Food Friday and Vivian treasures in purse form

Friday has rolled around again. It's a challah baking week.

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I braided the challot in two ways. The two loaves on the right were braided using two spice filled rolls of dough folded in half an braided together. the two challot on the left were braided using four fat strands.

This is what the dough looks like when it is time to form the dough. It holds the shape of a finer poked into it. It does look like a belly button here.

After the loaves were baked, they looked like this.

I was thinking about the challot we ate last week in Ann Arbor. They were imported from Columbus by my friend Helene. They were good, but like all store bought challah, sort of a different species entirely from a good home baked challah.

And speaking of different species, my friend Vivian, of the various textile treasures bequeathed to me, gave me a new box of treasures. Vivian explained to me that her late grandfather had owned a small leather goods factory in Germany before the war. I don't know the size of the factory but it produced small objects in leather like purses and wallets and I assume eyeglass cases.

A few of the pieces are made in exotic leathers. If any of you have any expertise in exotic leathers, please let me know what I am looking at.

I can't identify the skin on this little bag that is filled with features to make it useful.

In addition to a billfold and a mirror and lots of pocket this bag also contains a small notebook.

This bag which I assume to be alligator or crocodile also has the monogram of the owner. I love the little enameled ornament in the front

This red embossed leather bag is small , but like all of the bags in this collection also has a handle and a mirror tucked into a pocket.

There is more beautiful leather tooling on this bag.

I guess every lady needs a mirror to be sure that no spinach is stuck in her teeth after luncheon.

I love the pebbled leather on this bag. At first I thought it was an eyeglass case..

But it is a little pocketbook sort of a bag.

The front compartment has a pocket to hold the essential mirror and then another with a thin card made out of either celluloid or horn.

It took me a little while to remember what the celluloid card was for, It was a sort of early dry-erase board, you would jot notes in pencil on the card and then wipe it clean. Like so many of the bags, it has a sweet little handle so you can hold the bag and perhaps a drink or a plate of cookies.

The romantic scene has been painted or printed onto silk.

and bordered with a strip of punched metal.

I love that the leather used for the bag is embossed to look like fabric.

Vivian mentioned that these bags were too small to hold a cellphone but I suppose they were large enough to hold a lip stick and taxi fare home.

My favorite bag is made in a variety of leather I have never seen before. Do you know what it is?

The dimples in the leather are much larger than ostrich and are a completely different shape.

I had done a Google search and the closest match I could find is rhinoceros skin. Clearly this bag was made before people in the leather industry (or any one else for that matter) worried to much about endangered animals. This bag is large enough for me to use during a evening to the theater, although it isn't large enough to hold my tablet. The little handle works well and makes it easier to carry.

If any of you have any idea of what I have in this batch of treasures, let me know.

Shabbat Shalom!

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sarah in nyc

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