sarah in nyc

Last Friday our dear friends came to town. We went out to lunch. I was however coming down with a cold so I crawled into bed as soon as we finished luch. I have been sick with what my friend Marla calls the yucks. The yuks tend to be accompanied with large quantities of snot.  The yuks are still with me.   But I have been working.   This challah cover bordered with African mud-cloth is now complete.   I could not be more pleased with how it turned out. Yes, I am particularly aware of the power of using an African textile in a Jewish ritual object during these particular weeks.   I love the graphic impact  the mud cloth adds to the challah cover. I purchased the mud cloth at the African Shuk on 116th street.  Each time I purchase something in one of the stalls at that shuk  the the exchange is always more than just the exchange of cash for goods.  Each purchase always ends with clasped hands and an exchange of blessin...

Yesterday Kira came by to finish tying her tzitzit. She had made a first visit last week but was nearly cross-eyed with exhaustion. Luckily, she lives in the neighborhood so it was easy to reschedule for a time when she wasn’t falling asleep on her feet. Kira wisely decided that her tallit really did need an atara. I made s simple one painting the same scrollwork  motif that I had painted on her pinot /corner pieces. I also stitched on silver sequins on both ends for a little bit  of extra oomph. Kira DID NOT want more text. I like having a bit additional light near the face. She was really pleased  with the result, both of the atara and her tzitzit tying. Last night was the eighth night of Chanukah. Earlier in the week we had given our kids Amazon gift cards. This is what my youngest bought for himself. I think he will actually get a good deal of wear out of them. He plans to wear them as street shoes.] A couple of people wrote to me b...

Last winter I had purchased both the plain and embroidered versions of this soft semi sheer sweater knit from Fabric Mart . The plain version of this fabric is a dress.   I decided to make a cardigan out of the embroidered yardage. You start out by folding the fabric into 1/4’s. The stretch goes east west. Because I’m a little lazy, I cut the sleeves with the body of the sweater. If I were even more lazy I would have not angled the sleeve as I do here, eliminating one additional seam. Feel free to be lazy.   I cut open the front of the cardigan   Then I fixed my cutting error and added wearing ease via gussets inserted in each under arm. I then sewed up all of the seams.   Then I put on the sweater and wore it until bed-time.   I serged around most of the raw edges. I still have not edged the cuffs.   I may leave the edges fairly simple or at some other point add a fancier edge finish. That’s it. A still r...

My youngest came home from college this week. He mentioned that he wanted ribs this Friday night. So, I complied. After all of the Chanukah related fried foods of the week, I limited us to a smaller amount of ribs.  I cooked the ribs in the dregs of two bottles of pomegranate molasses, balsamic vinegar, mustard and a dollop of Korean hot pepper paste and a shot of liquid smoke. I decided to make a relatively simple chicken with this spice mixture Of smoked paprika, sumac and black pepper. all of the chicken pieces got well massaged with the mix. About half way through I remembered my friend Alan Divak getting all dreamy talking bout making sumac chicken on a bed of stale pita. I did have a few home made pitot hanging around so I ripped them up and tucked them under the chicken.  I also added some cubes of stale challah. I cooked the chicken and bread until it looked like this Shabbat Shalom!!

Every morning ( except Shabbat) after I wake up I stumble into the living room to work out.   If you had told me that this would be my morning ritual when I was growing up I would have laughed. I went to a Jewish day school. It was a place where the chess and the debate and the math teams competed fairly well against our Eastern Massachusetts competition.  We didn’t even have sports teams. In elementary school we did have gym. I was so uncoordinated, so weak  and had such terrible eye –hand coordination that even at my school I was always chosen last for any game. When my husband first met me he encouraged me to do yoga stretches. It was something that we did together. Eventually I got into working out.  I used to take some aerobics classes.  I was enthusiastic but was hopeless at remembering any sort of choreography. As soon as I learned part three of a dance move, part 1 would float out of my head. Eventually I bought myself some weights and ...

I know, there are times when it seems like I do nothing but cook. But my hands have not ben involved only with cooking. I removed the border from this challah cover and replaced something that was just OK with African mud cloth from my stash. The mud cloth is a much better choice. I knit a cowl for my daughter. I completed Kyra’s tallit. here are the pinot /corner pieces. This is completed tallit.   The silk is really luscious.  If I ran the universe I would have made an atara/neckband as well. Kyra though seemed really sure of what she wanted. I will see if she changes he mind when she comes this afternoon to tie her tzitzit. OK, a moment about food. last night was the first night of Chanukah.  As I have said before, I am not a big fan of latkes. I was willing to be swayed by the pleading of my family and made a batch.   I also made sweet potato and ricotta cheese latkes. Yes, I made apple sauce. I also made a childhood favorite, cra...

My building's holiday party was this Sunday. I made meringues flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger and with dried cranberries added for a bit of flavor and texture contrast. The party was lovely. people were generous in how much they brought to the pot-luck celebration. Most of a gorgeous vegetable platter was left untouched.   I brought it home, roasted all of the vegetables and made soup. My son commented that it looked like industrial waste but tasted delicious. Actually it looks like the crud I used to clean out of the industrial dish washer back in my dish washing days in college.  It did taste really good despite it’s appearance.   I have Chanukah on the mind and was remembering seeing recipes for cheese kneidlach in some of my older cook books.  There is a tradition to serve dairy at Chanukah because of the Judith and Holofernes story. ( Judith serves salty cheese to Holofernes, he slakes his thirst with lots of wine allowing h...