sarah in nyc

  We did go to the beautiful Brit Milah on Sunday. It was a short visit filled with many big emotions. The drive home was made an extra two hours long because of terrible traffic. However, I got to see lots of good foliage on the way home. Yesterday I got several hours of good work done on Sarah's light tallit. One stripe is still left to sew on I still have a fair amount of work left to do but getting the job completed on time is seeming like much more of a possibility. Today though--- the news from Israel is making me feel as skittish as the pigeons that have been flitting in a flock from one side of  Broadway to the other. I had to pick up a few things to make one of the desserts for Rosh HaShanah. Most of you have heard of Abraham Joshua Heschel talking about his participating in the march on Selma as "praying with his feet". Today, as I  sliced four pounds of plums to make my version of the traditional German Rosh HaShanah tart I thought about asking my no longer liv...

 These days I am doing everything as fast as I can.  Rosh Ha Shanah starts this weekend I have been cooking, and cooking.  This graniteware turkey roaster normally spends the entire year on a high shelf in my kitchen doing nothing more than holding up two silver plate roast platters until Thanksgiving. This week the turkey roaster was used to make stuffed cabbage (not pictured but bagged and in my freezer), two gant chickens stuffed with limoo (dried limes) and last night I cooked out tzimmis overnight in the oven on low.  If you want my mother's recipe, these are the notes that I took on how to make Tzimmis during a phone call with my mother in maybe 1990. As you look at the list of ingredients...assume more for all of them except for the brown sugar. I cooked the whole thing in the oven overnight at 250.  The pan is now washed and ready to rest until Thanksgiving. I have been working away on Sarah's tallit. Over the last couple of days I have been working on t...

 I woke up this morning at 8:00am. My first thought was "Only twelve hours until dinner!!" Last night I had set up two noodle doughs so I could make two---(Ugh! I need a name for what this dish is!) Let me describe it. It is blintz filling What you see here is cottage cheese, farmer cheese, goat cheese and sour cream. The eggs and flavorings are yet to be added. layered between layers of thin homemade noodle dough. This is my noodle dough rolled really thin, so thin that you can read the words on my silicone mate through the dough. I learned a trick from Samin Nosrat. You roll noodle dough using a really thin rolling pin and roll the dough around the rolling pins,spreading your hands as you roll out the dough. I can't imagine that a hand cranked pasta machine is any quicker. Rolling the dough around the rolling pin (of course the dough is well floured) is just so much easier on your body. I crumbled up some Biscoff cookies and put them in the bottom of the pan  and drizzl...

 Last night we lit the first candles of Chanukah. We were joined by our dear friends Alfie and Judy. My husband met them during his college years. I am new to the game since we have only been friends since 1982. I made latkes, lots of them. I took the opportunity to use last night as a dry run for the latke dinner with our kids later in the week. Our kids are eaters. My my original plan was to make the latkes in the air  fryer but I realized that it would take too long to do the many small batches needed. Instead I baked the latkes in a hot oven with lots of oil on my baking sheets. I made potato latkes. As a kindness to my husband I did the blasphemy of leaving out the onions. I did add shredded carrots for texture and lots of smoked paprika and black pepper for flavor. I made carrot, apple and dill latkes. I also made summer squash latkes with amba powder and sumac. Unfortunately I had baked them at 350 and not 400 which I discovered is the sweet spot for crispy oven baked l...

 Through all of the mad sewing of this past week I still had to get ready for Rosh haShanah.  As always my journey towards self reflection begins with cooking vast quantities of food. I stated this year's journey by consulting the flyleaf of my Settlement Cookbook. These are the notes I took during a long ago rambling conversation with my mother. Do not follow my mother's instructions regarding amounts. The correct amount for each item on the list is more. I  brown the onion and the meat on the stove top and then just put my covered roasting pan in the oven on a low temp---for a long time. This is a before shot. I have replaced the white potato with yucca and other mystery tubers because I love my potato allergic son in law. Here are two stages of after... cooked and then in the freezer. I ended up with three gallons of tzimmes. At some point I baked challah. I didn't have the mental energy for cute shapes. They are round. this year--- that's good enough. The loaves are...