often, but when I do, I’m always decently pleased with myself.
A smattering of other good things:
🛁 Watch: Saltburn (only if you like movies from A24 or other arts films and be prepared to be… mildly disturbed.) I enjoyed the movie, but I’m *really* enjoying watching reaction videos to the film. (I’ve also broken down and am watching Reacher, a show about a man who solves problems with his large size.)
🗑 Stop Doing: I deleted Cats and Soup and Two Dots from my phone. I like playing small video games and idlers occasionally while I listen to audiobooks, and then I wake up one day and am done (for the best!)
🌱 Plant Lady Life. Patiently waiting for my waxed amaryllis to bloom. (There’s still time to grab one at Trader Joe’s). I took in my little succulent garden a few weeks ago from my front stoop, and they are thriving on the bookshelf.
A quote to internalize:
“Ideserve a treat when I have a bad week but I also deserve a treat when I have a good week. I simply always deserve treats” – Bettina Makalintal
That’s a wrap for this week!
I hope you have time this week to rest, relax, and connect!
The city was just starting to wake, and there I spotted it – the line.
A very long line.
Wrapped around a building.
Let’s back up a bit – last week I was in Seattle for business – for an in-person 3 month planning and strategy session with a client I’ve been working with for the better part of a year. The trip was a bit of a last minute affair, and beyond my work obligations, I traveled in large part without a plan. (The opposite how I usually travel, but blissfully free.)
I’d never been to Seattle before, so sightseeing and playing tourist were the goal. Home base for this part of the trip was in West Seattle, I was staying on Alki Beach.
This morning, I woefully mis-judged the amount of time it takes to get anywhere in Seattle without a car. Public transport in Seattle definitely leaves something to be desired! My first experience with transit, the 37 bus simply didn’t show up at the stop. I waited an hour, hitchhiked to the water taxi stop with two women who were in the same boat (literally), and I took the water taxi in for my first day walking around the city – taking advantage of my newfound morning person status (thank you, time zones!) to get an early start around town. My first plan – find coffee.
And so, it was a that point, I came upon the line – before taking my infusion of caffeine – and it was already wrapped around the building. Having no idea what the line was for, I walked over to Pike’s Place Market, hoping to grab an early breakfast before starting my day. But it was quiet, shops were still closed, and I found myself thinking…coffee can wait; you probably should get into the line. At this point I still hadn’t established what the line was actually for, but I was pretty sure that I should probably just get into it.
I eyed the line. I walked to the front of the line.
And in quick succession I:
1. Determined that I was standing in front of the Seattle Art Museum. (SAM!)
2. Determined that the sold-out Yayoi Kusama exhibit was what was causing this Disney-line lunacy.
3. Asked a line-minder if there was any hope; was met with confirmation. THERE IS HOPE!
4. Realized that this was possibly my only chance to see the Infinity Mirrors exhibit, and to hell with my day, I was going to get into the line, without my coffee, at that very minute.
5. Spent the next three hours in line; with my kindle, my phone charger. Without my coffee.
Who am I?? In this narrative, I am a person who makes time for art; an avid museum goer; a conceptual art appreciator; a person who loves bright colors; and critically here – a person who has infinite patience for lines.
Let’s talk about the line. You get into line and you wait.
Observations about the line at this point – outside the building we were met by a variety of characters as we waited for the building to open at 9:50. A man dressed as a monk (perhaps actually a monk? I’m skeptical…) came to offer prayers of peace to the couple in back of me. In a woo moment, I hear him repeat a mantra of “peace” just as my audio book starts playing at a random spot and blares the word “peace” in my ear at a high volume. An elderly Canadian couple in the line were very excited to be there, and the wife offered to get coffee for anyone who wanted some. (I declined, although in retrospect, I should have taken up her generosity.)
Around 10, we get into the building, walk through the building, down the stairs, around the corner, and the woman in front of me who has waited two hours in the line at this point, gives up to go to work. At that point I ended up behind an engineer who looked oddly like Breckin Meyer’s character in Clueless. He had his laptop and was getting his sprint work done. The folks in back of me expanded as the line went on (seemingly texting more and more friends to get in line with them.) There was a woman with her two daughters, maybe 6 and 8, in front of me having a grand ole time just talking with each other without electronics. I become fascinated with the tattoos of the petite woman two steps ahead. I learn a little bit too much about my neighbors.
I should pause here and mention – if you live in Seattle, the museum membership would have SO been worth it to get both a free ticket to the exhibit and a bypass of the longer line.
And then you get up to the counter and get tickets for later in the day. By that time it was close to 11:30; having spent my morning in line, I chose to come back at 5:15 – just enough time to walk around downtown, but not stray too far. I clutched my ticket, worked, wandered, and ate.
At 5:00 I came back for yet another line.
This is the line where they tell you about what you are in for.
Spoiler alert – more lines! Think the lines are over? No. You then wait in line for the boxes – individual spaces within spaces, filled with stuff. You get to the front, get 30 seconds in the box, and then you are out. You can go in as many times as you want – a few of the spaces I waited in line a couple of times to get the experience – first with my camera, then, blissfully electronics free.
Do not touch the art.
Do not lie down in the rooms.
Stay standing.
No more than three people to a room.
No photos in the pumpkin room, and you’ll go in there with a minder.
I hear it’s because someone fell and broke some of the art. I spent 10 minutes in the pumpkin line wondering if I could peek my phone camera out of my back pocket and then just take the photo with my Apple Watch trigger… I opted to just experience the room instead. Also, I take linguistic pleasure in the fact that her name, Kusama, sounds like Kusa – a type of squash, and that she’s known, in part, for the famous pumpkin room.
And they warn you – we won’t let you out if you need to pee. PEE NOW or forever hold your PEE. I saw them let someone out, so I think it’s just to scare you.
Yes, the lines, they are long, but this experience though, it’s magical.
I spent two full hours in the exhibit. There were big pink balls. Stickers for collaborative art. Flashing lights. Phallic imagery; a woman explaining the phallic imagery to her pre-teens. Joy and smiles. Women wearing polka dots. A kind woman held my camera as I headed into the pumpkins; I made friends with strangers in the lines. A couple took my photo; leave it to me to find someone who was in Course 12 at MIT.
The art beyond the walls of the boxes was also delightful – possibly even more so for me than the infinity spaces – the colors were much more bright, cheerful, and so few people were really looking at it. If you go, don’t forget to look at the walls!
If you have the opportunity to see this exhibit, go. But maybe take a book, or a good friend you can make conversation with for five hours.
Yayoi Kusama: Inifinity Mirrors
In Seattle SAM through Sunday, September 10th
And then:
The Broad, Los Angeles, Oct 21, 2017–Jan 10, 2018
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, March 3–May 27, 2018
Cleveland Museum of Art, July 9–Sept 30, 2018
Anne Collier Open Book #3 (Island Wilderness), 2010
This is my current desktop background, art from the ICA in Boston. I’m smitten with this piece. I’m also exhausted, and all I’d like to do is just sort of jump into that ocean right now.
Dispatch from the field: April 1, 2010: Omnivore Books Edible Art Contest
What:
Yes, another great food contest – this one challenges you to create a dish that references books or art, in conjunction with the annual Edible Books Festival held all over the world on April Fool’s Day. Participants may enter their favorite food-related books or art, in the form of an “Edible” entry. For instance someone might do something clever with a stock pot and a marzipan canine to represent MFK Fisher’s “How To Cook A Wolf.” Or maybe a contestant enters “Someone Is Killing The Great Chefs of Europe” and represents it with a cake in the shape of a map of Europe with a real knife sticking out of it. The original idea for the festival came from observing Brillat- Savarin’s birthday, which falls on April 1st. Participants will be judged on creativity and flavor, and may enter for free. Eaters-only will pay $5 at the door, as well as judge the entries; the winner will split the door money with us. The more entries, the merrier!
I LOVE these competitions we have at Omnivore. Celia mentioned a few weeks ago that the best part of owning your own small business is that you can throw a party whenever you like. This goes along with my firm belief that there is no better gathering than one which involves friendly competition and great food. My closest friends will remember tasty beverages from such smash hits as ‘Science!!!; and late nights involving some competitive Quelf. The bar was set pretty high in the past few months at the store with a very boozy Punch Contest, a Pie Contest (with 48 entries), a Pumpkin contest, and yes, even a Fried Chicken contest.
The entries were extraordinarily creative this time. I admit that I completely broke passover dietary laws to eat absurd quantities of everything. Which, of course, made me happy, but gave me a really bad stomach ache. God punishing me, mayhaps? But now, down to business – the official entries so you can judge for yourself (**by entry number – winners, and winning recipe listed at the bottom**).
1. “Slim Down for Summer Fun”:This bowl was based on Leslie Morgan’s own works of art – check out her “pool glee” series to really see the resemblance.
Home made chocolate pudding with colored cream cheese icing. Tasting notes: I ended up spooning out seconds for myself, even though I was already feeling ill from all the sugar. It was worth it. Nothing like some real chocolate pudding to remind someone that it’s drastically better than the packet stuff. And look how cute it is! (That’s her Boston Terrier floating in the pool).
2. “Fabergé cake with fruit still life“: sugar cookies decorated as fruits (seen above), and a ‘banana split cake’ – chocolate cake with strawberry and banana buttercream and chocolate ganache. His muse was the acclaimed Fabergé eggs, originally created for Tsar Alexander III to give to his wife on Easter by world renown House of Fabergé.
From a technical standpoint, the decorative elements on these fruit cookies and cake were enough to garner a first place win, but judging included both creativity and overall taste. In addition to these awe inspiring entries, Dante (the creator) gets win points for naming his business ‘Fire and Icing‘.
3. “Salumi”: Jacqueline Mallorca’s witty entry inspired by one of the cookbooks in our very own shop, came with this incredibly funny sign:
“Homage to Salumi by Joyce Goldstein: the three all-organic, hand-fed, humanely-raised little pigs who gave their all for these salami were named Figgy, Prunus, and Apricot. The finely-chopped, guaranteed vegetarian faux pork is marbled with, um, hand-chopped noix, and blended with finely-crumbled, hand-formed, custom-baked amaretti and a splash of the best dark Barbados rum.”
Considering that Salumi is the current “it-food” (maybe second only to macarons), I thought that this entry was highly entertaining and relevant to our times. Also, these looked *exactly* like salumi. They also tasted delicious – a delicate fruit and nut log that I can see myself making to serve with tea as an afternoon snack.
4. “Alabama Lane Cake”: Katie and Annelise worked together to create this delicious cake in homage to one of my favorite books of all time, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird“. The movie happens to be on my top faves as well (nothing like a dashing Gregory Peck to make me swoon.)
This boozy cake, which is featured in the novel, was a white cake with pecans, raisins, coconut, seven-minute frosting, and “enough bourbon to kill a mockingbird”. It was served alongside a real (real cast-iron) dead mockingbird.
The cake was OUTRAGEOUSLY good. Although, this wasn’t too surprising, as Katie was previously the creator of my personal favorite “Whiskey Sunrise” at the Omnivore books Punch Contest.
5. “Mondrian Cake”: Chocolate cake with a Jacques Torres frosting. Who doesn’t love Mondrian? I’m going to take some liberty here and connect this cake with an homage to Mondrian by Silverchair, (90’s anyone?) who happened to create a particularly catchy song with Mondrian featured prominently in the video. They aren’t given enough credit for how awesome they are. You should watch it. And forgive me for getting it stuck in your head for the next week.
6. “Eat My Globe: Around the World in 80 Cookies” Inspired by another book we have in our bookshop – Eat My Globe: One Year to Go Everywhere and Eat Everything – this fantastic globe model was made with these *crack-like* lemon, rosemary and cornmeal cookies. I say crack-like, because, well, they were like crack. I personally took home the leftovers and may or may not have eaten oh, all thirty of these bedazzling buttery buttons. Even though their hues were similar to Crayola crayons. Slightly disturbing.
Winners: With such a diverse group of entrants, the entries each got several votes, but it came down to two clear winners
Second Prize, and the winner of a “So Good” pastry magazine: the Fabergé cake!
Grand Prize, and the winner of half the door money: The Alabama Lane Cake!!! Congrats guys!!
Alabama Lane Cake a winning recipe
Adapted from Cooks.com – cake and frosting from here: and the filling from here.
LANE CAKE
1 c. butter, softened
2 c. sugar
3 c. sifted cake flour
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
8 egg whites
Lane Cake Filling
7 Minute Frosting
Pecan halves (optional)
Cream butter; gradually add sugar, beating well at medium speed of an electric mixer. Combine flour and baking powder. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix after each addition. Stir in vanilla.
Beat egg whites (at room temperature) until stiff peaks form, fold into batter. Pour batter into 4 greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 18 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire racks.
(Layers are very tender and fragile, so handle them carefully). Spread Lane Cake Filling between layers and on top of cake. Spread Seven Minute Frosting on sides. Garnish with pecan halves if desired. Yield: one 4 layer cake.
FILLING:
1 1/2 c. raisins
1/2 c. bourbon or rye
12 egg yolks
1 3/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. each chopped pecans, shredded coconut, and quartered candied red cherries
Combine raisins and bourbon in tightly covered container; let stand at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. In top of double boiler or heatproof bowl, combine yolks, sugar, salt and butter. Stir over simmering water 15 to 20 minutes or until thick and mixture mounds when dropped from a spoon. Remove from heat; stir in raisin-bourbon mixture, pecans, coconut and cherries, blending well. Cool; cover; chill overnight before assembling cake.
LANE CAKE SEVEN MINUTE FROSTING:
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. plus 1 tbsp. cold water
2 egg whites
1 tbsp. light corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients except vanilla in top of a large double boiler. Beat at low speed of an electric mixer 30 seconds or just until blended.Place over boiling water, beat constantly at high speed 7 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Remove from heat. Add vanilla. Beat 2 minutes or until frosting is thick enough to spread. Yield: 4 1/4 cups.
Omnivore Books Food Competitions
To get the official updates follow on twitter @omnivorebooks or sign up for the newsletter on the website. Well be having our next one in a month or so – I believe the concept will be “Fusion food”
Hi! I’m Sam! Nice to meet you!
The Second Lunch is a (mostly) food blog by Sam Tackeff about recipes, food writing, ingredient hunting, travel, healthy living, fitness, and everything in between.
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