sarah in nyc

First uptown.  I'm loving the ornate street lamps along 116th street. Earlier this week I had a down town adventure with my friend Alix. We had initially planned to go to the Whitney near the Highline. The line was depressingly long so instead we decided to wander. Happily, Alix is as much of an architecture geek as I am. This building seemed to have dragon themed decorative details I loved the towers on top of this building. We both had a satisfying adventure looking at stuff. Amazon.com Widgets

Makom kavua  is a Hebrew term for having a set spot to sit in synagogue. I remember  my teachers in elementary school and high school urging us to select a makom kavua   for services. I also remember how you could get one of your classmates to move out of a seat in the school synagogue by claiming the spot as your makom kavua. Amazon.com Widgets My father's  makom kavua at Temple Bet El on Shabbat was on the bima. During the week he sat in the first seat on the left hand side of the aisle. When my father attended morning services when he visited me in New York he had his seat as well. Once when my parents were visiting me I attended Friday night services with my father. I sat next to my father. He then turned to me and asked me if the spot where I was sitting was my makom kavua,  it wasn't. So my father told me that I ought to go sit in my usual seat. I did, because frankly, I was more comfortable davening from my spot. For my father, sitting in you...

Today I have done a whole lot of cooking. Amazon.com Widgets By volume this is what I have made today. chocolate pudding - one gallon London broils 2, sliced  Yes, they are now cooked and sliced, you see them now massaged with spices and ready to be cooked. meat balls- 2lbs rice,quinoa and barley pilaf - one 9 x 13 pan cranberry apple tarts 2- 9 x 13 pans They look different but are essentially variations on the same theme. Think of a black dress worn with two different scarves. I still have to make the collard greens for tonight. My workout awaits me although I was bopping around during the interminable stirring of the chocolate pudding. Shabbat Shalom!

Our dear friends are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. They are hosting a giant party on Sunday and asked me to make chocolate pudding for 50. I was happy to fulfill this request. Our friends have been so kind to us I would have gladly done anything they asked, even if it were unpleasant. Making a dinner sized portion of pudding for say a dozen people is something I could do even without drinking my morning coffee.  Making pudding for 50 needed some figuring out. Amazon.com Widgets First I had to figure out how much I had to make.  Luckily we live in the age of Google and I found out that 2 1/2 gallons of ice cream is the right amount to serve for 50 if you are serving other stuff. My friend has been consulting with me at morning services. He wanted a dark chocolate pudding, not milk chocolate. Please, I shouldn't make the pudding too sweet. This request came with a face that was revolted at the thought of an overly sweet chocolate pudding. I thought ab...

Before you, in this photo are some of the things I thought were spectacularly beautiful when I was five years old. This creamer came with a teapot that was used at every meat meal of my early childhood until it broke when I was in grade school. We never used the creamer. When my sister and I were closing out my mother’s apartment I took the creamer. Nearly fifty years after thinking that the roses and the gold(!) edging were just about the most beautiful thing in the world, I have to admit that this creamer is sort of hiddy. And yet, I took it home to New York with me to remember all of the time I spent admiring the rose covered teapot as my father poured all of us our after dinner cups of tea. The two embroidered cloths beneath the ugly creamer come from luncheon sets that my mother used for august occasions. A luncheon set is a set of matching placemats, napkins and table runner. You might use a luncheon set while you were serving luncheon to your elegant friend...

As I type this a really difficult week has come to an end. One family member was in the hospital and was really quite sick. Amazon.com Widgets At the end of the week another relative died. All in all, it was a lot. Clearly I am leaving out most of the complicated twists and turns of the week. But early this morning we drove to a hillside in New Jersey overlooking the Meadowlands to bury our relative. And now we are home and soon it will be Shabbat.

I’m starting this post with some sights along Broadway, first this display of giant bears seems to me like it would terrify a small child. Now that Chanukah is over the sun rises just a bit earlier and once again the early morning light bounces off the yellow brick facing of buildings on the west side of the street in a great way. For some reason my camera had trouble focusing at first. I like this atmospheric looking shot. And now, back to work, that is my work. The havdalah bags are completed. One is being picked up tomorrow and the other two are available for purchase. I am also working on Jane’s tallit using lace from her grand mother’s trousseau. I have backed each of the lace strips with the silk and metallic shantung. I had to repair some of the lace. Luckily I have had experience repairing other old lace. The body of the tallit is a wonderful raw silk in a herringbone weave. I am trying to pre plan for some construction issu...

Last night was the last night of Chanukah. Just three of us were home last night. One of the things that is wonderful about city life is the fact that you can fulfill the public display aspect of the mitzvah of lighting Chanukah candles in a really good way.  Our kitchen is across a courtyard from another apartment building. Several floors worth of our building can see our lit Chanukiyot.I would guess that more people see our candles across the courtyard on one Chanukah night, than the total number of people who saw our candles on Presidents Lane during all of our years of lighting candles there. It has been unseasonably warm for the past few days. This morning I walked to services in deep fog. I managed to clean the wax off of our chanukiyot. Lots of boiling water did the trick.  I also have to make a new batch of havdalah bags. I needed to create fabric for the borders. There was some black satin in my stash that was perfect for the job. My goal...