sarah in nyc

Preparing for Passover is always a physical challenge. Changing the house over, cleaning the house, getting food for 20 dinners to fit into a not very large fridge... This year came with some additional challenges. My older son who is usually my partner in my Passover prep labors has a full-time job and has to be up by 5:30 am and has to go to sleep early. I miss both the actual help and the companionable company while working like crazy. Getting all of the prep done on my own is doable although less enjoyable without the company of my usual partner in this endeavor. The real challenge this year has been our fridge which has been behaving like a cranky adolescent working only in spurts and only when it feels like it and never up to full capacity.  To be honest none of my three kids were ever behaviorally as awful as my fridge.  Last week after the repairman had left I thought the fridge was back to its usual well-behaved self. I went to Moish...

My older son has a full-time job, which is great. Except that means that he is working full time. Normally that would be great, but it means that we can't change the house for Passover until Saturday night. My daughter is coming to pitch in too. The other sad thing is that this will be our challah this week. You wanted to know what we are eating? Red chicken made with sweet, hot and smoked paprika and some cayenne pepper for good measure and a cauliflower kugel. I used up the last of the potato starch and sugar and used up the last of the cocoa can to make a chocolate pudding studded with fresh blackberries. It is setting in the fridge. As soon as we switch the house I will start the vat-o-soup and the pickled eggs.

When I was pregnant with my youngest I went into labor at 3 months. I was then put to bed for the duration by my doctors. This was not, as you might imagine, a great period in our lives. I was in labor, had two older kids who had a mother functioning on a pretty low level of mothering and a husband with a crazy demanding job with long hours. We muddled our way through that time, with lots of help from friends and family. My friend Judy wisely realized that I needed to keep my hands busy and brought me a copy of the Klutz Press Sculpey book. I made elaborate necklaces for all of my kids' therapists and teachers. It some point, during that time I realized that I needed to sew.  I pieced matching reversible  vests for my kids--all by hand. This is one of them. It was the 90's. It looked less outlandish then. Making these vests was a way to keep me sane during trying times. These vests were also a way of letting my kids know that I cared about them and was th...

I would have been nice to just relax after the wedding, perhaps go to a spa for a couple of days. Alas, the Jewish calendar had other plans for me. Passover is sooooooon and the house needs to be cleaned up and changed over so I can start my marathon cooking. I am going through drawers and cabinets and have unearthed some pieces that are part of the earliest part of my textile collection. Inspired by Roots aired on TV, I just checked and it was 1977, my mother got interested in her family history. She began by asking her sister who was thirteen years older than she was about family stories. My Aunt Sheva (Sophie in English)lived in Jerusalem but would spend the summers here in the states dividing her time between her daughter's home in Brooklyn and our home in Quincy. The two sisters wrote to one another weekly during the year but cherished the weeks they spent together during the summers. At around that time( perhaps a year or two earlier) my mother lent me her mother'...

The wedding took place last Sunday. This picture pretty much sums up the day. By the way, none of these pictures are mine, all were taken by guests I thank them for allowing me to use these images. But since you had asked for details, here goes. The day began with the traditional Kabbalat Panim,  where guests greeted the bride. The groom as at his Tisch or table. The band danced us into the room and I danced guests up to greet the bride. Yes, those are awesome shoes, Chinese New Year in shoe form. The veiling of the bride was a moving moment.  Some of you were wondering what I would be wearing. It took three tries.    Attempt 1 was a skirt and jacket made out of an expensive and beautiful turquoise lace. That ended up looking dowdy. Attempt 2 was this dress which was OK but both of my sisters said that it looked like a good guest dress and not a good dress for the mother of the bride. The third time was the charm. I took a dress that w...

I used to love reading Martha Stewart Magazine when it was a fairly new publication because it was exactly like the experience of talking to someone who was beautiful, seemed delightful and charming but as the conversation continues you realize that what at first glance looked like charm was just a thin veneer over bonkers. You could read directions for making a pretty blanket for your bed but if you bothered to check the fine print you might notice that the pretty blanket was made out of cashmere that cost $300 per yard and you needed about two and a half yards to replicate that adorable project. Or the adorable cartridge pleated curtains somehow had only half of the instructions included in the article. It's a project that is hard even with complete directions but with incomplete directions it is impossible. Today I was thinking about a little aside in a longer article where Martha mentions that her mother made something like 600 napkins for Martha's daughter's wedd...

In German "aufruf" means to call or an invocation. But in Ashkenazi Jewish practice, the Shabbat before the wedding the groom is called up to the Torah and blessing are offered in his honor and in honor of the upcoming marriage. blessings are offered in words and in candy tossed at the groom. In an egalitarian synagogue like ours, both the bride and groom are called to the Torah. So this Shabbat our bride and groom were called up to the Torah. Our groom read Torah for the first time. There are lots of people who have been Jewish since birth who have never read from the Torah scroll. Our groom has been Jewish for about a month and took on this not easy task. Our bride in addition to reading Torah also read the longest haftarah of the year - all while looking entirely glam while wearing a fascinator she had made herself and a pair of delightfully outrageous shoes. I was deeply moved by our groom's commitment to doing the right thing and doing the hard things.  I was s...