sarah in nyc

 My aunt and cousin were in town and they invited me to lunch at a beautiful restaurant in midtown. I took the subway there but on the way to my subway stop, I took photos. The next storm may blow all the pretty foliage away. The little building with arches was built as a public restroom but is now a community art gallery with occasional shows.  I got off the subway at Central Park South and 59th Street and then walked along the park. I took these photos from the street looking over the wall along the park. Central Park is as much a designed space as Disneyland. It is designed to be as photogenic as a beautiful young actress with no bad angles. The restaurant we ate at was equally photogenic.  The restaurant walls were lined with large serving platters. This photo is from the restaurant website. We ate in the room just beyond the glass doors seen in the photo above. Each of the vases/lanterns was decorated with a pierced illustration of a new York city building or bridge....

  Today I had to go to the post office to mail off Chanukah gifts for my great nieces and nephews. I got to the post office about half an hour before closing and the line was nearly out the door. I took this photo at the end of my block while I was on my way. One might have expected the post office to be positively bristling with cranky energy. Instead, the three women in front of me were laughing and chatting. They were all quite a bit older than me. I assumed that they were neighbors who had either met by chance in the post office or had planned to do this unpleasant chore together. Just before I turned the corner to the post office But after several minutes one of the trio a woman who looked remarkably like my late mother-in-law asked me my name. The three women had met on the line and turned it into a party. All three had been social workers. Two had spent their careers working with the homeless population of New York.   The line moved slowly because there was only on...

 Dear friends from out of town will be joining us tonight for Shabbat dinner. One thing that I learned from my mother is that you can express how much you have missed your friends and how happy you are that they are with you by serving them a beautiful meal. The chicken portion of dinner is flavored with Herbes de Provence that have been zhuzhed up with additional herbs and the juice of a couple of Meyer lemons. My hands and the house all smell of Meyer lemons. I flavored our rice with cardamom and a tiny bit of rose water. It isn't photographed because it looks like white rice but will be all fragrant. I roasted some chickpeas with za'atar sumac black pepper, fresh Meyer lemon and a bit of liquid smoke. I decided to bake a cake. I had watched the latest episode of The Great British Bake-Off while I was working out and was reminded of how any food looks fancier if it involves layers. So I baked a simple 4 egg sheet cake ( called shit cake by my father).  My mother was serious ...

 My dear friend Rachely spent a few years living in Boston and then returned to Israel where she has been living since she was thirteen or so. Those three years of New England autumns created an annual hunger for the color of turning leaves for Rachely.  I am posting these photos for her, but you are welcome to enjoy them as well. The photo below is both about the yellow leaves and the excellent shadows cast by this sculpture, a steel rendition of  crochet  lace. A street-level view of the trees I see from my living room windows. The photo above is not of fall foliage but of a sign held by a local zealot. i have som many theological and grammatical issues with his sign. Is he saying that God doesn't have the power of forgiveness? Do people not have the ability to forgive one another? This sign needs punctuation for clarity

 There are some signs that the pandemic is easing.  Next week our kids are joining us in person for Thanksgiving. Last year I made Thanksgiving dinner for our usual guests, my husband distributed the food and we all ate together on Zoom. This year, thankfully, we will celebrate all around the same table.  Last week we did something we hadn't done since the pandemic hit. We attended a performance. Our son's college buddy  Pete Stegemeyer  organized and performed a Veteran's Day stand-up comedy show to benefit an organization that provides free therapy to veterans. We sat in a room with other people and got to be part of a communal audience for the first time since March 2020. We have consumed an enormous amount of Netflix over the past many months but there is something so deeply HUMAN about being part of an audience with other living and breathing humans. Since the dam was broken we attended on Saturday night. It is still in previews and is a compelling thought-...

 Today I am feeling like this is a luxurious Friday. I didn't get out of bed until 9:30. I decided to clean my oven. Shabbat starts at 4:22. I can face Friday as a lady of leisure because nearly all of the food I am serving tonight was made last week. Lately, my Friday morning workout has been accompanied by watching The Great British Bake-off.  This week's episode was all about making desserts that were dairy-free and gluten-free and vegan. The first challenge of the episode of dairy-free ice cream. I watched the bakers with great interest. I have been making pretty good dairy-free ice cream for ages. When this was a new adventure for me I used to substitute soy milk or almond milk for the dairy.  I find that I hate the beany undertaste of soy milk and soy-based ice creams. Additionally, my youngest  is both soy and nut allergic. Oatmilk was not then commonly available. I no longer remember exactly how I stumbled onto the idea of using cooked starch to create a silk...

 One of my readers, Viviene, asked for my challah recipe.  I had started baking challot maybe twenty-five years ago with memories of my father's excellent challah in my memory and Mollie Katzen's Racheley's Challah  recipe at hand. The Mollie Katzen recipe was a good starting point for me. Over the years my recipe has evolved enough so I can comfortably claim this as my own. I often will post photos of the challot I am making for that week's Food Friday post. The photos here were taken over several years. Tools dough/bench scraper large bowl( I use metal because it is lightweight) tea towel to cover the challah and dough large baking pan parchment paper large mixing spoon teaspoon, tablespoon and measuring cup  Ingredients 3.5 cups water 1 tsp yeast 6 eggs(plus one for glazing the challot before baking) spices(coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, ginger) vanilla 1 cup oil( I use olive oil but a different mildly flavored oil will work fine) 1 TBS s...