Working and Cooking

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 time. You don't have to rush around desperately hoping that you don't miss a crucial moment in the cooking, nor are you left with lots of hanging around time.

Below you see the beginning of the parochet/ark curtain . I decided, as much as possible to dye the wool directly. It was all still very wet when I took this picture. I will see how much color i will need to add once it is dry.

Like most days in my life, my time alternates between domestic tasks and work. I have to go shape the challa. Chag Sameach!!!

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מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

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...

Connecting with the past

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Food friday - your grandmother's food processor

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sarah in nyc

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