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D'var Torah -- Parshat Vayeshev 5775 -- my adult bat mitzvah
Did Judah always know, deep in his heart, that Er was no good? Did he love him anyway, his firstborn son? Did he hope that marriage to Tamar, clever, modest, stately as a palm tree, would somehow fix things?
Did Tamar marry in hope, in laughter, in bridal finery? Did Er's brothers joke with him on his way to the marriage bed? Did Judah look ( Read more... ) -
Seven Layer Cake 2014
This year I made a seven layer cake for Michelle and Rebecca's birthday party. Layers = 1 recipe of Gil Marks's dobostorte made in heavy cookie sheets lines with buttered foil. Cool, wrap tightly in foil and plastic wrap, and freeze overnight. The next day, trim off 1 inch all around and quarter the layers. Rewrap and freeze until needed. ( Read more... ) -
Trip Report: Summer Road Trip 2013
It's so good to be home! I'm enjoying the waterbed, sleeping more than 20 feet from the girls, my own car, reusable grocery bags, recycling, and composting. It was great to step out of SFO into cool evening air -- we've been having warm, humid, and sometimes rainy for two weeks. I know it's been hot here, but it's *our* heat! We got in late ( Read more... ) -
Tom Kha Gai Recipe
I combined information from the recipes at http://anurbancottage.blogspot.com/2011/11/tom-ka-soup.html and http://shesimmers.com/2010/11/tom-kha-gai-recipe-tutorial-for.html
Everyone liked it, and the little girls even exclaimed over how wonderful it was, so, a real success.
Tom Kha Gai
1 quart chicken broth
2-3 slices galangal
4, 1.5” segments lemon ( Read more... ) -
birthday desserts, 2012 edition
So, I made special desserts last month for Harold's 43rd and my 46th birthdays.
For Harold's, I worked on refining my seven-layer cake. I started this project last year, trying to recreate a much-loved dessert from his youth. This year I used the same recipe for the cake layers, the dobostorte from Gil Marks's World of Jewish Desserts. This time ( Read more... ) -
A Few Yom Kippur Thoughts
Yesterday was Yom Kippur, a day for fasting, prayer, and reflection. I wanted to record and share a few of my thoughts, and a couple of noteworthy moments ( Read more... ) -
Road Trip, Day One
We're taking a small road trip, partly for its own sake, and partly to gague whether more ambitious road trips are practical for us as a family at this stage. Day one went well.
We started by driving to Berkeley. We had planned to have lunch at an Ethiopian place near campus, but it was closed, so we ended up having yummy Peruvian instead. ( Read more... ) -
Bibs for Willa
Michelle and Rebecca have a baby cousin named Willa, born to Harold's sister last winter. After she was born, we started a joint project: the Willa Bibs. They drew the designs and chose the thread colors. I transferred the designs to organic cotton bibs from Dharma Trading Company and did the stitching.
Michelle designed one with zebra stripes ( Read more... ) -
I made a pincushion!
I made this sweet little pincushion as a gift for my friend Rachel. I've been working on it for years; among other things, once I had the flowers stitched, I was scared to start the final assembly for fear of messing something up! But I finally got it done (with help from my fellow preschool mom, Lisa -- she did the machine sewing part of the ( Read more... ) -
doing pretty well, all things considered
I had my surgery yesterday, and it went well. It took a bit less time than they'd anticipated. Apparently, despite my collection of previous surgeries, there aren't a lot of adhesions in there complicating their work. And, rather than taking out the mesh from the previous hernia repair, they just re-attached it. Hopefully it will stay this time ( Read more... )