sarah in nyc

 If you have been a frequent Shabbat guest at my house there is a good chance that you have eaten  what I think of as Idiot Chicken. I don't make it weekly, but it shows up fairly often on my table.It is the first chicken dish I have taught my kids how to make. It tastes like lots of work went into it, when almost none did. Many years ago, my husband was sent to Paris on business. He brought home one of those adorable ceramic jars of Herbes de Provence as a gift for me. It was a REALLY good gift. It was one of those gifts that is life changing.  Herbes de Provence is one of those mixtures that makes anything taste instantly delicious and sophisticated.  This gift came into my life, just when caring for my kids was at it's most time consuming. Being able to produce a meal that was delicious and easy to prepare was indeed a gift.  Once I finished the adorable ceramic jar, I was able to pick up  plain glass jars of it at Zabars and at F...

A Women's Minyan /Prayer Group asked me to come up with honors cards. At a service, there are various honors to be distribulted. On a regular Shabbat there are eight readings from the Torah. A member of the community honored by being called forward to recite the blessings before and after that reading. The Torah scroll is raised after the reading, and then, rolled wrapped and dressed before being returned to the ark. In some synagogues, the honors are simply given out verbally.( Someone will come up to you and ask if you want an aliya /to be called up to the Torah) Other synagogues give out cards. I guess the advantage of the cards is that the honoree knows for sure exactly which aliya they are being called up for.  It also helps the person giving out the honors keep track of what has already been given out and what is yet to be given out. Hebrew is a gender language. Unlike English , the words for numbers differ if they object being counted is masculine or f...

My youngest loved how this photo looks like a lovely Italian church escaped to our urban neighborhood. Looking North. If you look carefully, you can just barely see the side of St. John the Divine neat the top center of the image. Another view of the church Our building's water tower

The door to the roof of my building is normally locked.  This morning though, I had the opportunity to be up there and took some pictures of the view. Looking west, with my building's cornice in the foreground Looking east, towards Amsterdam Avenue Iconic New York sky scape with water towers Water towers to the west

My family loves watching "The Office" together. We love the show so much that our  vacation before our oldest left for college for the first time was to Scranton, PA where the show is set.  Yes, we own seasons 1-3 on DVD.  One of our favorite DVD extras is "Kevin Cooks Stuff in the Office". In it, he makes "Quesadilla a la Kevin" . He puts spray cheese on  sour cream and onion potato chips and heats the mixture in the microwave. He proclaims the mixture "Hot, but so good." I had gone to Costco with my neighbor. She bought a giant package of shredded cheddar cheese. She gave us a gallon bag full, it barely made a dent in her cheese stash. My youngest melted the cheese over Pita chips in a more elegant version of Kevin's snack. It was his go to Shavuot meal. Today, after school, he bought a package of sour cream and onion chips to try a  more authentic version. It was indeed, hot but good, but also a bit too much. He needed to lie down to r...

is now complete. We will be tying the tzitzit next Friday afternoon. Some things to notice as you look at the photos both in the post and in the album to the right. The atara/neckband and pinot/corners are made out of translucent silk gazar. The sparkles beneath the gazar twinkle through . Often I make the atara and the pinot flashy. Maya's tallit has so much going on, that it made more sense to have the corners and the neckband be fairly quiet.   I did the eyelets by hand. It is a satisfying operation.  My hand work used to be not all that attractive. I'm glad that with practice, even I can improve.

Adelle was the coolest relative we had. She was a high school friend of my aunt's. Adelle had an affair with her High School Hebrew teacher, who was a cousin of ours. Eventually, she married him.  Adelle came from a family of not Communists, but Anarchists.  She was smart, arty and mouthy. She treated kids as worthy conversation partners. My parents loved fine china of the Royal Crown Derby mode. We once has lunch at Adelle's seaside  Victorian home in Brooklyn. Her table was set with mis matched, hand thrown ceramic dishes and mugs. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life. After Adelle retired, she began making art. She made collaged assemblages out of found objects. They were hauntingly beautiful. Several months after he husband had died, Adelle came to visit during Shavuot. My mother was going to make blintzes and began to flip though her cookbooks. Adelle said to my mother, " A cookbook for blintzes?? Don't you know how to cook? ". After that S...