Especially if, like me, you’re out of pasta the next day and force yourself to use what you have to save space, and if what you have is a package of soba, Japanese buckwheat noodles.  I was a bit skeptical, but it turned out much better than with the pasta.  The flavors of the pesto and the soba mix in a really interesting way that’s more complex, and with a bit of chicken (from a leftover roasted chicken with two lemons that I’ve been eating from all week) and an optional crumble of Bulgarian sheep’s milk feta (from my visit to Halime at the Turkish market in the old neighborhood), it makes a very nutritious and satisfying go-to lunch.

A note on serving temperature.  Soba noodles should be rinsed after cooking, and they are often served cold.  Personally, I like this dish at about room temperature, and the pesto incorporates better if they’re warm, so I’ll rinse the noodles with warm water, return to the pot, mix in the other ingredients and let the cold pesto and chicken from the fridge cool down the noodles to lukewarm.

Now, you can substitute whatever you have in the house, experiment!  But if you replace the arugula with basil, the walnuts with pine nuts, and the soba with pasta, I’m afraid I can’t help you.

In other food news, I’ve joined a local CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture) and I’ll be picking up my boxes of freshly picked, sustainably grown vegetables starting in June (and fruit, starting in July).  I really look forward to having a defined palette of seasonal ingredients to work from.  It’s like having constraints in graphic design (or any other creative job)–it can be very helpful to the process.

So today, I was up near 25th St. returning my cable box when I remembered there was supposed to be a great retail/wholesale produce market around there on 3rd. I found it, after almost getting run over by a truck, and I have to say it really put a smile on my face. I was so starved for real food that I wanted to fill up a cart with everything in sight, all of those gleaming colorful deliverers of vitamins. I could have, too, at those prices. I ended up getting 3 mangoes, 4 lemons, 6 limes, a cucumber, 3 tomatoes, a package of arugula, crimini mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, 2 apples, and a bunch of parsley, all for $17.

And what would I make with all this? Well, I had a very hard end to a loaf of olive bread I’d gotten in the old neighborhood. I’d never made it before, but out of the options for using up stale bread, panzanella seemed to be the most congruous with olives.

So I looked up a few quick recipes online, threw something together, and just ate the entire thing in one sitting even though it was supposed to sit and get moister. I don’t know if it’s because it’s the first real food I’ve made since I’ve been here, but it was DAMN GOOD.  Here’s what I did:

One hard old end of a sourdough olive bread loaf.  One tomato and one-half a giant cucumber, chopped.  Mixed them together, sprinkled s&p, let the juices come out a bit.  Added a generous drizzle of olive oil, a drop of good balsamic vinegar, a splash of cheap red wine vinegar, a lot of chopped parsley and a minute amount (a quarter of a clove) of very finely minced garlic.  Had a bite, left it for 10 minutes, had another bite, then downed the whole thing.  I thought capers would have been nice and sorely regretted throwing out the jar with two tablespoons left when I moved, but (a) my new, smaller but nicer fridge is already completely full just with the condiments I brought from the old place, and (b) it was perfection without them.

No picture of the dish, because I’ve realized not only do I not want to spend the time to make my food look good, I don’t want my food to look good.  So here’s a picture of an empty bowl next to a pile of extension cords:

I thought I’d do a mushroom pasta for the main course.  Will I be hungry?  Who knows.  I’ve been absolutely ravenous the past week from all the physical exertion involved in moving and setting up the new place.  I’ve also been eating at 7 PM, going to sleep at 10, and waking up early.  I know it’s time to eat when I hear the ice cream truck outside, and time to sleep when the baby in the next building stops crying.

The new place, unlike the boxy big-rooms-all-in-a-row 1 bedroom apartment I’m in now, is a warren of small rooms, walls that curve unexpectedly, and delightful angles.  Its many windows just cry out to be lined with little green plants in pots, a look that for some reason I associate with the best of the 1970s.  I must have seen a charming window full of greenery when I was very young and it made a deep aesthetic impression.  I also think about Ruth Gordon’s train car home in Harold and Maude.

Image is from Apartment Therapy.  I think having the shelf suspended over the window is key to achieving that charming look that’s imprinted on my childhood brain, as are the little colored glass bottles.  Growing up in Readington, NJ, there was a spot in a bit of wilderness on our land that former residents had used as a dumping ground in the 19th and early 20th century.  We used to dig there and find all kinds of little apothecary bottles that we’d clean up and my mom would display on the window over the sink.

There’s a lovely window beside the farmhouse sink in the new place that would be perfect for this kind of treatment.  Now, how to do that and still be able to lift out the window to clean the outside (maybe some brackets on the window frame and a detachable shelf?), and how to keep plants alive which I’ve never been able to master (those As Seen on TV plant watering globes?)… but this place cries out for live plants.  The natural light is only slightly better than where I am now, since it’s also a ground floor apartment, but with at least one window on each of three sides plus one at an angle, the chances of getting a ray of sunshine in for at least 15 minutes a day are increased.

When I last saw my friend who’s handing the place over to me, I asked her if there was anything in the apartment that she’d be secretly upset if I changed.  I know it could be a bit tricky if you visit someplace where you used to live, that you put a lot of thought and hard work into, and still feel that sense of propriety.  Wonderful woman that she is, she assured me that the place is now 100% mine and I should do whatever I want, but that she’d probably have to wait a while until she visited.  I understand that, and out of respect for her, I’m not going to post pictures yet.  But I will be taking them along the way as I get the place ready and move in a week from today, and I’ll save them up.

By the way, I think I’m going to stop putting breaks or “folds” in my blog posts where you have to click for more.  I’ve noticed that personally, I really prefer being able to read through everything on one page, though it can get annoying to scroll through long posts with lots of pics.  What do you guys think?

Here’s some dishes that have kept me going–staying in a tight budget while being relatively healthy, varied, and fun.  I haven’t chosen the cheapest option and sacrificed nutrition–I don’t always go for the white potatoes and white rice because they are the cheapest, or the factory-farmed chicken.  To be honest, sometimes I do.  Some dishes are best with white rice and others brown.  Taste is always foremost!  If it doesn’t taste good, doesn’t give you a feeling of being a little decadent, you’ll pig out on nachos at the pub the first chance you get.

1. Homemade pita & tortilla chips
I never buy store-bought chips anymore–I’ve usually got a bag of corn tortillas and a bag of whole-wheat pitas in the freezer.  Even more thriftily, I save the tortillas (folded in half, wrapped in foil) from Mexican takeout.  I break them in pieces while still frozen, toss generously with olive oil & salt, and bake at 350º for about 10-15 min until slightly browned and crispy.  They have a different texture than store-bought chips but I have learned to prefer them, and they have a rich taste from the olive oil.  Using another oil like vegetable, corn, or peanut will make them crispier but I prefer the taste from the olive oil–it’s roastier.
For pita chips, it’s much the same process except I dry them in the oven first, so they are twice-baked.  I haven’t thought of doing that with tortillas, but I must try that.

Think about it, a bag of tortilla chips is about $3 while a fraction of a bag of tortillas, at least in an area with a Latino population, will run you about 25¢.  Free if you get them with takeout and don’t use them.  The same with pita chips–a bag of those is at least $4 and half a bag of pitas is just 75¢.  Plus, they’re wholesome, homemade, certainly better for you than anything deep-fried.  And you can use leftover homemade tortilla chips for…

2. Tortilla soup
I make this about every other time as part of the roast chicken aftermath.  After the carcass has been ravaged for sandwiches, I pick all the hidden bits of meat off (like le sot l’y laisse), reserve, then make a stock from the bones.  I also make sure people throw back the bones of the legs and wings instead of tossing them out because you want the wings for extra gelatin in your stock.  For a Mexican broth you want to add some mint and thyme, but I usually make an unflavored, unseasoned stock and simmer 1 qt of it with herbs later to make this soup.  There are many recipes for tortilla soup, but the basic idea is to saute some garlic and tomato in olive oil on high heat, then puree and add back to the soup and squeeze a lot of lime juice in at the end.  I’ve built on this recipe with inspiration from Rick Bayless–I now add one or two soaked pasilla peppers into the puree, and add shreds of either chard, kale, or spinach.  I also throw in a handful of rice, then at the end, add the bits of cooked chicken and crumbled tortilla chips.  Some leftover black beans, too, if they are handy, and a bit of hot sauce if it lacks punch.  Cheese is traditional but I skip it.  And if I don’t have tortilla chips already made, I skip those too, so is it still tortilla soup…?  If you haven’t roasted a chicken, you can always poach one and strip ALL the meat, which you will then be able to save for many different meals and you’ll have a great stock as well.  I just poached one for tonight’s aji de gallina.  I get my chickens at a halal market for about $3.  I choose to believe since they are halal, they are better for me than a factory-farmed chicken.

3. To serve with your homemade chips, some homemade guacamole!  I can get avocados here depending on the season for $1 or less a piece.  2 avocados makes a nutritious special treat for 2 or 3 people.  Yes, they are full of fat, but it is good fat, and they contain a natural antidepressant!  So if you lost your health insurance, eat guacamole when you are blue.  In the summer I make them with fresh tomato and red onion, lime juice, hot sauce and cilantro.  In the winter, when I don’t buy tomatoes, I try to have some tomatillo salsa (salsa verde) on hand and I use that plus red or green onion, lime juice and cilantro.

4. For another dip that is wonderful with either of the homemade chips, but which I eat more often with carrot sticks, I developed a homemade spinach dip.  I wanted to capture the flavor of a classic potluck spinach dip, the kind you’d serve in a bread bowl, but made from fresh ingredients.  I sautee onion, garlic and celery, then puree that with a combination of dairy products–mostly drained lowfat yogurt (I get a really tasty, tangy Indian brand at the halal market) plus a bit of either labeneh (a cross between thick sour cream and yogurt), sour cream, and/or mayonnaise, for richness.  To that I add some leftover cooked greens, either spinach, chard, or kale.  If you don’t have leftovers, just add the greens to the sauteed aromatics and cook until wilted.  I always keep a bunch of dark leafy greens in the house.  Swiss chard is my favorite but all winter it is kale, kale, kale!  It’s not hard to eat in season when you have no money.  Zip it all in the food processor with salt, pepper, and coriander powder or another spice of your choice, and there you have it.  Trust me, it is so much better than those potluck dips, and you know everything that’s gone into it–not like a packet of dried soup mix full of additives and preservatives.

5. Lentils and split peas. Yes, the classic staples of the poor!  But I won’t hold for any tasteless mush.  Adding flavor is key.  And it doesn’t always have to be in the form of a smoked pork product, though sometimes it does.  One soup (from Marcella Hazan) I make all the time is the epitome of thrift.  One half a bag of green split peas, 2 potatoes, 1 cup of beef stock or a bouillon cube, 4 cups of water.  The key, and all the flavor, comes in at the end when you saute 2 Tb of chopped onion in a mixture of butter and oil, then puree that in with the soup.  I also love her lentil soup, with lots of garlic, tomato, bit of bacon, pasta and crushed red pepper.  I make another lentil soup–with many variations–to which I generally add smoked paprika in lieu of a smoked pork product.  I don’t have anything against smoked pork, by the way, in fact I very often use bacon as part of a soup base, but cooking for two I don’t make whole hams so I don’t have leftover ham hocks.  You can buy them of course (though that doesn’t seem very thrifty), and I’ve also heard good things about using smoked turkey wings in soups.  I just picked up a package of them but haven’t used any yet.  My Algerian friend also makes an amazing lentil soup with a bit of lamb on the bone.  I’ve been trying to get her to teach me how to make it so stay tuned…

Then there are the multitudinous combinations of lentils, dark leafy greens, and rice/pasta.  They can easily stray into the “I’m eating this just to stay alive” camp, which is where we don’t want to be!  A judicious use of spice and/or meat will fix that.  My favorite lately uses a bit of Italian sausage and seasons the greens with a pinch of anise seed, served with pasta.  The anise works so well with the lentils and greens–delicious!

6. Turkish-ish greens w/ rice.  Thanks to Halime, who runs the halal shop across the street from my apartment and taught me how to make this one day.  I make it often for lunch and I’ve altered the recipe a bit by adding garlic and cinnamon (which is more of a North African touch).  You sautee some onion & garlic, add a tiny bit of ground meat and cook for 10 min, then add fresh or canned tomatoes or tomato paste, cook it down, add lots of greens and a small handful of dry rice, water to cover, simmer until rice is done.  I sometimes make this with leftover rice; brown rice is good and makes this a very nutritious meal but you do want it to be at least par-boiled when you start.  If I’m using dry rice, I’ll usually hold out on adding the greens until it’s half-cooked.  It’s a personal thing; the Turkish way has you cook the greens until they are soft and brownish, which is not always as bad as it sounds and can be quite yummy.  Their version is also mostly greens with a tiny bit of rice while I like to do more half-and-half.  Add a dollop of yogurt or labeneh to serve.  Mmmmmm.

7. Root vegetables.  For a favorite side dish of mine, I take half sweet and half white potatoes, chopped, tossed w/ olive oil, s+p, smoked paprika and cumin (sometimes a bit of cayenne too).  Roast at 400º for about 40 minutes.  Optionally you can squeeze lemon juice over, sprinkle w/ chopped parsley or cilantro, or serve w/ an aji or chipotle dipping sauce.  This is my go-to side dish with burgers, be they lamb, beef, or turkey.  The sweet potatoes are extremely nutritious and anti-inflammatory–it might be my imagination but I get a feeling of well-being every time I nom one.

I’m also a huge fan of celery root, which I use in purees (with roast chicken) and soups (with parsnips, potatoes and dark leafy greens) all winter.  Turnips and rutabagas, likewise, can be turned into a rustic mash with carrots, sweet potatoes and roasted garlic, or into a soup with bacon and dried mushroom.  All of them have a lot more to offer nutritionally and taste-wise than white potatoes.

8. Hummus.  1 can of chickpeas = 89¢.  1 cup of premade or good deli hummus = $4-5.  Yeah.  The only thing that will cost you is the tahini.  I can get it for less than $4 here but I live in a Middle Eastern neighborhood.  I remember paying $11 in the suburbs.  In that case, you might want to try experimenting with almond or cashew butter, if you can get them cheaper, but even for $11 you will save money in the end because you’ll get lots of batches out of one tub.  I make my hummus the traditional Lebanese way, with a generous amount of tahini and lemon juice, few Tb of water, salt and ½ clove garlic.  (Though to be really traditional I’d have to soak and cook my chickpeas, which would save me even more money, but I never think ahead.)  The only addition I sometimes make is a squirt of Sriracha.  Drizzle a good olive oil over and top with a dusting of either sumac, smoked paprika, chopped parsley, or Aleppo pepper.  Serve w/ pita chips or just plain whole wheat pita.

There are a lot more ideas out there of course, like fish cakes (which I love to serve with the tortilla soup), grated veggie latkes, which I’d like to do more of, casseroles, gratins… what are your favorite nutritious, cheap, fun, slightly decadent dishes or tips?

Personally, I hope that after I transition off unemployment (which I’m in the process of now), I’ll be able to keep some of the good habits I’ve learned.  Not only with cooking, but in general, relearning the joy and inspiration in the simple and the cheap.

My friend had suggested using leftover “mash” (potatoes) and leftover cooked skate–a quick review of British recipes online called for that and not much else, maybe some parsley and a coating of breadcrumbs.  One had the egg and breadcrumbs mixed into the cake itself.  I decided not to go that way though it would be easier and require less cleanup.  I had a vision of a crisp, golden brown exterior yielding to a soft fishy center.  And of course I couldn’t leave it alone without spicing it up a little.  I was on a New Orleans kick, so green onion and a few shakes of Tabasco went in, then while mixing it all up I had a stroke of brilliance and added a dash of smoked paprika.  That unidentifiable hint of smoke flavor in the finished dish really made it–surprisingly for a lowly fish cake, it was one of the most delicious food items ever to come out of my kitchen.  I bet you could try Sriracha to stand in for both the Tabasco and smoked paprika, or even a bit of adobo from chipotles, but just a dash–you don’t want to be able to pick out the flavor.

A note on the choice of fish: skate may or may not be an ethical choice where you live.  After I’d bought mine, I got the Seafood Watch app for my new iPod, and damn, saw it on the red list.  Since I’d already bought it I used it up between two meals, but next time I’ll ask the fishmonger before making a decision.  I find it hard to believe that skate is overfished since it’s not really that desirable for most people and you rarely see it in a standard fish market.  I guess it has something to do with bottom-trawling; it may get picked up while fisherman are looking for something else.  I’d think the Union Square people would be pretty careful about sustainability but who knows.  As far as substitutions, I’d go with an opaque, soft-fleshed sweetish white fish, not a flaky one like red snapper, because I tried that the next time and it lacked something.  Or even scallops, as skate is sometimes used to make faux scallops.

A note on my recipes.  Most of them are scaled for two people, since that’s the way I cook.  But the other person I cook for is a human vacuum, so the portions are quite generous.  An exception is when I make soups or stews, which I’ll make extra of for leftovers.

Tara’s Fish Cakes

½ pound skate or other fish, leftover or poached lightly
2 medium russet potatoes, or an equivalent amount leftover mashed or boiled potatoes (I cooked mine in the microwave, then peeled the skins off, which worked perfectly as the flesh stayed moist)
salt & pepper, to taste
½ – 1 chopped green onion, depending on size and taste
few shakes of Tabasco
dash of smoked paprika
1 egg, beaten
breadcrumbs, seasoned w/ s&p and a bit of regular paprika or seasoned salt
oil for frying

Mix the ingredients through the smoked paprika in a bowl, flaking the fish.  Form fat little patties (this should make about 6), then beat the egg in a bowl and lay out the breadcrumbs on a plate.  Dip in egg, coat in breadcrumbs, and shallow fry until golden brown and crispy.  Serve with lemon wedges.

I think this would be great as an appetizer with some greens dressed with lemon juice or verjus, or with a bit of aji sauce drizzled overtop (the type with slightly chunky veg swimming in vinegar) or a citrus salsa like xec.  Try anything as long as it’s heavy on the acid.

This was everything I’d hoped it would be: crisp but ungreasy on the outside, soft, yielding and luscious on the inside, with a hint of smokiness and a lift from the Tabasco and lemon juice… delicious.  Serve with a soup (perhaps something with tomato/roasted red pepper/lentils, or a fresh pea soup in the spring) and a salad for a complete, refreshingly different dinner.

This is a delicate subject but I can also foresee that I am stepping into a path where ethnic and religious origin may always be an issue–with my peers, that is, not my clients!  I’m a white woman without the kind of ingrained understanding of Arab culture that comes from being born and raised on the inside.  A do-gooder.

Let me break that down for you.  First of all, Arab culture?  It’s not a monolith.  That should come as no surprise to anyone but it is the number-one lesson I’ve taken from my work with Arab-American immigrants over the past 14 months.  I’m constantly awed by the sheer variety in outlook, dress, personalities, and backgrounds of the students I’ve worked with in ESL classes.  They’ve come from just about every country in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond.  Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Morocco, Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.  And I wouldn’t lump any of them into easy categories–they’re all individuals to me now, some bold, some timid, some who are homesick and some who say good riddance to their home countries (or both).  Sure, people from Yemen tend to be among the most conservative, and it’s the Palestinian (who are said to be the “craziest” ) and Lebanese women who will dance in mixed company at a class party.  But even within a country there are multitudes of distinctions.  My Algerian friend who is a Berber said that her marriage to an Arab guy from home would have been shocking in years past and is still a bit of a surprise to people.  I’ve heard another Algerian student (who I think was an Arab; Berbers are not Arab) say that Berber/Arab racism was intolerable and the worst thing about her home country.

Then look at Lebanon, an example of religious and cultural variety if there ever was one.  In one country you’ve got Maronites, Greek Orthodox, Sunnis, Shi’ites, and the Druze–and those are just the major ones.  And within each religious group of course there’s ideological differences, which has resulted in internal fighting up to this day.  Hezbollah, for instance, is made up mainly of Shi’a Muslims, but do all Shi’ites support Hezbollah?  No way!  (But many do because the party subsidizes essential services for poor families that the government struggles or fails to provide–hospital care for sick children, loans and rebuilding assistance, training, etc.)  And among the Sunni friends I made when I was in Saida visiting the family of a student, some were devout and others like my student’s brother-in-law would say: “They pray too much,” and “Religion is the cause of all our problems.”

A seemingly fair assessment, I’d say privately, but at the same time I respect his wife’s choice to believe, and to worship in the way she sees fit, as much as I respect his decision not to.  As an American raised by socially conscious parents, the First Amendment is fired into the bones of my body and the air that I breathe.  I’ll defend until I’m blue in the face someone’s right to worship as they like, provided it does not break a law (and assuming that law is not being taken out of context to target a particular group, which has been declared unconstitutional by Supreme Court decisions) the same way I’ll defend their right to free speech even if I vehemently disagree with the content.

That means burqas and niqabs in France and Belgium, minarets in Switzerland.  It’s not that I can’t understand the reasons for secularizing the public space–I can.  Certainly my skeptical Lebanese Sunni friend can.  He thought it would be wonderful if wearing religious garb in public were outlawed.  He’s seen a lot of senseless deaths and tragedy.  I respect his experience and his opinion.  But I can’t agree.  You can’t force someone to stop worshiping the way they see fit.  You can’t force someone to assimilate before they’re ready (if they ever will be), even if you think it’s for their own good.  That’s not freedom.  It will just blow up in your face.

The best thing you can do instead, I think, is to gently expose immigrants to the new possibilities that can open up for them in their adopted homelands.  Help them find the right doors to knock at, how to transfer their degrees or their skills, master a new language, be welcoming, respectful of their beliefs and appreciative of the vibrant richness they bring to your community.  I’ve found that I need to act less as a role model to my Arab-American students–they already have a wealth of role models within their own community–and more of a role model to my fellow native-born citizens who don’t always treat newcomers, especially Muslim ones, with decency and respect.

I’ve gotten a bit off track from my original story about the co-op–I’ll return to that in another post soon.  Also, I’m thinking I’ll start posting some of my recipes, though I’m not quite ready to take on the responsibility of artfully photographing my dishes before I nom them.  I know, what’s a food blog without pictures?  But we’ll start somewhere.  Right now I’ve just enjoyed a Tom Kha Gai (spicy Thai chicken soup with coconut milk) that I threw together from stuff I had in the house, and I feel like a total genius.  Tonight will be some version of an Algerian lentil shorba (soup) with roasted red peppers, a reprise of the unbelievably delicious fish cakes I made last week, roasted cauliflower, and arugula salad.

Curtains: My old green curtains paired with sheers made out of the sari from Jackson Heights.

Throw pillows made with African/Dutch waxprint fabrics, $3.50-$6/yard from P&S Fabrics and another store nearby on Broadway south of Canal Street.

Table: Pink cloth is a $1.99 Ikea clearance rug.  Turquoise placemat, $2.99 Daffy’s clearance.  Vase (which is either the same or very close to a Crate & Barrel one I coveted for years and regretted not buying), $4.99 at Salvation Army.  Flowers, $5 from Union Square Greenmarket.  Brass tray with engraving of clipper ship, $2.99 at Salvation Army.

You can spot the duck head on top of the bookcase.  Not sure where its permanent place will be but it will tell me in due time.  Also to do: replace upside-down lampshade!

The light in the apartment is still so gloomy but does take on a nice pink hue from the curtains.  There was an article in the NYT recently about apartment envy which is epidemic among New Yorkers.  “For such an intellectually advanced and culturally diverse population, we sure are easily impressed with dishwashers.”  My list is longer than most.  In order of desire.

1. Natural light.  The kind that makes you happy just walking into a room where a slanted beam of light is glowing ever-so-optimistically and makes having a cup of tea into a rapturous event.
2. A balcony, roof deck, back garden, terrace, deck, porch, courtyard, or even a fire escape!
3. A dishwasher.
4. A beautiful view.  Currently, living in Bay Ridge, I’m dreaming about a view of the Narrows, the body of water between us and Staten Island, and being able to watch the barges, massive container ships, ferries, sailboats and glorious sunsets from my own pad.
5. A sewing room.
6. A working fireplace. HahaHahaHahaHa.

It was interesting to visit during Ramadan–there were lots of sidewalk vendors all selling religious merchandise–Arabic inscribed plaques, headscarves and blankets (but no fawanees).  Luckily I was given a fanous (that’s the singular for fawanees) by a nice man in a shop in Bay Ridge last week after getting a clear dental report!  (He didn’t know.  But it was better than a lollipop.)

After a long, alternately wonderful, frustrating, sweaty and overwhelming day trolling sari shops along 74th St. and 37th Ave. (with a lunch stop at Al-Naimat), I finally found exactly what I was looking for in a downstairs shop called New East West Sarre Sarani (and they were very sweet and helpful to a white girl with a strange request).  Bright fuchsia, gold embroidered, sheer poly chiffon, with plenty of fabric for two windows, $40!  Here’s a pic of it in the room–I just have it draped over the rod right now.  I’ll have to figure out how to make the two curtains, as one thing I learned about saris today is that the border design is only on one short side.  Makes sense as the other would normally be hidden when worn.

I love it!  It brings such a nice glow into the room.

Click for before-and-after chair pics!

Remember this guy?

Well here he is now!

I’m really happy with it.  I was nervous after applying the primer cuz I thought the white just wouldn’t work.  But it’s perfect.  And now three of my four walls are the same eggshell finish super white.  No, I’m not moving into 6B!  I’ll tell you about it next time…

“Niels is not just fussy, he is super fussy. But he is legally excused. He lives for his sharp sense of decor”

Those are some of my favorite Google Translate blurbs from BOLIG, an interior design magazine from Denmark and the source for my main new inspiration photo (first found @ Jubella):

I decided I love the stark white walls and furniture with crazy accent colors.  Plus it means I don’t have to repaint (at least that room) when I move out.

I found some other great ideas at TAJ Wood & Scherer (Germany) and the wonderful RICE company out of Denmark.  They design wonderful super-colorful home items that are made under fair trade conditions in developing countries.  I wish we had a shop of theirs here–I think it would do well in NY!

The rice-bag and matchbox inspired patterned throw pillows on the top right are from Koko, a NY (Queens) based company run by a Colombian woman married to an Indian man–she operates a similar fair-trade business model too, as I found out when I FINALLY located the woven plastic rugs I’ve been searching for desperately, by Koko and available at Domus (run by a delightful woman named Luisa) in NY.  You can see a few in the pictures above–my favorites are the brightly colored ones in traditional floral/scrollwork designs.  I’d seen them all over the place in the Scandinavian blogs, and I did see some by Mad Mats (which have the added plus of being recycled) but they didn’t quite have the colors and designs I wanted.  It took a New York Times article on the trend to find the name Koko and the store Domus.  Hello all design blogs out there: please tell us the manufacturers of the items you feature!  And makers, work on your Google presence!

Continue for new couch pics and a poll!  Onward!

I’ve really been obsessing over the couch search–I missed out on one @ Angel Street Thrift Shop and kicked myself over it, but in retrospect I’m glad I waited.  This guy I found at a Salvy Army in the city; I love it and paid less including delivery than the one at Angel Street by itself ($146 for the couch + $80 delivery + $23 tip = $249).

It’s a sectional in 3 parts–the chair in the foreground can be added to either side to make an L.  That doesn’t work in my space right now but I like it as a chair too.  It’s a cream-colored silk-and-cotton jacquard damask (or so I’m told by Henri who apparently is not just a stronger-than-he-looks man-with-a-van but also an expert on upholstery textiles!).  The couch is probably from the seventies, classic clean lines, great condition with just some minor stains and discoloration.  I love the pattern:

It’s a mix of old and new which is exactly what I’m about and the pattern brings in that sort of stately femininity that sort of ties together this room with what I eventually want to do with my bedroom (subverted Marie Antoinette!).  It’s comfy and huge and adaptable.  Now…

I’m strongly tempted to try to dye the cushion covers, leaving the base and arms of the couch as is.  Like, fuchsia.  Or some cushions in orange, some fuchsia.  That would hopefully cover up the existing stains and provide a camouflage for any new ones that I will most certainly produce.  Also I’m a bit concerned that I won’t have enough color in my supposed-to-be riot-of-color living room.  I feel like the line of the top of the couch will be a bit blah against the white wall.

But on the other hand, (a) I could totally screw up the dye job, shrink the cushion covers or destroy them if they’re not *really* meant to be washed–though Henri says it’s okay, (b) it could get old after a while, (c) it could be less than restful, and (d) it could close up the feeling of the room instead of that nice open feeling you get with a light color.

So I’ll put it up to a vote:

4

When I arrived there were 4 tables pretty full of crafters busily creating and nattering away, and one table that was relatively empty.  So I set myself up there.  For company, an older Chinese woman who spoke absolutely no English, and a man who was singing Christmas carols and theme songs to 70s sitcoms (“Come and knock on my door…”) loudly to himself, or asking everyone in the room when their birthday was.  Right.  So this plan is going well.

I engrossed myself in crafting–I started with a sort of felt penny rug design for my mirror’s pendulum, tried to help the Chinese woman with her sewing machine using pantomime to communicate, and started to feel like I was at work, where I fix sewing machines and communicate with body language, pidgin English, and gestures every day.  There was a film crew there from MSNBC (or was it MSN?) doing a piece about Etsy, and they shot us as a group and a few individuals.  Would have been a good opportunity for me to publicize my women’s co-op if it were only a few months later and we had a website/Etsy store to send people to.  Oh, and if I weren’t mortally terrified of being on camera.  Um.  Gotta work on that.

I must say I did find it rather funny, just because I love unintentional sabotage, that my tablemate launched into another medley of holiday tunes at top volume while the woman at the next table was getting interviewed about her plastic bag crochet.  Should make for interesting background noise if that segment makes it into the show.  I suppose in September when it’s supposed to air it’ll be vaguely more seasonally appropriate.

A few newcomers arrived and joined our scraggly group–a young woman working on a knitted blanket of hand-dyed wool, and the younger relatives of the Chinese woman, who admired my melty-edged fabric flowers (tutorial here).  I hit it off with the blanket girl, who turned out to be another nonprofit dreamer interning for StoryCorps (and spoke pretty decent Mandarin!), and we all fell into a rhythm of crafting, chatting about our lives, expressing excitement over each others’ creations, helping each other out, and running around the room scrounging supplies.

At the end of my 2 1/2 hours there, we all gave each other fond farewells and the flower ladies translated for the older woman, who said she wished she could communicate with us more and thanked me for my help.  I had met and gotten along with 2 women around my age, one of whom is going back to college in New England next month and the other who lives in Shanghai.  :-S  And I had finished my penny rug pendulum, which I immediately decided I didn’t like and replaced with the fabric flower:

I think it has potential.  And so does Etsy Craft Night.