Food Friday - a birthday dinner

It finally feels like fall.

My daughter is celebrating her birthday with us tonight. Her actual birthday is in a few days but she will be far away on a well-deserved vacation.

My older son made much of the meal.

I was charged with making dessert. My daughter adores pumpkin. So tonight's meal includes

Pumpkin non-dairy ice cream studded with spicy candied walnuts.

These nuts are dangerous. They seem to fly into my mouth when I am not paying attention.

I also made

pumpkin pie with a nut crust in a rectangular pan. I began making pie in a rectangular pan because for some reason my husband much prefers to eat pie in this shape rather than the traditional round pie with triangular slices. It turns out that rectangular pie is now a thing in the world of food blogging. It is known as hand pie. You can call it anything you like.

The pie on its own was not that beautiful. This issue needed to be addressed.

I made a vanilla custard with soy half and half. Each dollop of custard is topped with a candied walnut. I think the flavors will contrast nicely.

And now a new topic. We seem to have entered the stage in our family when we are welcoming new babies. There are gifts to be made.

This sweater is nearly done. It is made out of two layers of soft thin printed sweater knit.

Yes, it is reversible.

I still have to figure out the closure. For the moment I am auditioning this sweet sweater hook set.

Shabbat Shalom!

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מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

וְנֶאֱמָן אַתָּה לְהַחֲיוֹת מֵתִים: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Resurrector of the dead. That particular line is recited at every single prayer service every day three times a day, unless you use a Reform or Reconstructionist prayer book . In those liturgies instead of praising God for resurrecting the dead God is praised for giving life to all. I am enough of a modern woman, a modern thinker, to not actually believe in the actual resurrection of the dead. I don't actually expect all of the residents of the Workmen's Circle section of Mount Hebron cemetery in Queens to get up and get back to work at their sewing machines. I don't expect the young children buried here or the babies buried here to one day get up and frolic. Yet, every single time I get up to lead services I say those words about the reanimating of the dead with every fiber of my being. Yesterday, I e...

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sarah in nyc

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