Food Friday and a visit to the thrift

Just a quick post because I need a nap before Shabbat dinner. Today's dinner is all about remote collaboration.

My friend Alan, the excellent challah baker, was sad because his kitchen was too hot while his challot were rising. While I was commiserating with him on Facebook about the frustrations of baking challot in the heat of the summer while cooking other things--I managed to drop a bunch of whole coriander into my challah dough and had to fish it all out and toss it in the trash. I then ground up some dry coriander. You can also see that I glazed my challot unevenly.

I know that the folks eating at our table will not complain. I do know that Alan and I will be grumbling as we taste our challot tonight. We KNOW what has gone wrong. Hopefully, all of my fretting will be internal and I won't be tormenting my guests.

Our older son is joining us. I asked him what sort of chicken he wanted. He suggested the awesome gochujong and Molasses mixture that I had made a while back. Unfortunately, I haven't visited the Korean market for more of that excellent sweet-hot pepper paste. Inspired by my son's wishes I mixed up molasses and hot sauce. I believe I added a couple of other ingredients to the mix but I can't say for sure exactly what I added to the bowl.

I cooked the chicken atop the tiny sweet peppers that were getting exhausted in the fridge. I could pretend that that was a planned addition to our meal, but that would be a lie.

I haven't left the house all week because I have been under the weather. It is my usual sinus crud. I spent most of the week prone on the living room couch. Today I am feeling somewhat better and bought tomatoes from the pushcart guy on the corner of 96th street. They are cooking on a low heat in the oven.

I took advantage of my time out and visited Housingworks, the local thrift. They had this couch with fabulous velour upholstery.

It is one of a pair. I think that if I owned it I would have to own a pair of flowy Quina pajamas with palazzo pants in a pale slate grey and swan through my apartment while I held a glass of Chardonnay in one hand and a Virginia Slims cigarette in the other.

If you are in need of a bridesmaid dress there are many to choose from. All have been donated by the manufacturers. There were more bridesmaid dresses that I didn't photograph.

I am sure that there is a setting where this lamp or its twin would look beautiful

but that place is not my house.

I'm going to wrap this up so I can lie down before Shabbat dinner.

Shabbat Shalom!

Barukh Dayan HaEmet - Blessed be the True Judge

In 1986, when I first began working for my synagogue, one of the volunteers was a teeny little Austrian woman. Ida was so little and cute, you could swear you could just put her in your pocket and carry her around. Ida also babysat for a little girl in our community. When I saw the two of them running around together and laughing as if they were both four, I knew that when I had kids, Ida would babysit for my kids. In order to be sure that Ida would take care of my oldest, I told her I was pregnant at the same time I told my mother. Soon after my oldest was born, Ida was ready. She was silly, but she was also Austrian. She had her rules. She would care for a child only until they could walk. She felt that she was too old to chase children. She would work only twelve hours a week. The baby had to be fed, dressed and ready to go out when she showed up. Ida's rules made sense. It taught me, and my oldest, the value of having a schedule. Ida and ...

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sarah in nyc

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