sarah in nyc

 Our trip to California had two purposes. The first was to visit with people that we love. We knew that we had accomplished that goal while we were still in california. The other purpose of our trip was to skip those long and draggy days of winter when it feels like winter will never end. Our second goal was accomplished as well. The bulbs in our tree pits have emerged from their winter bedding and will soon begin to bloom. Spring arrived while we were away. Yesterday, I had an appointment not too far from FIT so I went to visit their museum. The upstairs lobby was showing  a lovely exhibit  organized by students. As promised it was filled with glittery things. I especially loved this draped sarong skirt worn by Gypsy rose lee and designed by Bonnie Cashin. I never would have expected this particular combination of  client and designer.  Bonnie Cashin  is known for her simple, uncomplicated almost utilitarian (yet luxurious) garments.  Gypsy Rose Lee i...

 I'm actually typing this after the end of Shushan Purim but I thought of  what I am writing below during the minor festival itself. For those of you who don't know, Purim is celebrated on the 14th of the month of Adar, except for cities that were walled at the time of Joshua in the Bible which celebrate on the next day. Any of you who want to brush up on  Purim observances  should click on the link. Image captured from www.abebooks.com My dear friend Racheley mentioned that her son in law would be reading the Megillah on Shushan Purim this year using the melody used when chanting the Book of Lamentations. I was so moved to hear that on this Purim which is filled with so much worry and sadness. In my life Shushan Purim is usually marked by very little. It doesn't require much more than noting that it  exists. Today though, I put on a playlist of old Purim music and mused about the holiday as I worked.  I kept thinking about how unlike the rest of the holida...

This week is a challah baking week. Pesach is just over the horizon. My goal was to make enough challot to last until the week I change my house over to Passover mode.  I also figured that since I was making a yeast dough I could also make my childhood favorite, yeasted hamentashen. They were a bakery staple. Your mother might make the small hamentashen with  the smooth crust and the filling visible. This photo from thenosher.com After megilla reading at our synagogue the tables in the social hall would have stacks of big yeast hamantaschen from the bakery stacked on trays in the middle of the table.  These hamantaschen were big--the size of a sandwich or bulkie roll, sort of  triangular glazed with honey and egg yolk and a sprinkling of poppy seeds would let you know if you were getting poppy  or the dreaded prune hamantaschen. Those were the only two possibilities prune or poppy. The dough was a soft challah dough. I have missed those soft hamantaschen with a ...

Is the first line of a  Yiddish Purim poem my mother-in-law used to recite every year. As she aged and became more demented this poem also got folded into her singing of Chanukah songs, or more accurately emerged willy nilly from the soup of memories in her brain. This has been a complicated Purim courtesy of the Corona virus. This fabulous parody appeared on my FB feed last night. I am sorry I can't give proper credit  to the brilliant person who wrote it.  I am not translating this...it is an extra bit of joy and pleasure for folks with better than average Hebrew skills. Many in Jewish communities all over the world including our own celebrated Purim virtually, listening to live streamed Megilla readings either from their own communities or from those further afield. My friends who listened to the Megilla at home felt lonely and sad. Those of us who braved doing the best we could in a shrunken community felt sad as well. We all did the best we could. Yesterda...