sarah in nyc

I have a vivid memory from the fall of third grade. It was soon after Sukkot. My friend Miriam and I were standing by our cubbies and one of our teachers brought Miriam an etrog. Miriam told me that her mother was making etrog jam. Various members of our school community gave Miriam etrogim to bring home. When the jam was ready, Miriam's mother would distribute jars of the jam to everyone who gave an etrog in to help the process. Amazon.com Widgets I was entirely charmed. First of all I had never known that anyone could actually make jam at home. I loved the idea of taking something so essential for the holiday and transforming it into something wonderful rather than tossing it after the holiday. Miriam's mother Rachelle was an old buddy of my mother's from her Brooklyn days. Rochelle was renown for her excellent skills in the kitchen. My mother had grown up in a house with a terrible cook and had carefully learned how to cook. Rachelle had grown up in a home where good...

This is a post that will have appeal to the sewing geeks among you. If you don't care about garment construction, don't bother reading the rest of this post.   Yesterday one of my sewing buddies wanted to know how I figured out where to place the darts in  my daughter's birthday dress. I had learned  a cool method from  this book Amazon.com Widgets Which you can download from Amazon for not very much money, or buy on Google play for even less money. I am using paper for this tutorial because I am not making a dress today. This is your basic A line dress shape. It already has a crease down the center because you have probably cut your dress out on a fold. You will need that crease later. Fold the dress where you want the starting point of your waist dart. Press that fold well.  Do the same for the ending point of that dart. Then fold the dress on that center line. Waist darts are often put in line with the top shoulde...

 My daughter's birthday is Halloween.  Like lots of religious Jews, we were brought up with a certain ambivalence about  about the day. My mother used to run home from Hebrew School on Halloween so she wouldn't get beat up. My sisters and I were not allowed to go trick or treating, but we were allowed to dress up and answer the door in costume. Amazon.com Widgets When my oldest was born on October 31, all of my parents' ambivalence about the day went out the window.  They regularly bought my daughter Halloween themed stuff. They got serious about the day. For my daughter who loved dressing in costume all the time, there was no better day for her to have been born. Not only was her birthday a day when everyone dressed up, all of your neighbors gave you candy. A few years ago, I had purchased a length of black stretch cotton embroidered with silver spider webs, My daughter loved the fabric. I wasn't sure exactly what garment I would be making from it, but clearly...

Amazon.com Widgets It was our last opportunity this year to plead for our lives, for the earth for all of us before those gates of heaven closed. It always feels so close to the edges of pagan practice, so primal so ancient. We circled with our lulavim and etrogim. We called out Hoshannah! God! save us! We whomped our willow branches. The room filled with the green, green smell  of the willows. The year has now truly begun.

The sweet baby in yesterday's post made tonight's chicken. Amazon.com Widgets It's cooked in za'atar  and lime. My husband deeply misses our kids from their baby years. Perhaps because he was working long, long hours in those days and I was home with the kids, I much prefer hanging out with the adult  version of those sweet babies. I am also grateful to have my son cook while I am still under the weather. I made a lazy side dish of potatoes and vegetables roasted in last week's chicken juice. This is what I did. A little bit of chicken fat from last weeks chicken juice and a cut up onion, popped into the oven as the chicken cooks and I cut up more of the vegetables. My friend Alan probably would have used more chicken fat, or at least saved the rest to use on other food. I tossed the rest of the fat. Sorry Alan. Potato wedges are added to the pan along with tomatoes  and mushrooms ( not yet pictured) Here is the container of chicken juice, min...

This photo was taken in December of 1991. It's of my older son. I suppose that if you aren't me and look at this picture you see a sweet faced baby boy with a giant smile on his face. Of course I see the sweet face, and that killer smile ( and of course my son's beloved Blue Blanket just behind him). I also remember that day. It had come after months of  of one childhood sickness after another. On the day this photo was taken my son was really sick with the flu. He had at this point lost quite a bit of weight. He would have an occasional well day, but most of his days he had a bad ear infection or was struggling with his breathing. And still there he was completely sweet tempered with that delicious smile. (This is a photograph so you can't hear his laugh though I can't help but hear that laugh when I look at this picture)  Is it any wonder that I tell my son that I wish that he has kids who are like him, so he could experience just what a sweet k...

Many sewing/craft blogs out there seem to be run on the review economy. That is, manufacturers send free stuff to the blog owner who gives a positive review about the free stuff and then the blog owner is then sent more free stuff to review...  Amazon.com Widgets When I write about a fabric store or a book in glowing terms, it's because it is something that I love, not something that I have been paid to love. Several weeks ago I received an email from a Dutch sewing pattern magazine company asking me to review their magazine on my blog.  Made By oranges produces two magazines, which features patterns for women and  which features clothing for kids, from preschool to pre-teen. European pattern magazines, unlike American pattern magazines typically feature a pull out section with all of the patterns for all of the garments in the magazine.You get a whole lot of bang for your buck.  There are a fair number of pattern magazines based in Europ...

This is the holiday intensive season of the year.   Amazon.com Widgets  My husband and son went to the Lower East Side to buy a lulav and etrog.  Some years the etrogim available are a little bit sad, greenish shriveled and not quite full of הדר, splendor and glory.  This year's etrog is pretty magnificent.  It's hard to imagine a better looking etrog. Dear friends from Israel are joining us tonight. I made chicken, trying to recreate the mind-blowing chicken my son made a few weeks ago with paprika, cayenne pepper and lots of freshly squeezed lime. If I get close to the fabulous chicken my son made I will be happy. We are also eating these roasted Brussels sprouts. My son and I prefer them more charred. My husband prefers them less charred. I think this is a good compromise. The challah still has to bake. The oven is currently occupied with a plum tart (almond crust, and a layer of pureed apricot under the plums), and will be baked as soon as the ...

Yes, I'm still sick. This cold is like one of those slow moving storms. It isn't that the storm itself is that strong but the fact that it keeps hanging around makes it bad. Amazon.com Widgets So, we didn't have company and it was just a simple meal for the three of us with enough left over for additional meals. Tomatoes are roasted to add to salad. I also had to leave something off at a friend's apartment. I love my friend's lobby. It looks like the interior of a jazz era ocean liner. Even the elevators are beautiful. Isn't that dark red enamel work amazing? The interior of the elevator cabs match the lobby. It's rare to find the original cabs in an art-deco building. Often the elevator cabs had bad upgrades( Formica) in the 1960's or 70's and the beautiful wood work is lost. It's always nice to see my friends but their lobby is always an extra bit of wonderful.