sarah in nyc

 Yesterday I looked out of my window and  Brian Stokes Mitchell sang "The Impossible Dream" from the Juliette balcony on the right most nights during the 7:00pm cheer saw this scaffolding going up. All of you who live in New York know exactly what this is.  In 1979 a Columbia student was killed by a piece of  loose masonry hat fell from a building in the neighborhood. Since then, every five years every residential building in the city is inspected and every bit of masonry that might be a danger in the future is repaired. This law has had a couple of consequences. The first is that it has kept all of us safer. Another is that the law has been a boondoggle for  scaffolding companies, construction engineers and contractors. The scaffolding keeps the workers safe and also keeps pedestrians safe from falling rubble. As an additional safety measure after the scaffolding goes up a layer of screening covers the outside of the scaffolding. Being inside the the scaffoldin...

 I have a completely irrational belief that if my kids taste the flavors of the holiday foods from my childhood then they will, by eating those foods inherit my memories. Like I said, it is irrational. And yet, I do it every year. My parents made these foods not to evoke their own families but to evoke the people that they loved in Halifax and that particular moment in their lives, the first years of their marriage. That Halifax evocation was so strong that my dear Halifax born friend, Shawna was able to identify whose cabbage and whose Tzimmes I serve.  I didn't grow up with the tradition of serving a plum tart made with Italian prune plums on Rosh Ha Shanah. But my dear German and Austrian born friends who are no longer living did. Herta, and Fanni and Ida are no longer living but I bring them to our Rosh HaShanah table every year. This tart feels like we are inviting those three women to join our table  for the New Year. My daughter has taken up the mantle of making th...

 I have had the honor of blowing shofar at my synagogue since the year my father died. I practice during the entire moth of Elul, the month before Rosh Hashanah. When I practice, I do a run through with each of the shofarot you see here. One was a bar mitzvah gift given to my nephew, the other was a bar mitzvah gift given to my son. The black one is easy to blow. the paler one is difficult to blow. Each time I practice I do a run though first with the difficult shofar and then with the easy one.  . We Jews like rules. There are lots of rules about shofar blowing. I try to blow with the same power that my father did. As a small child I was told that the three different sounds of the shofar correspond to a wail, and then sobs and finally completely broken up sobbing. This year I learned something new. I learned that the long blast represents God's mercy and the shorter blasts represent God's judgement. I can produce a long shofar blast. A previous year I read that one needs to m...

 Jess's tallit   Is heading towards the finish line. The pinot/corner pieces will be made out of woven strips of the ribbon that I embroidered both for Jess's tallit as well as for other recent tallitot. I wove the strips together last night over a bit of fusible interfacing. Eventually, it looked  like this. You are getting some additional photos just because I am feeling really pleased with myself. All of this sewing is being interspersed with holiday cooking. The tzimmes tat was cooked in this graniteware roasting pan is now in the freezer. not visible is the 7.5 lbs. of flanken meat that are under the vegetables. I am feeling especially fond of this pan because it has been working hard all week. Not pictured is the brisket that I cooked in there yesterday. Both the tzimmes and the beef are now frozen. Today I used the same roasting pan to sweat the leaves off of two heads of cabbage. Yes, there is stuffed cabbage making in my future. And of course the cabbage wil...

 Because people know I sew I often am given random  collections of sewing things. The tool below, came into my life last summer. I had no idea what it might be useful for until this summer. This tool has two excellent uses. First of all it is quite as a good sewing machine screw driver. One needs a really stumpy, short handled screwdriver to open up the cover to the bobbin case. This does the job well and is just stumpy enough to get into tight spaces. The looped handle also gives this tool a second excellent use. This little tool is also an excellent bodkin. A bodkin is a tool that allows you to thread elastic or ribbon through a narrow casing. I sewed elastic to the top of the loop and easily threaded the elastic through a casing. Normally, I use safety pins as bodkins but sometimes a safety pin can decide to open mid task which can result in lots of cursing. I don't know if it is possible to buy a similar combination mini screwdriver/bodkin but if you find one, get it. Belo...