our weekend at home

I love spending the weekend just walking around with Mark and Hana. It's fun to watch Hana discover the world around her while we stroll along the streets of DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights. On Saturday Hana and I played in the park in the early morning. I hadn't seen the 'waterfalls' yet, and was curious to see what all the hype was about. I can't say that I was very impressed. The scaffolding is ugly, and the falling water isn't really that exciting. It's a bit surreal, which is something, but not enough to really hold my interest. If you look closely, you can see one of the waterfalls behind hana's head in the picture below. During the day we went to a great playground in brooklyn heights, where there are a few bucket swings. Hana loves to swing and go down the slide! Who could blame her? We capped our day off with a stop at the brooklyn ice cream factory. mmm. In my opinion, their best flavor is vanilla chocolate chunk. the others pale in comparison. On Sunday we went to the DUMBO farmer's market, which is a great place for seasonal fruits and veggies. Mark had fun cooking up bok choy, garlic scapes, and fresh peas to add to our pasta for dinner. I decided to try and pickle some of the garlic scapes. I've never pickled anything before, but I've always wanted to try. My grandmother was amazing at making pickles, so perhaps it's in my DNA. I found this technique http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2007/07/making-pickled-garlic-scapes.html , and thought i'd give it a try. well, the first problem is that most recipes call for proper canning jars, which we don't have.

I didn't really want to make pickles that were going to last all summer, since i wasn't sure if we'd even like pickled garlic scapes. So, I just took an old jar that I had saved, sterilized it, and that was that. I prepped the scapes by using the green stalks, and keeping the flower/bulb parts for our dinner later tonight. the recipe called for a 'head' of dill, which i wasn't so sure about, so i just erred on the 'lots of dilly goodness' side. It's going to sit in the fridge for a day or two before eating, so we'll see what happens. it certainly is fun to experiment with food. Perhaps I'll try a different seasonal vegetable to pickle next time. add vinegar, garlic, and dill to just about any veggie and it sounds good to me.

the world's oldest art- and other ramblings

I'm reading this interesting article in The New Yorker about ancient cave paintings in southern France. Art history has always been a primary interest of mine, and I've also found archeology to be fascinating. Art can tell us so much about different cultures in history, even non-recorded history from Neanderthals. The word Neanderthal conjures up a distinct image in my mind, of a crude cave dwelling person, wearing skins and beating things with clubs. But really, we have no idea just how sophisticated these early humans could be...until we analyze their art. The cave paintings show advanced techniques such as pointillism, and bas-relief. Of course it's impossible to know exactly what these paintings mean, it is an almost completely unknown part of early human life. There are huge secrets to be unlocked. It reminds me of how I feel about the universe- whenever I think about it, I get overwhelmed- what on earth is out there? our solar system could be the blood in the veins of a larger creature. it's very possible that we are just ants in the world of a much larger, more sophisticated being.

material girl

I've always had issues with buying things for myself. Sure, up until a few years ago I couldn't afford to go on a shopping spree, but even now when I buy something I really like, I berate myself. 'I don't need it, it's too much money, it's just wasteful'. Ok, so I do end up buying many lovely things for myself, I just wish I didn't hate doing it. Let's not talk about the watch purchase I made recently. Sure, I used the money I worked hard for (supposedly), but I still feel foolish. There is a little part of me that says 'you don't deserve nice things'. I wonder where it stems from? As far back as I can remember, my mother would encourage us to find one or two nice purchases, instead of lots of unnecessary things. She'd always make sure we had what we wanted, and put her own wants aside. But she'd also criticize the crap out of everything else we did...perhaps I've discovered the source after all...
I do feel fortunate that I can afford the lifestyle I lead, and have the money to get the things that I want. Mark and I just spent a small fortune on lunch yesterday, and I have no regrets about that (probably because it was for 'us' and not just 'me').

I'm still reeling from our lunch at Per Se yesterday. It was an amazing meal, I think the food was slightly less impressive than our first visit there, but overall more memorable.

I'm too tired to write about it, so you can read my husband's detailed post:
http://shacket.blogspot.com/2008/06/per-se-holy.html

the only thing to fear is fearlessness

coming down off of a post-concert high, I was listening to the R.E.M. song 'Heyna' and heard the above quote. It hit me that it's very relevant to my life right now. Hana has just started to pull herself to standing on her own and it's very exciting, but it's also a precursor of what is to come...walking, running, falling down, scrapes, skinned knees, etc. It's amazing to me that children have no sense of fear built in (except for what they learn from their parents). Hana will touch anything, put everything in her mouth, crawl to the edge of things, basically go anywhere that looks interesting (especially places that have wires, cords, and live electricity). i love her inquisitive nature, but it's also exhausting to make sure she's not going to hurt herself. I know she has to get hurt, learn from her mistakes, etc. Watching her grow has been the most enthralling experience of my life- watching her discover her body and her surroundings, and seeing her uninhibited reactions, and her geniune happiness, brings so much joy to my life.

I need to stay inspired by her fearlessness...to make my own decisions about my career and creativity. It's hard to get motivated to take care of myself physically and emotionally, and I'm finally starting to do so. Not sure where it will lead, but things need to be shaken up a little bit. If I'm not ok with leaving Hana in the morning to pursue a career, it's not worth the effort.

I'm surprised at how intimidating it is to actually post something. Since I just ate lunch, I'll comment on that...I had a one of those half sandwiches from Pret a Manger that was avocado, grana padano cheese, pine nuts (yuck, i took them out), and arugula. I purchased it because of the arugula. I've been craving bitter greens lately, not sure why. It amazes me that there aren't many 'healthy' options in midtown west, near 50th and broadway. There is 'Thalia to Go' that has descent salads, 'City Chow' that has ok salads (but most of their other options are mediocre), and of course the myriad of delis, chainlets, and the like that have the 'pick your salad and we'll mush everything together for you for 100$' option. I'd love a place that has fresh, appealing, organic food that you do not need to mortgage your house to enjoy. any suggestions? Don't get me wrong, I don't eat 'healthy' every day- I do have my favorite lunch options in the area (that I can probably count on one hand), but every so often a girl needs her vegetables and grass fed meat.

I also picked up an 'invigorating organic assam tea' drink from Pret. It is very bland, with a strange taste unlike most assam teas I've ever had. I'd much prefer any of the ito en bottled teas. they are not sweetened, and have a clean, strong tea flavor. my favorite is the black tea, which is actually a darjeeling. It has a pleasant, light darjeeling flavor.