sarah in nyc

Tomorrow is my father’s sixth yarhzeit. The morning  my father died I called him.   He asked me if I would be visiting him that day. I told him that I wouldn’t be able to since I was in New York and  he was in Boston.  He then slipped into what I called his “ Darth Vader” voice. Towards the very end of his life when I would speak to him he would slip into a  morphine induced deep throated mutter. After several minutes of Darth Vader he suddenly said “Excuse me, I need to hang up the telephone now”.   Apparently he was going into his final crisis, my sister got a call about five minutes later that it was time to gather at my father’s bedside for the end. My other sister called me and suggested that I fly to Boston. I chose not to because I assumed that if I did, that my day would be consumed with frantic travel and I assumed that I would arrive too late and be left with the eternal sense of having missed the boat.  Instead I stayed home....

Today is Rosh Chodesh Elul, the new moon of the month that precedes Rosh haShanah. Traditionally it is a time for reflection, a time to repair relationships. During the month of Elul the shofar is blown each morning at the end of services to remind people that it’s time to do teshuvah . Teshuvah   is usually translated as repentance. The meaning is less of the Bible thumping sort of repentance but more a sense of reviewing your actions and behaviors of the past year and working on mending behaviors and relationships.   I am blowing shofar on the second day of Rosh haShanah. I use the month of Elul to practice.  I do do  two practices each day. Today was the first day. It sounded good. I also did the lettering for Mike’s tallit.   The text comes from Jonah’s prayer In the wrapping up of my soul with God I pan to add some hand or machine stitching around the letters.  Those little eddies are supposed to indicate water. If you want to list...

My dear buddy Miriam Isserow  is one of the very few of my friends whose mother was good buddies with my mother.  Miriam has many talents, is incredibly smart and is also a serious cook. unlike me, she comes from a long line of serious cooks. One of the profound taste memories of my childhood was a Dobos torte that Miriam’s mother made for a 7th or 8th birthday party.  Miriam has a food blog and her latest post was about egg cooked into Pita Za’atar. you can read her post here . I am also taking advantage of the fact that my sesame allergic son is away at college.   I thought that it might be easier to show how to make the Pita Za’atar. Za'atar is a magical spice mix. It makes everything taste better. You can toss it on chicken or fish or throw some into salad dressing or eggs and they will all taste earthy and Middle Eastern and delicious.   1- Put two cups of water in a microwave and heat for a minute. If your kitchen is warm skip this step. 2- Add ...

Today was beautiful, but a little cool, not quite beach weather. We decided go go someplace I had been wanting to visit for about thirty years, the Socrates Sculpture Garden in Astoria. We took the subway. One of the nice things about taking the subway out to Queens is how spectacular the views are. We walked several blocks along Broadway and passed an astonishing array of restaurants representing the cuisines of  nearly a dozen countries. We got to the Socrates Sculpture Garden. Unfortunately they were between exhibits. But it’s a such a pretty spot sort of half way between being industrial wasteland and being a beautiful bit of nature. We could just spot Columbus Circle across the East River.   I never thought that I would ever eat grapes that I picked next to an abandoned factory in Queens. I loved how this rock looked like wood. We then walked the block and a half or so to the Noguchi Museum. But first we stopped off at Costco ...