sarah in nyc

 Today I am feeling like this is a luxurious Friday. I didn't get out of bed until 9:30. I decided to clean my oven. Shabbat starts at 4:22. I can face Friday as a lady of leisure because nearly all of the food I am serving tonight was made last week. Lately, my Friday morning workout has been accompanied by watching The Great British Bake-off.  This week's episode was all about making desserts that were dairy-free and gluten-free and vegan. The first challenge of the episode of dairy-free ice cream. I watched the bakers with great interest. I have been making pretty good dairy-free ice cream for ages. When this was a new adventure for me I used to substitute soy milk or almond milk for the dairy.  I find that I hate the beany undertaste of soy milk and soy-based ice creams. Additionally, my youngest  is both soy and nut allergic. Oatmilk was not then commonly available. I no longer remember exactly how I stumbled onto the idea of using cooked starch to create a silk...

This morning at services some of us were in down coats. Some of us were wearing spring coats with sweaters and scarves.  One of my friends was complaining about the April chill  and Marty responded with these lines from Robert Frost. The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day When the sun is out and the wind is still, You’re one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, A cloud comes over the sunlit arch, A wind comes off a frozen peak, And you’re two months back in the middle of March. It’s very nice to daven each morning with an English professor. Even without today’s perfect lines of poetry Marty makes morning minyan into something quite wonderful. My son offered to make the chicken and the ribs for tonight’s dinner. I have not taken photos of his handiwork. I do want to say that the house smelled so good that I ought to have charged people to stand in the hallway and in...