Sometimes you have to shift gears---and Shabbat

 When Judith brought me this tallit to mend

I had assumed that the the right way to go about the job was to add patches to cover the worn away bits.

I dyed a couple of lengths of silk to use for the patches.

Unfortunately as I was about to begin patching, I realized that a patch would cause further damage. The weight of the heavier fabric would break the existing fabric. Luckily I have more than one mending trick up my sleeve.

I needed to strengthen the weak parts of the fabric.I put some turquoise tulle behind the worn bits of the tallit and grafted the tulle and the silk together using embroidery thread.

here it is from the front and from the reverse

The stitching is still incomplete and the tulle will be trimmed.

Here is the same process on the other side of the atara.

The embroidery threads on their own are fragile. The tulle on its own is fragile. The silk tallit is fragile from wear but joined together the three weak things are strong. You can create your own d'var torah  here. This is an old fashioned technique for the preservation of fragile fabrics. It has been a satisfying task.

Last night I made one of the most delicious things I have made in a long time. I had a bread dough hanging out in the fridge. Part one of the dough became pita that had been eaten. I took the dough out of the fridge. I mushed and stretched the left over dough into a well oiled pan. I topped the dough with Herbes de Provence and fennel seeds and then sliced some asparagus the long way and arranged them over the dough and sprinkled more olive oil over the whole thing.

I am not quite sure of the alchemy that took place but it was crazy delicious.

For tonight I made a pot of chicken soup. The other day I ran into a good friend on Broadway and there are times when life just seems a little bit extra hard.  My friend was going through one of those moments. I wrote to her saying that although I can't solve her big issues...perhaps dinner with us would help.  Our friend is joining us. Since she needed comfort I made chicken soup and even strained it so it is clear and beautiful. 

We are also eating

idiot chicken made with

more Herbes de Provence and lemon juice. This was the first chicken dish each of my kids learned to make. It's always delicious. It tastes like you worked hard but a small child can put it together and feel proud of the results.

Our synagogue is doing a big kiddush tomorrow but community members have been asked to bring desserts. This is what I made.

I'm trying to use up the bag of almond flour that I bought for last Passover. I figured out how to make them soft and chewy, you underbake them. I will be serving these almond cookies for dessert tonight as well.

How did i make them??? Easy peasy.

Almond cookies

4 egg whites

1 cup sugar

pinch of salt

almond flour

whole almonds

Put four egg whites into a large bowl. Add a pinch of salt. beat until the egg whites look foamy. Start to add the sugar bit by bit and continue beating until they are thick and glossy...sort of like shaving cream. Add flavorings. I added grated tangerine rind and vanilla. Then add the almond flour and continue to mix. I think I added three cups it might have been more. I added the almond flour until the dough looked thick like chocolate chip cookie dough. I put the dough out on a parchment paper lined pan using two teaspoons. Top each cookie with a whole almond. Bake at 325 until just golden.

This was my ear worm this morning, now it can be yours. Shabbat Shalom!