Last week and this one

We are now back home and I am trying to organize the last bits of our trip into a coherent post. But before I do, I just want to share one of the most beautiful corners of my neighborhood. I stopped by yesterday on my way from one errand to another.

It's St. Michael's Church. It had been built as a vacation church for Episcopalian Manhattanites who vacationed in northern Manhattan during the second half of the 19th century. One of its rectors was a buddy of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Tiffany designed the windows and one of the alters.

Photographs do not do the space justice.

The dollar store rug-bag I had made worked incredibly well during this trip. Several people commented on the bag and asked if it was for sale, so I plan to make some and see if there is demand for them.

Someone had once quipped about the weather in Boston "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute." The weather in New York is pretty changeable as well. I always advise visiting friends to dress in layers. The changeability in weather in San Francisco makes New York seem completely stable and boring.

Each day I would wear at least one sweater and scarf and carry along another sweater, a big scarf, and a warm shawl. Sometimes I wore everything and a leather jacket. Sometimes I ended up carrying all of the extra clothing in my rug bag and an additional bag.

Last Friday we took the train to Berkley to visit with an old friend of my husband's. They hadn't been in touch for about forty years. We went to the museum and then did a short hike.

Here I am down to one shrug.

The hike was an easy one but the views were spectacular.

After a little while, I was completely layered up, two sweaters, two scarves, leather jacket and wool shawl.

On our last morning, we went to a Vietnamese sandwich shop to buy sandwiches to take on the plane. we loved seeing what was for sale in the shop.

My daughter who reads Chinese assures me that the name of this candy is far more appealing in Chinese.

I always love seeing packages of pork rinds. No, I would never buy them but they are fun to look at. This is how I get my transgressive jollies.

One doesn't need to eat the food to enjoy it.

My husband's sandwich was apparently quite delicious. My sandwich, avocado, and cheese was made out of avocado, a crazy amount of mayo and American cheese. It was in a word, revolting and felt like a bad stereotype of Middle American food. Instead, I ate some of the excellent nuts and tiny tangerines from the farmer's market for my dinner.

It was time to cook Shabbat dinner again.

We are eating spiced chicken with clementines

and a new batch of challah.

We will be eating a big salad and a carb TBA.

Shabbat Shalom!

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...

Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee. If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it. My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid. I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed. A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...

The light themed tallit has been shipped!!!

I had begun speaking to Sarah about making her a tallit in the middle of August. It took a few weeks to nail down the design. For Sarah it would have been ideal if the tallit were completed in time for her to wear it on Rosh HaShanah., the beginning of her year as senior rabbi of her congregation. For me, in an ideal world, given the realities of preparing for the High Holidays I would have finished this tallit in the weeks after Sukkot. So we compromised and I shipped off the tallit last night. I would have prefered to have more time but I got the job done in time. This tallit was made to mark Sarah's rise to the position of senior rabbi but it was also a reaction to this year of darkness. She chose a selection of verses about light to be part of her tallit. 1) אֵל נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה God of awesome deeds ( from a yom kippur Liturgical poem) 2) אוֹר חָדָשׁ עַל־צִיּוֹן תָּאִיר May You shine a new light on Zion ( from the liturgy) 3) יָאֵר יְהֹ...

sarah in nyc

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