Forget a chicken in every pot. Today Herbert Hoover would be pleased if everyone just had a wishbone--one cast in pewter, that is. Of course, this Herbert Hoover is not the one pined for by a warbling Edith Bunker, and he had nothing to do with the Smoot-Hawley Tariff. This Hoover is the New York-based artist and designer who has made a name for himself by casting quotidian objects in metal, instantly transforming them into shiny morsels of pure joy.

It all started with pewter Saltines, which owners worldwide can keep tabs on via Hoover's online Cracker Tracker. His metal-dipped oeuvre now encompasses Oreos (their white lard filling swapped out for a dollop of Epoxy), ice cream sandwiches, fortune cookies, and just added pewter wishbones, a perfect gift for whomever toiled over your turkey last week. Hoover stepped away from the vats of molten metal to answer our seven questions:

1. What's the first thing(s) you read in the morning?
My email, I love hearing from folks who have my work or want my work -- I especially love when they send me a picture of themselves with a cracker!

2. Last movie you saw?
Wings of Desire. It had been years since I last saw the movie and it reminded me how much this one movie inspired my thinking. The movie is a long improvisation on how messy and beautiful life is -- and it has Peter Falk in a cameo laughing at how much Germans like him as Colombo.

3. Last book you read?
How to Cheat at Everything. It's the other side of every hustle you've ever witnessed walking on the streets of the Big Apple. It's like a book of magic tricks that only make sense in your imagination until the book reveals the simple and practiced cheating.

4. Best/most memorable design/designer-related encounter?
I did a project with M&Co when I was in school. One of my fellow students arranged for our class to go to New York for a project critique with Tibor Kalman. Tibor singled my work out and ask "What is this?" incredulously because I had intentionally broken the rules. I was so embarrassed that I stammered through a an incomprehensible explanation. I later sent a large painting of a hand mixer to Maira Kalman for Tibor when he was ill, but unfortunately he never got it.

5. Proudest design moment?
My current project is always my favorite, and then I move on to my next favorite. But looking back, it was certainly fun to see my lamps be a major plot device in Runaway Bride, and my sculptures be a big part of the Las Vegas and Berlin Blue Man Group shows. My proudest design moment would still have to be getting work published by Ellen Lupton and exhibited in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

6. This holiday season, I'm giving...
...to City Harvest in New York. I am named after a president whose greatest passion was eliminating hunger around the world; I think that it has rubbed off on me a little.

7. This holiday season, I'm hoping to get...
...my crackers and other pewter objects into everyone's stockings!. :-) But seriously, I'm hoping to see family and some old friends and get some time to catch up on a few books with some hot coffee and a fireplace.