sarah in nyc

  The Rosh haShanah meals are followed by ironing season. This is just part of what I got through yesterday. I still have a large tablecloth and about a dozen napkins left to iron.  This is what our table looked like on the first night of the holiday. The inside of our holiday challot looked like this. To be honest, not every slice looked quite this cute. Dinner this shabbat is more of what I cooked for the holiday but I will be making some gazpacho we we also ingest some vegetable matter. Yesterday I brought in some boots to be repaired. This was on the wall of the shoe repair place which is actually around the corner from the address in the calendar above. I loved the term "Dead Storage for Automobiles". It took me a minute but I figured out that dead storage for cars is the opposite of live parking. I guess in 1940 it was economically viable to own a car and store it in a long term garage and just take it out occasionally. This is the building that used to house Santini St...

 I hope that all of you had lovely Sedarim, we certainly did. It was wonderful to celebrate along with our nearest and dearest. As I prepared for the holiday I really missed being able to turn to my two cooking buddies Miriam and Shawna. I always loved consulting with each of them as I planned and cooked meals for Passover. Sadly, neither is still in the land of the living.  I especially feel the loss of my friends before the holidays--because now I have to cook without them. I kept thinking about Shawna as I decorated Mrs. Pascal's sponge cake. I topped the cake, (which was the tallest cake I have ever baked-- either of the Passover or the regular variety) with a tart lemon custard. We had a batch of beautiful but sour strawberries in the fridge and I sliced them up to top the cake. I kept thinking about Shawna and how she would approach making this cake lovely for the table.As I sliced and placed the berries I had a conversation with Shawna in my head. She probably would hav...

 I suppose that if I had a stand alone studio for my work that I would show up and work away at just my client work and go home when I was done for the day. Instead, like the work in the pre-industrial world the labors, the one I am paid for and the ones I do to take care of my household just kind of flow into one another.  This morning I knew that I had to set the color on a scarf I had been commissioned to make. Setting the color means lots of long hot steamy ironing with paper between the iron and the painted silk. The color setting works better with a nice padding beneath the work. I also have a healthy stack of ironing that needed to be done. So I began the work of  setting the color by ironing a red plaid cotton tablecloth that had been my mother's. After the tablecloth was reasonably smooth and folded into 1/8ths I started pressing this pretty piece that you see here from the reverse so you can admire the nice stitching. I'm not sure of the original use. perhaps it...

The Jewish holidays mean lots of dinners around here. The dinners call for tablecloths and napkins in addition to all of the food. The aftermath of the holidays always includes masses of laundry and ironing all of that napery. I suppose that it isn't irrational to ask why I don't use no-iron tablecloths like most of the universe and why I don't just use paper napkins. But old linens just seem to show up in my house. I could keep them all boxed away and use an easy-care tablecloth and we would still eat a lovely meal. However, bringing out my mother's Madeira napkins and using them is a way to connect with the things my parents loved. I still haven't been brave enough to use the cloths that came with these napkins. I used the napkins with this tablecloth because I liked how the flowers were embroidered in the color of honey. I thought the cloth would show off the honey in my parents' apple shaped honey jug. I have no idea who BL who embroid...

After a month of three days in a row of Yom Tov I feel like I have awakened from, not exactly a slumber. After all you can't bake four batches of challah, make tzimmis and stuffed cabbage, chickens and lamb along with all of the other parts that make up a meal while sleeping. But I do feel like I woke up and hadn't quite realized that a month had passed. Amazon.com Widgets The holidays were lovely and meaningful this year but the season that begins after the High Holidays is ironing season. There are more table cloths to be pressed. But the job feels less onerous at the moment. Our napkin drawer had become uncharacteristically empty. It is once again filled.  The linen napkins await the iron. I was also able to tend to tasks that had been put off because of the holidays.  I mailed a birthday package to my sister. The post office is around the corner from an old Horn and Hardart building. It took me years to notice the beautiful art-deco decoration on ...