sarah in nyc

 I have been making good use of the jars of wonderful African marinades that my son in law gave me for my birthday. What I keep tasting in those delicious marinades is the flavors of Indian cooking as introduced to Africa by the Indian folks sent to Africa to administer the British colonies in Africa.  I taste both longing for homeland as well as the excitement of trying new flavors in each and every mouthful. Today's marinade contained this. It went into meatballs. The meatballs we made with lots of chopped parsley and onions that were nuked with olive oil and vaguely Indian spices (turmeric, cumin and coriander) and minced cabbage. Here are the meatballs before being cooked you can see the pale yellow marinade. These African marinades keep reminding me how much of my own cooking is about both memory  (both my own personal memories as well as historical memory ---if that makes sense) and novelty. We are eating the meatballs with rice ( cooked with some spices given to me...

 First a quick round-up of tonight's dinner. My husband had gone to Costco and the while usually you can get kosher chicken in a few different cuts, whole, chicken thighs, chicken bottoms, or breasts, the only offering this last visit was drum sticks.  Any of you who have spent any time hanging out here with me on this blog know that I cook often. I cook chicken most Shabbatot. I tend not to be an anxious cook. A raft of chicken drumsticks had me stumped. Adding to my anxiety is the fact that tonight's guests have never eaten at our table before so I can't even coast on the memory of past excellent meals. I worried back and forth if I should do something crispy and breaded or if I should go for chicken simmered in some sort of sauce. Part of my anxiety is that while drumsticks were my favorite chicken part when I was a young child, not particularly skilled at knives and forks--drum sticks had a handle and even my fancy mother let me just pick up the drum stick and eat it....

I have been part of an online sewing discussion group for something over twenty years. Over that time there are people who I have gotten to know really well even though we have never met in person. We write we share our work with one another and we solve our fiber related problems together. It is inevitable when you do creative work to get stumped by a problem. The joy of being part of a sewing discussion group with really smart members with and really wide range of expertise is that you have a couple of thousand minds to pick when you feel stuck. One of the wise voices on that list belongs to Phyllis who was a pattern designer for the industry and was for a while a wedding dress designer and maker.  She still has her hand in the world of design and craft although no longer in the garment industry. I  have always admired Phyllis' work for its crisp professionalism. Phyllis was in town for a sewing conference and suggested that we meet in real life. We met outside of Metro...