A few weeks ago (slowly but surely catching up with my life…) I made the trek from Park Slope to Long Island City to attend the NY Art Book Fair, presented by Printed Matter, Inc. – a non-profit organization that promotes awareness and distribution of artists’ books – and held at MoMA PS1 – the more experimental exhibition space branch of the MoMA.

I emerged from my long underground journey a bit low on energy. It was a brisk day, and I wanted chai. Luckily, my local companion, Emily, knew a good place to caffeinate: Communitea, which I immediately recognized from Gossip Girl (the show is filmed in LIC. Am I cool yet?). They did have something I’d never seen before: green tea chai. It was earthy and perfect. Perked up we headed to PS1.

LIC is a generally quiet neighborhood and my brief time spent there suggests it’s comprised mainly of yuppy types with a smattering of hipster. But we turned a corner towards the book fair and it was like a portal to Williamsburg. Hello art scene.

Feeling slightly intimidated by the ultacool hipsters, we walked gingerly toward the exhibition and saw a large white tent. Well, tents are like the circus…and the circus is for everyone…this could work. We approached the ticket desk. Free entry! Definitely could work.

We ambled through the crowd and into the tent, to find a maze of tables lined with every art magazine (they only call them “zines,” presumably to save time? the logic of which I’m botching by writing a whole parenthetical explanation of? oops). It was very crowded but manageable, and the pieces (some free, some for sale) were funny, witty, and inspiring.

My favorite discovery was the Bureau for Open Culture, an organization that puts out awesome publications to accompany their innovative exhibitions.

I bought one of their books called Calling Beauty, published with their exhibition of the same name in 2010. It contains an introductory essay by the Bureau’s director and curator James Voorhies, and an essay about the notion of beauty by Susan Sontag. It also has wonderful images of each part of the exhibition. Both written pieces were extremely engaging and stimulating, and they actually made me want to read analytical art writing for the first time since I had to for a grade. And both pieces (particularly Sontag’s) are relevant and engrossing without seeing the exhibition itself. I highly recommend. What’s even more awesome is you can download them all as PDFs for free.

They also sold totes with a neon orange logo. I bought one. I’m such a tote sucker. Yup.

Beyond the tent were two other structures. A trailer:

e-flux book coop

And the actual PS1 building:

The rest of the visit was a blur. There were multiple floors, we got lost once (twice?), and just tried to stay afloat in the multi-floor sea of enthusiasts.

Emily a the stairwell door

And then there were books. Book galore. Books about art, books about artists, books by artists, old books, new books, red books….

I found a gem: “Pocket Library of Great Art” French Impressionism book from 1953. Pretty excited about it.

And then there was a window. A calm, quiet scene with a crazy dark cloud that reminded me that we were in Queens and that I would like to get to know it better:

Overall, a lovely afternoon, and well worth the trip. This was my first book fair since middle school, and I’m definitely looking forward to the next one.

Steph

Quick update on something that makes me so happy it’s fall (as if I needed another reason): farmers’ market applesauce:

It’s just apples. JUST. APPLES.

It’s not that most applesauce is made with unhealthy ingredients. It’s just that, at this time of year, fresh-picked apples are so flavorful, sweet and juicy – especially honeycrisps – that a jar full of just that is pure heaven. You can really appreciate their amazing natural flavor.

And maybe you don’t want to commit to a whole apple. With a jar of applesauce, you can just open it open, have a spoonful, savor it…have a few more…save the rest for later. Mmmm.

Go find some. Also that’s my cat. More on him later.

Steph

It’s been a while. I know. But I’ve been busy cooking, so get ready for an onslaught of new yummy posts. Most (all?) of which coming to you courtesy of monthly trips to northern California, specifically the Berkeley Farmers’ Market. The produce there is unreal, and totally inspiring. In fact, it’s the main reason for my frequent visits.* It’s pure joy to hop from stand to stand, sampling, buying, more sampling, more buying, and hobbling home with one too many pluots.

*Not really.

Today I’ll show you how to make entirely too much guacamole. Why the excess? Because it looks good. You can cut the recipe down, or find some other hungry people. That’s what we did, and our bowl full of delicious was nearly scraped clean.

But wait there’s more: you also end up with a succulent bowl of padrón peppers. And here to tell you why that’s so special is Ben (aka my real reason for crossing the country):

The Padrón pepper is something of an enigma. Available into autumn, the Spanish Padrón will trick you into thinking that its Japanese cousin, the Shishito, hasn’t yet gone out of season. Also prepared by pan frying in olive oil until browned and/or blistered, then sprinkled with some coarse sea salt, the Padróns are an equally flavorful but riskier proposition relative to Shishitos. We blistered those suckers up, put some in the guac for added punch, and left the rest to stand on their own merits. Some were very mild, crunchy, delicious treats; others thought I had badmouthed their mothers. Padróns boast a wide range of capsaicin levels (which I totally knew prior to the internet search I didn’t perform), and the late summer varieties pack more of it into an otherwise identical pepper-envelope. They were still great, just in a way that might make you cry capsaicin tears.

Point is, if you can find ‘em, try ‘em. Onto the main event…

Like I said, this recipe makes a really big bowl o’ guac.

What you’ll use:

4 ripe avocados (not too hard, not too mushy, should give slightly when you press on it)

1 smallish red onion, minced

Bunch of padrón peppers (chilis or some other spicy pepper are fine too)

Handful each cilantro and parsley, finely chopped

2 lemons, 1 lime

1 tomato, seeds and pulp removed, chopped

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 cucumber, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

Sea salt to taste

2 pans (one for padróns, one for garlic and onion), large bowl for guac, spoon, substantial knife, chopping knife, zester/grater

What you do:

Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil into each frying pan, heat over medium-high heat.

Put whole peppers in one, minced garlic in the other. Heat garlic for about a minute, until you can smell it, then add the minced onion. Cook the peppers until they’re a bit charred on the outside and shriveled. Mince two peppers, put the rest aside for munching later.

Cook the onions a bit longer so they become soft and sweet, maybe 10 minutes or a bit more. While you’re waiting, zest one whole lemon and one whole lime, and put the zest aside in a small bowl. We’ll mix it in later. Put the cooked garlic and onions aside as well.

Ben was very excited to contribute his avocado-pitting and scooping skills. Observe:

Using a sharp knife, cut along the long side of the avocado, and turn the avocado in a circle so that it’s cut in half lengthwise. Hold one side, and twist the other – it should twist right off, leaving the pit in the half you’re holding still.

This next step requires a bit of confidence: take your substantial cutlery, and, holding the pitted avocado half steady with your other hand, hack down into the pit with the knife, so that it wedges in there, and pull the pit out. (You could always scoop it out with a spoon but this is unarguably cooler. Right Ben?)

Now just scoop the flesh (ew I know) out into your large bowl.

Next step is important because it’ll keep the avocado from browning: Cut your lemons and lime in half. Leave one half lime aside. Take the rest of the halves and juice the heck out of ‘em right onto the avocados. Take a big fork (a masher’s awesome if you have one, but we didn’t and it was fine) and mash up the avocados, incorporating the citrus juice.

Next, add the minced peppers and seasonings (cumin, salt, pepper if you like), and mix thoroughly. Then add the zests, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, garlic, and herbs.

Now squeeze the reserved half lime’s juice on top of the whole mixture.

Taste it, add seasonings as you like. Refrigerate for an hour or more if you have time…we didn’t. And it was awesome.

And then we had peppers.

Enjoy it. All of it.

Steph