Busy At Last

We are talking work here. Work has gotten busy. As in deeply busy. I am mildly busy on a fairly regular basis. I enjoy this. But deeply busy is even better. One feels so productive, slightly more necessary to the world. Perhaps I should have chosen a profession that requires frequent yelling of "stat!" Too late now. I have settled instead for the arts.

The key is in multitasking. Successful multitasking is the lifeblood of my enjoyment of busy. A long stretch of busy on one thing is a burden. You get tired, everything starts to look familiar in a repetitive way that depresses, like I-40 between Little Rock and Memphis. Rather I enjoy the flow of disparate details. Like the person charged with squaring away the decks moments before the storm, I love the last second moments before the big event with everything coming together pitch perfect, watching all the distinct threads disappear into the whole. Labels, comment pages, patch paint and the curtain going up. Following all the crates, conditionings, and hanging up and screwing down.

I am always being asked about the future, and I never know what to reply. Navigation has always been beyond me. I'm not the guy with the sextant trying to wring direction from the stars. I like a task at hand.

Which brings me to Provencal Tartlets. There was a hiatus in the busyness today with a going-away party for the museum's librarian and the local gourmand on staff showed up with the most incredibly savory puff pastries. I asked for the recipe. "They're easy!" she said. "You just..." and she away she went through a list that included a shallot, grape tomatoes, olive meats, and Gruyere before launching into a pesto sauce that included at least six ingredients with fresh tarragon leaves and blanched almonds among them. Talk about a flow of details! This is another definition of happy busy, or maybe I mean manifestation, that is cooking. So while I may laugh at the Provencal Tartlets lenghty description, I am also bound and determined to try it.

Postscript: for a real impossibility of a recipe with a layering of detail taken to ridiculous heights, check out Harry Matthews "Country Cooking from Central France; Roast Boned Rolled Stuffed Shoulder of Lamb (Farce Double)." Isaiah Sheffer recently read it on PRI. It might still be on itunes (episode "Food Fantasies") or you can listen to it here.