Food Friday, but first, the snow day, and a bonus tutorial

It snowed all day yesterday and all night as well. This morning, after morning services, my friend Leah was celebrating her 90th birthday. Leah is one of the world experts on transgenderism. Margaret Mead was her thesis advisor, and gave Leah bad advice.

I haven't been going to morning services lately, because I think that my son does better getting out in the morning with my grumpy company. I really did want to go the services this morning to celebrate Leah's day. So, I planned to leave the house just before my son did this morning.

I had the distinct pleasure of waking my son up, I wasn't sure if school had been called off or not. And then sending him back to bed as soon as I had heard that school was cancelled. So he had the pleasure of lying in bed and knowing that he was home, and not on his way to school.

When I walked to synagogue, the sidewalks still hadn't been cleared. Broadway was barely plowed. I walked to synagogue up the middle of Broadway. It was just too cool. Leah who normally takes a taxi the two blocks to synagogue, walked with her husband just to be there. My friend, Barbara who gets around with a walker, was driven to synagogue by kind strangers in an SUV who saw her waiting for the busses that were not yet runningand took pity on Barbara who was sitting on her walker and covered in snow.

We all ate a beautiful breakfast together after Shaharit.

My son took the two little kids across the hall sledding in Riverside Park. The challa is now doing it's first rising. Two of our dinner guests were supposed to come in from Boston. They wisely decided to stay home. Their children, though, will be joining us.

Knowing that I would be celebrating Leah's birthday this morning, I made the dessert for tonight, last night. I made grapefruit sorbet ( two grapefruit whipped up in the food processor with corn syrup, sugar and a shot of vodka) and pomegranate sorbet ( about 1 1/2 cups water, 1/2 c confectioners sugar, two Tbs flour and lots of pomegranate molasses heated until boiled) .

I think that the late winter is making me hunger for the sun. Citrus is standing in for sunshine for me these days. I am eating a couple of amazing grapefuit each day. They are just at the peak of season right now.

Tonight's potatos are roasting away in the oven coated with olive oil, lime juice sea salt and Tabasco. The chicken is what I call idiot chicken, coated with herbes Provencal with left over wine poured over. You can't go wrong with that herb mixture. It always tastes complex and satisfying. Salad is all greens, baby field greens, water cress and baby arugula.

And a bonus this week. A Challa braiding tutorial.

Challa looks better when braided into a four stranded braid. Trust me...it just does. Three braid challot tend to look a little undernourished in my opinion. As you can see, the four strands can look lumpy and ugly when you begin. They will look lovely once they are braided.

Starting from about 1/2 way down, bring the left most strand over and under the other strands until you get all the way to the right.

Then, pick up what is now the left most strand and repeat weaving over and under, go back again to that left most strand...until you get to the bottom of the loaf.

Then turn your loaf around so the unbraided side is facing you, and begin braiding from the middle down to the bottom of the loaf .

Here is the challa waiting for the second half of the braiding to begin.

Once you are done braiding, tuck the ends underneath the loaf. They just look cuter that way.

And finally, the challa ,braided ,and ready to do it's second rising.

Connecting with the past

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...

The light themed tallit has been shipped!!!

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...

A Passover loss

My parents bought this tablecloth during their 1955 visit to Israel. It is made out of linen from the first post 1948 flax harvest. The linen is heavy and almost crude. The embroidery is very fine. We used this cloth every Passover until the center wore thin. You can see the cloth on the table in the background of this photo of my parents and nephew My Aunt Sheva bought my mother a replacement cloth. The replacement cloth is made out of a cotton poly blend. The embroidery is crude and the colors not nearly as nice. The old cloth hung in our basement. We used the new cloth and remembered the much nicer original cloth. I loved that my aunt wanted to replace the cloth, I just hated the replacement because it was so much less than while evoking the beauty of the original. After my father died my mother sat me down and with great ceremony gave me all of her best tablecloths. She also gave me the worn Passover cloth and suggested that I could mend it. I did. Year after year ...

Shelley's GardenFebruary 26, 2010 at 11:16 PM
What a beautiful time with your friends this morning. Snow certainly can transform our surroundings. I was 'gifted' a snow shovel yesterday and thought, after seeing your snow photos, that I would have passed it on to you, if the distance wasn't so far!
Sarah JacobsMarch 2, 2010 at 12:52 PM
I am delighted to not own a snow shovel these days. I am a DIY sort of a girl but I'm happy that I no longer have to shovel my own snow.

sarah in nyc

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