A blog, mostly about my work making Jewish ritual objects, but with detours into garment making, living in New York City, cooking, and other aspects of domestic life.
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On the Passover train
There are some things that are inevitable during the process of preparing for Passover. One is that some kitchen things disappear.
This year after we switched the house I was unable to find my Melita coffee filter holders. I need to have my jolt of coffee to make it through any day. But I REALLY need my coffee on high labor days like the days before Passover. I ordered a replacement coffee filter holder from Amazon. For two days until it arrived I just dumped my usual dose of ground coffee into a large mug and then filled the mug with boiling water. Eventually, the grounds settle but cleaning a pile of damp coffee grounds is really unpleasant, not to mention the yukky sensation of straining coffee grounds through your teeth.
I was so happy when the replacement filter holder arrived.
Unfortunately, the base was broken which made using the filter holder a bit fiddly.
Luckily later in the day I found my two Passover filter holders which had been packed away in a pot. Today I got to make and drink my coffee like an actual human being.
Another inevitability of Passover prep is bodily injury. Most years I get a case of what my friend calls cooking stigmata, or burns on my forearms from lifting pots in and out of the oven. The other variety of injuries are cuts to my fingers Last year I dramatically cut into my left index finger and fingernail. This year I got a lesser cut on a different finger tip.
My big job for yesterday was slicing 16.5 lbs. of brisket.
The brisket is now all packaged up and living in my freezer. I made the beef gravy yesterday.
In our family in addition to the big seder plate in the middle of the table, each guest also has their own individual seder plate.
Yesterday I roasted the bones that will go on the individual Seder plates ( chicken necks) and the shank bone for the main Seder plate. We also roast the eggs for the main Seder plate.
Side dishes still need to be made. Desserts will wait until after Shabbat.
Lots of ironing has already been done and the stack of linens that still need to be attended to is large...
וְנֶאֱמָן אַתָּה לְהַחֲיוֹת מֵתִים: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Resurrector of the dead. That particular line is recited at every single prayer service every day three times a day, unless you use a Reform or Reconstructionist prayer book . In those liturgies instead of praising God for resurrecting the dead God is praised for giving life to all. I am enough of a modern woman, a modern thinker, to not actually believe in the actual resurrection of the dead. I don't actually expect all of the residents of the Workmen's Circle section of Mount Hebron cemetery in Queens to get up and get back to work at their sewing machines. I don't expect the young children buried here or the babies buried here to one day get up and frolic. Yet, every single time I get up to lead services I say those words about the reanimating of the dead with every fiber of my being. Yesterday, I e...
A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee. If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it. My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid. I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed. A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...
I had begun speaking to Sarah about making her a tallit in the middle of August. It took a few weeks to nail down the design. For Sarah it would have been ideal if the tallit were completed in time for her to wear it on Rosh HaShanah., the beginning of her year as senior rabbi of her congregation. For me, in an ideal world, given the realities of preparing for the High Holidays I would have finished this tallit in the weeks after Sukkot. So we compromised and I shipped off the tallit last night. I would have prefered to have more time but I got the job done in time. This tallit was made to mark Sarah's rise to the position of senior rabbi but it was also a reaction to this year of darkness. She chose a selection of verses about light to be part of her tallit. 1) אֵל נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה God of awesome deeds ( from a yom kippur Liturgical poem) 2) אוֹר חָדָשׁ עַל־צִיּוֹן תָּאִיר May You shine a new light on Zion ( from the liturgy) 3) יָאֵר יְהֹ...
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