sarah in nyc

While there are many mitzvot that I do well I am terrible at counting the Omer. Each year on the second night of Seder my husband looks forward to counting the omer because it is the one time we know we always count it. Although this year I have continued our family tradition of forgetting to count each day, our maror plant is still thriving. I am using the maror to mark our time from Pesach to Shavuot. When I made my father's chicken soup for Pesach one of my readers commented about how much she detests turnips, one of the ingredients in our soup. I agreed with her that turnips on their own can be really dreary.  We subscribe to Misfits Market. When you subscribe to Misfits you get a box of random organic fruits and vegetables. I get a box every other week. This week's box included two turnips. I cooked tonight's chicken on a bed of shredded turnips and parsnips and onion. I added thinned down amba ( pickled mango paste) to the pan. The shredded veg...

Usually, when I make a tallit I meet with the person who will be wearing the tallit. As we talk, I can pick up verbal and non-verbal cues that help me design the final piece. Right now I am working on a tallit that is a bit different. I am meeting with the person who is giving the tallit and not the person who is receiving the tallit. This makes my task a bit more difficult. I look at my notes from the meeting. The words blue/grey, blue/silver, many shades of blue and quiet/Zen keep showing up. The buyer of the tallit loved a bit of slate blue-grey silk. That bit of silk was small and has been block printed for a different project. I don't have any more of that exact bit of silk-- I do have grey silk but with a greenish cast.  I have one small bit of sapphire blue silk that is a shot silk, that is the warp threads are bright blue and the weft threads are black and that silk makes the grey read a bit bluer rather than greenish. The tallit needs to read as something quiet and ...