sarah in nyc

My oldest son is leaving next week for his stint in the Israeli Army. I have been making Cholesterol death Kugel to bring for Kiddush on Shabbat, after services. So far, I have made four. I still need to make one more. But, as I keep making the kugel over and over again, I keep being struck by how well structured this recipe is. In my book, a real recipe that has been created by a real home cook is structures so that each step dovetails into the next so you can go about your business setting up each stage of the cooking, and the the next piece is ready to go just as you need it. So with the kugel, you preheat the oven with 1/2 a stick of butter in the cooking pan. then you put up the pot of noodles. Then you begin mixing the custard. Just as the oven beeps to let you know it is preheated, the butter is melted and ready to pour into the custard. As soon as that is mixed in, the noodles are ready to be drained. The nice thing about a recipe like this is that you have very little wasted...

Twenty years ago, before the age of easy access graphics on desk top printers most neighborhoods had their local print shop to help folks put out their fliers and brochures and invitations.  Now that any idiot can put together a flier with nifty graphics there are fewer local printers. Diane ( Noah's mom) asked for some help in finding a printer. The businesses I had used for previous invitations had closed their doors. I then looked through the yellow pages. There I found a familiar nae, that of a printer I had used in my days as Synagogue Program Director. I called them, to see if the invitation was the sort of job they were willing to do. They were. I set up an appointment for today. Diane and I met on the corner where the printer used to be. Diane, who unlike me, has a cellphone found their new address and we quickly got to the right place. Within a few minutes it was very clear that we were talking to someone who spoke our language, someone who understood the sort o...

Some days, it feels like have gotten nothing done. This is when having this blog comes in handy. As I think about what to post, it forces me to look back at my day and account for my day. Today I woke up before 5:30 because my youngest had to be awakened to be at school early for a class over night trip. I made him breakfast, ( with hot chocolate made with grated Callebaut chocolate and lots of vanilla) got him out the door for his trip to the country in the driving rain. I made a flyer for a building light bulb recycling project and tended to other building board work. I did a silly Bollywood dance workout video. I also made the first of five Cholesteral Death Kugel's that I'm making to serve this Shabbat after services as part of our goodbye for our oldest son. At this point, it was 9:30 am. I went to a rainy grave-side funeral in New Jersey. I also found a printer to do the print work on the invitation that I'm designing. Then I got to work on a second draft of t...

My oldest son wanted to go see the Roy Lichtenstein  drawings show at the Morgan Library. My son is leaving for Israel for his Army stint in less than two weeks. I'm not likely to say no to very much  that he might ask for these days. So if he asks to do something that I would love to do anyway, I'm delighted. Until today I had a vague fondness for Lichtenstein's work. He was among the first artists whose work I could identify as a little kid. My parents took me to several Pop Art shows when I was five or six. Later on, when I was at brandeis, their Rose Art Museum had several nice examples of his work. From the Art Institute of Chicago My son is really into comic books, which is, I assume the appeal of the show to him.  This show at the Morgan really brought out how laugh out loud Lichtenstein was. Seeing this exhibit was the equivalent of eating a small, really spicy delicious dish. It left us completely satisfied.

This is my youngest performing in Union Square . Lately, he has been performing in Times Square with his best friend on a teeny guitar. They chose to perform in front of Toys R Us because they figured that it was safer for a couple of kids, than performing in front of the peepshows. A few weeks ago, when they were performing, a policeman angrily told them to leave. They did. The next day I called 311, the city information line, and found out the rules about street performing. Street performances are allowed as long as they are not amplified. Certain other regulations come into play if you play in a park. As far as we could see, the kids were within their rights to be playing where they were. Last Sunday, they went back. The same policeman came back and threatened to arrest the kids if they should ever appear there again. The kids went to our local police precinct and asked what they ought to do. The staff there gave the boys the number of the Mid-Town South precinct. Monday...

I realize, that most Tuesday mornings, I iron. It's not a job that I particularly love. It's a job that I do. Usually, my ironing session is made up of the table cloths used the previous week. Since we are in  Jewish Holiday season, my stack of ironing included lots of men's dress shirts. Again, not a task I love, but there is a certain satisfaction in turning the crumpled into the smooth. Growing up, my mother used to say that she did her best thinking while vacuuming or ironing. Today while I was pressing the large stack of table cloths and shirts I was working on figuring out the next big piece . I was asked to create a parochet/ark curtain for the local Solomon Schechter  School. The 8th grade girls ( they are all girls in this class)donated a portion of their bat- mitzvah gift money to create a parochet for their school's new synagogue space. Last week I met with the girls twice. We looked at the texts that are said while the ark is "active", just bef...

This post is for Alan, who requested the recipe at last night's break-fast. My mother began making this kugel once she moved to Quincy in 1957. I assume that it came from one of my parents' congregants. My parents used to host elegant Saturday evening get- togethers for fellow rabbis and their wives. This kugel was often served. The kugel was so emblematic of my mother's cooking that my cousin made a pan for me to eat right after my oldest was born. She felt badly that my mother couldn't be at my side, so she made the kugel to create my mother's presence. My parents' first pulpit was in Halifax, Nova Scotia. For the 50th anniversary of the congregation,a really wonderful community cookbook was put together. I have a precious collection of community cookbooks. This Shaar Shalom cookbook is probably one of the best. It combines community history and photographs along with the recipes. I'm sure that you can order it from them. ShaarShalom@eastli...

Some of you will be sustained tomorrow by the power of the ancient prayers. Others may need a reminder of what awaits you at the end of the journey

Yesterday, I finished Ella's tallit. A nice way to head into Yom Kippur, with an obligation completed. I am so looking forward to her showing up to tie the tzitzit. The tallit feels nice on the body. It's fairly light weight but it has just enough heft. Yesterday, I also made the Cholesterol Death Kugel with which we usually break our fast. But this time I made the noodles. I used semolina flour for the first time. The semolina makes a really stiff dough. It was hard work to roll out. The pasta dough didn't want to go through the pasta roller, so I rolled it out by hand. It's a good thing that I'm strong. We are breaking the fast at a friend's house. I'm grateful to not be reponsible for the entire meal. Yesterday, I received an email from a cousin wishing me an EZ fast. The concept made me laugh. It made me think of doing an EZ fast at a drive through synagogue. Many friends taper off their usage of caffeine before Yom Kippur to avoid the inevi...

A necklace for an August birthday, pearls and crystal beads When we were kids, it was hard to buy gifts for my parents  whose taste was far beyond the budget of small girls with a small allowance. At some point, my parents let us know that the preferred gift was something made, rather than something purchased.  In theory, this was great. A poem, a song, a clever card a hand made gift are all lovely to produce ( and to receive). The difficulty is, that in my family, the celebrations were all bunched up together.  Beginning in May with mother's day ( and my birthday ) it was  a constant line up of events to celebrate. June was a terror. Both of our parents were born in June.  They got married in June. Father's day is in June. My father liked to celebrate not only his birthday on the secular calendar, he also like to have his Hebrew birthday marked, as well as the anniversary of his bar mitzvah which had both a Shabbat as well as falling on the second day o...

When Ella and I first met to discuss her tallit, we had thought that the verse on the atara/neckband would be " And I will increase your offspring, like the stars of the sky."  As we refined the design, we all realized that that text from her Torah reading, would serve better on the corner pieces. We decided that each corner would hold one ( or two ) words, so when Ella gathers the fringed corners in her hands, as we do, during services, the entire verse would appear complete in her hands. Often, when I do text on pinot/corner pieces, I use a short verse of maybe three or four words. When I do that, I paint each word along one edge of the corner. If I do it correctly, the letters interlock and just look awfully cute. One word on each corner presented a bit of a design challenge. I had realized too late, while working on a previous tallit that the words would look best written in a tight circle around the eyelet that will be in the center of the corner piece. I tried t...

We just came off of two days of holiday followed by Shabbat. That means lots of meals. Followers of this blog have seen lots of the prep work that went into those meals. Given how I was brought up, it isn't enough to cook a good meal, the presentation of that meals matters a whole lot as well. Each meal is presented with a set table. Each table is set with  an table cloths and appropriately selected cloth napkins. During the week, those napkins are every day napkins that may or may not get starched and ironed. For holiday meals I go into my stash of vintage napkins. Today I was ironing the napkins from all of those meals. While I ironed, I remembered other meals eaten with those very napkins. Some of those napkins came into my life early in my marriage. Others came into my life via Mary, Uncle Irving''s long -time girlfriend. Those have been used in our house for the past nearly twenty years. When my mother closed up her house, she gave me many of her table cloths an...

Cousin Jimmy's gift Several days after I mailed Cousin Jimmy his gift, I received a very polite phone call from him thanking me  for the birthday present. There was a certain lack of enthusiasm in his voice. Sometimes, even when you make a gift thinking hard about who the recipient is, it just plain misses. As the maker of the gift you just have to accept that risk. It is disappointing, but you just have to live with it. Last night, Cousin Jimmy called. He began the conversation by telling me that I was smart. Then he told me that he had puzzled out the Hebrew and realized that it was the piece of the morning service that had stuck with him the most, the part that had gioven him the most trouble to pronounce, the piece that was so identified with him that his rabbi's children call him "tamideihon  v'talmidei talmidehihon" The students and their students. It took a little while, but now that Cousin Jimmy gets the joke, he really loves his gift.

For many years, I ate either no meat or very little meat. Then I had kids. My oldest, as a teeny kid would go through months when meat had no appeal and then  inhale a huge quantity of meat. My older son has always adored meat.  One of my kids' favorite meal is one we call " Cave Man  Shabbat", it's beef ribs cooked  in barbecue sauce. My repertoire of vegetarian meals has gotten quite small. One of our guests told me when she accepted my invitation that she is a vegan. When mulling over what to make,  I decided to make vegetarian stuffed cabbage, but I wanted it to have a meaty mouth feel. So ran a large onion, several celery ribs and lots of mushrooms through the food processor. I cooked the mixture on the stove in some olive oil, with a shot of booze to deepen the flavor. Then I added bulgher wheat as both as a thickener, and also because it feels like chopped meat. I spiced the mixture like I do chopped meat, and even added a shot of smoke fla...

here are the napkins I made for Susie, wrapped in tracing paper. I love the translucent waxy look. If you look carefully at the ower photo, you can see the napkins. A simple card to go along with the gift. If I mail them today, they will arrive in time for second day lunch.

I made stuffed cabbage today. For the first time, I didn't have trouble separating the leaves. I realize that the answer is to really core out the bottom of the cabbage. The cabbage is filled with a sweet and sour chopped meat with rice and raisins. yes, it is a bother, but so worth it. I also needed a new dress, something boring to wear with cardigans or jackets. Some of my other boring dresses are getting tired. So, now we have a bit more to serve at out holiday table, and I have something appropriate to wear.

I put Ella's tallit on my dressmaking dummy to get a sense of how it will look when completed. I'm pretty happy with the results. I still need to finish the hems and make the atara /neckband and the pinot /corners.

Although I have always liked to work with my hands, and think of myself as an artist, I don't draw particularly well. I'm pretty good at design. Drawing is more of a challange for me. When I have to create something that actually looks like something out in the universe, I turn to Google Image to lend me a hand. I download the image I need, and then draw it over and over until my hand understands what to do. It is far easier for me to work from a two dimensional image, than from three dimensional real life. Ella's tallit is made up of a water element, that's really easy for me to create, grapes, again, a no brainer, and grape leaves and wheat stalks. The wheat was easy to handle, the grape leaves gave me pause. I large photograph of a grape leaf was my guide and I painted all the grape leaves with a dry brush on the tallit. Today I began filling in those grape leaves. I added salt to create darker areas that mimicthe puckered surface of a grape leaf. I'm feeli...