It has been a while

 since I last posted.

Caleb and his mom came by to tie the tzitzit. Since you asked. they were both very happy with the tallit.

That Shabbat I attended Caleb's bar-mitzvah at his synagogue.  Aside from being smart and a good artist, Caleb has a beautiful voice. 

I had only met Caleb wearing his hat and a mask. At synagogue, he was wearing a kippah and when he was reading Torah or leading services he was unmasked. 

It is only as I pulled the photos for this post that I realized why his face was so unfamiliar to me. I had never actually seen his face before.

It was only after I had finished both the Torah mantle and Caleb's tallit that I could go get my second Covid booster shot and risk being laid low by a reaction to it. I am so glad that I waited because a day after my booster I had to nap for five hours in the middle of the day and then remained dragged out for a few more days.

My days have been filled. I have baked several batches of bread.

I have been working away on my next project bits of which you can see through a zip-lok bag. You can see some more progress below

Yes, this is a teaser and there will be much more about this project in another post.

My sister is in town this week. we went to MOMA yesterday.

 

I had never before seen this particular Tiffany lamp. I suppose that if I were a more generous mother I would get this lamp for my Halloween-born oldest child.

The lamp and the painting below were in a room built around the theme of motion and light.

 

On a museum visit, you never know what will catch your eye.  Both my sister and I really liked this odd painting. 

It looked formal and static from a distance. But once you got into the details.....

more questions were raised than answered.

 We sat down in front of Warhol's soup cans.

My sister and I both have lots of graphics work under our belts. We realized that all of the cans and the logo have been silk-screened and that all of the soup name letterings have been hand drafted. The fleur de lis have all been hand stamped on using a commercially made stamp and hand-printed.

All of the brush strokes on this painting are in fact ...

paint brushes.

We did join the crowds

to see the exhibit about Matisse's The Red Studio. 

Later in the day,
we traveled to Mecca. Not really. We did go to Rego Park to...

We knew that my sister would love this place...and she did. We were able to entice your youngest to join us. We didn't have to work very hard.

You can see his face distorted in the neck of the tarragon soda bottle. 

My sister was less delighted by the soda than we are. For us, it is essential to the enjoyment of a Central  Asian meal. 

You are not seeing food on our plates because we have eaten it. I think that this photo was taken between rounds of meat on skewers. Yes, it was all excellent. I ate quail and it was a revelation. We also ate fried brains that reminded us oddly enough of jack fruit patties.

Just before we went into the subway we saw this lovely sunset.

Today I baked a pie for Shabbat dinner. The crust has lots of lemon peel and limoncello in it. The custard is made with the juice of two lemons and is thickened with tapioca starch. Coconut milk stands in for the milk element of the custard. 

I placed the whole blackberries into the hot-cooked custard. The bottoms of the berries should be slightly cooked while the tops stay beautiful.

 For me, this is the perfect summer dessert.

These days my heart has been heavy. My dear cousin David is gravely ill. 

He is the sweet little boy in these photos. So many of us are reciting Psalms for דוד אברהם בן אלישבע לאה, hoping that perhaps it will help along with the excellent medical care he is receiving.