Shabbat Story

My 91 year old grandmother called yesterday and told me she had a huge thing to ask of me but first there was a story.....

Her brother (my Uncle Arthur) made a recent discovery while going through some papers. You should know that Arthur has been "going through his papers" for as long as I can remember so how he could possibly find anything new is beyond me but apparently he recently did.

What he found was a sealed letter from my great grandmother Ida which wasn't to be opened until her death. Ida was a lovely woman. She was short and plump, with beautiful silver hair that she wore in 2 braids pinned on top of her head until her very last years. She wore clunky shoes and plaid wool shirts and mostly smelled like sugar because she was always in the kitchen, baking. She moved from NYC to Portland when I was a baby, into a small apartment right behind my high school. I was lucky to know her until she died in 1982 when I was 16.

I am not sure how her letter got overlooked in my uncle's extensive file system but it had a number of requests relating to her death and afterward. As it turns out, most of her requests had been carried out anyway but for one. My grandmother started crying when she told me that her mother had asked that a yartzeit candle be lit for her each year.

Given my family history it's nothing short of miraculous that I am a practicing Jew today. My father isn't Jewish. My mother came from Orthodox Jews on her father's side and adamantly secular Jews on her mother's side. Part of my grandparents' decision to leave New York and come to Portland in the 1950's was about getting away from Judaism--all that Old World superstition and tradition. My grandfather's experience with Judaism as a child was oppressive and without joy so he wanted no part of Jewish life as an adult. My grandmother's family were the classic politically active, intellectual, lefty types of folks who had no use for religion.

When my grandparents came to Portland, they didn't join a synagogue. There was no religious education for my mother and aunt. When I was growing up, we gathered for some holidays but I was in college before I realized, for example, that most Jews say a blessing while lighting the candles at Chanukah. I had to figure out what being Jewish meant on my
own as an adult.

I don't talk about that much with my family. Jewish observance is an awkward
subject with both my Jewish and non-Jewish relatives--which is why this conversation with my grandmother felt so very significant.

Both my great uncle and my grandmother are feeling awful that this one simple request had been ignored all these years. Both feel like, now that they know, they still can't commit as they're both over 90 and don't know how much longer they'll be with us. So my grandmother asked me today if I would accept this responsibility.

So, of course I will be lighting the yartzeit candle in my great grandmother's memory. I'd always wanted to but it was such a touchy subject I didn't know how to approach it. I already feel a little bit guilty when I light the candle for my grandfather every autumn. I think he'd surely disapprove but when I finally confessed to my grandmother today, she assured me he would be honored.

My house is full of my great grandmother's beautiful old furniture. Each morning I take my clothes out of her old dresser. Our Chanukah menorahs are lit on the same old oak buffet where she lit hers. And every week, I braid my challah on the same wooden bread board that she used for her delicious baking. So I don't know that I need to light a candle to remember her, but it does feel like both an honor and a very strong connection to those who came before me.

It's funny how things work out, isn't it?

Winging It

My friend spent a few hours working on The Yarn Harlot's Pretty Thing at my house on New Year's Eve. I was quite taken with the gorgeous lace and of course wanted one of my own using some lovely Malabrigo Lace yarn that I picked up recently at Happy Knits, Portland's chutzpadik new yarn shop*.

Sadly, I found the pattern just a little too challenging for my over tired brain and I realized (after buying the patten since there's no way to see it and judge the difficulty before plunking down the cash) that I just didn't feel like working that hard right now. I browsed the other lace cowl patterns on Ravelry and had a very Goldilocks type of experience. Everything was either too complicated or too simple.

And so I decided to wing it. After making two February Lady Sweaters in the past year, I have that simple lace pattern burned into my brain so I figured I'd use that. I added in purl columns between the repeats which I enlarged toward the bottom to provide a little more chest coverage. Made up in the heavenly merino yarn I chose, it's light as a whisper and absolutely itchless. It worked up quickly, even on tiny needles, and I was so delighted with the end result that I wrote my first ever knitting pattern to share with anyone who'd like to give it a go. If you do give it a try, please let me know of the pattern makes sense.

I know, I know, this is blurry. I am not so good with the self portraits. I'll try and replace this with something lovelier soon.

*Chutzpadik is Yiddish for .... ballsy. I can think of no better description for a new business that opens just 2 blocks from one of Portland's oldest yarn shops. Because I've never had a good experience in that well established shop, I was more than a little tickled at the audacity shown by Happy Knits and I look forward to visiting that beautiful shop as often as my wallet permits.

Savory Cheese Custard

This is one of my favorite standbys when I realize a meal is low on protein and we have nothing but cheese and eggs on hand. These savory custards from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone are quick, tasty, nutritious and well received, even by pesky children. You could make the custard in one large baking dish (cook it longer

You could certainly play around with different cheeses and seasonings but we are always pretty happy with a simple blend of Tillamook cheddar and Parmesan. I like these served with roasted potatoes and a simple vegetable on the side.

You'll find the printable recipe here.

Not Food

Taking a break from my regular yammering about food because, well, this hardly seems the time, does it?

Too Soon

Image via Wikipedia

I don't talk too much about music with most folks I know given that I have rather odd tastes and tend to be completely out of the loop regarding mainstream music. An example: I only recently was introduced to Radiohead...and was not impressed. There's no one with whom I can readily debate the relative merits of say Sukhwinder Singh vs Sonu Nigam. I know, I know. Blank looks, right? I am not even going to try and convince you to listen to my favorite Bollywood vocalists or gypsy brass bands.

But you might want to give Lhasa de Sela a try. She's been in regular rotation at our house for well over a decade since my friend Beth gave me her first CD. We were fortunate to be able to see her live when she toured following her second CD release and it was a thrilling experience. Her fantastic throaty voice, accompanied only by a standup bass, filled the theater and everyone in the audience was transported by her singing. Her songs might be Spanish, French, or English but the language hardly matters--you can't help but understand.

On New Year's Eve I introduced an appreciative friend to her music, only to learn that she died of breast cancer the next day at her home in Montreal. At 37 years old. Hers was a fascinating, free spirited life but it was way, way too short.

I don't pay a lot of attention to the passing of celebrities, but this one hit me hard. With only three recordings, it seemed she had so much more to offer the world with her lovely voice. I read that she'd been planning to record the songs of Chileans Violetta Parra and Victor Jara -- I would have loved to have heard that, along with any other project she might have been involved in. What a loss.

A year of making things

I meant to get to this before the end of 2009 but as we're barely into 2010 I guess I'm not too, too late.

It's funny--I felt as though I didn't accomplish nearly as much as I'd have liked in terms of making things in 2009. But when I went through the photos (and factored in all the things that I'd given away before photos were taken) it turns out that I did quite a lot of sewing, knitting, crochet, embroidery, beading, and spinning. I made pillows for my couch, clothes for my daughter and myself, and lots to give as well. Seeing all these projects thrown together in a photo collage I realize just how consistent my color sense is--no neutrals for me, thanks!

Here's pattern info for anyone interested in making some of these projects. Top to bottom and left to right:

February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne made with Dream in Color "Classy" worsted. I just finished this the other day but I can't wait a whole year to show it off. I love, love, LOVE it! Also, no surprise here, I love my Romeo, too.

Pixie Hat-- sized for a newborn

A thrifted t-shirt which I embellished with stencils and embroidery. No pattern here--I was just winging it. I learned something cool, though. Fabric paint makes a good stabilizer for embroidering on knits.

Patchwork border skirt. Also out of my head!

Sundress based on the one in Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing though I confess she lost me about halfway through the project and had to figure out how to attach the bodice to the skirt on my own.

Sofa pillows I made without a pattern. I had my talented friend Corby make a new cover for my couch using ikea fabric and realized there was no way to old pillows would do, so I used remnants of the cover fabric along with something I found at Fabric Depot and a lovely Japanese cotton that was given to me years ago and was thrilled with how they came out.

Reverse Applique Swing Skirt--I made this over many months following the directions in The Alabama Stitch Book by Natalie Chanin. I dyed the fabric myself and, because the pattern didn't really work for a curvy girl like myself, I added an extra panel and cut the width in order to make it fit without being too large. This was a huge project and very likely the handmade item I'm proudest of.

My second Noro shawl, following this pattern and using 8 different balls of Kureyon and Silk Garden. This is a hard pattern to beat for fun and loveliness.

Some handspun yarn--I can't remember who dyed it.

The Prairie Blouse from Seams to Me by Anna Maria Horner. I amde this using some lovely linen I had lying around and it wasn't too hard. But now I need to move the bias elastic casing down the body as my little one is growing like a weed!

The Pin Cushion Caddy, also from Seams to Me. This one kind of blew my my 3-D challenged mind but it is a fine pincushion which served me well during the making of the skirt mentioned above.

One of two beaded bracelets I made in a class taught by my friend Catherine. I loved the class, loved the process, and loved the results.

My second ripple afghan, this one is watery blues and greens. This was based on the Pink Ripple stitch pattern in Jan Eaton's book 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns. These are so much fun to make--the crocheting is easy (well, one you've gotten off to a good start--thanks, Sari!) and putting the colors together is a joy.

Last is my first February Lady Sweater which I made with cashmerino yarn that I had lying around. The yarn didn't have enough body for the sweater to hold its shape so it was a big disappointment but the process allowed me to plan for my second of these sweaters which I truly love.

In addition to this, there were the Felicity hats that got away before being photographed, some appliqued banners, a silk scarf for my grandmother, and more. I have a few projects lined up for 2010, but I'm always on the lookout for more, so do feel free to share any great ideas with me.

Wishing those of you that make things happy making in 2010!

Looking forward to making this....

One of the downsides of keeping this blog for a while (and, let's face it, getting older) is that I worry about repeating myself. I know I've written more than once about macaroni and cheese and bread pudding. On the other hand, we don't tire of our favorites, right?

I did a search of my archives and it appears that I've really never written about the fruitcake that is so fabulous it should be called something else. We've all heard those tired old fruitcake jokes and have maybe even had to politely eat some of those dark, heavy bricks bursting with chunky nuts and oddly colored "fruit". The fact is these are neither cake nor fruit and really should be called something else so that the name fruitcake might be bestowed upon a lovely confection I like to make for the (secular) new year. The recipe came from an early issue of Saveur magazine.

This one takes a little time. I like to candy the fruit peel myself which will add a day to the process. Also the pans are a strange size. I've used small (4 cup) bundt pans before and this year I am going to try an actual pudding mold with a snap on lid that I found recently at our local thrift emporium.

The cake isn't just baked, but steamed, which makes it moist and tender. While slightly boozy from the orange liqueur, it mostly tastes like fruit, butter, and almonds. Nothing green and oddly chewy here, just pure fruity loveliness.

Sadly, I don't have any photos, but that's ok because what I do have is a link to the recipe. It's a bit of a production, but if you've got a little time, there's no sweeter way to ring in the new year.

December 23--Web Tool(s)

Web tool. It came into your work flow this year and now you couldn't live without it. It has simplified or improved your online experience.

Two things come to mind which I've test driven this year and have come to rely on. I got myself a snazzy Blackberry phone in the spring and immediately set about trying to make it as useful as possible. One of the things I discovered which (nearly) always makes my life easier is Evernote, a note gathering application that works on your PC. mac, phone or on the web and I've found it extremely handy for consolidating and organizing all the random bits of information I come across in a day. Whether I'm looking at knitting patterns on my home computer, researching something at work, or trying to consolidate all my recipes in one handy place, everything gets dumped into the appropriate Evernote folder and is then available to me on my home computer, phone, and any computer with access to the web. That way I can look up recipes at the grocery store and patterns at the yarn shop and all the information I need is with me. The only downside is that you are dependent on web access to get at your information using a mobile device. I have had Evernote fail me, for example, at the beach where there was no wireless coverage and I found myself wishing I'd just written that scone recipe down and taken it with me. And on days like yesterday when Blackberry service was down throughout North America I had no access to my information when I was out which was annoying as I was cooking with a friend. But those are the only two instances I can think of in 8 months where I was stuck. The other 99% of the time it's brilliant. And even free!

The other service I've come to rely on is Mint, a free money tracking website which is phenomenal for seeing where your money goes. I've tried using Microsoft Money and Quicken for this purpose over the years and found Mint infinitely easier to use. It connects with your bank account and downloads the most recent information every time you log in. It's remarkably good at categorizing expenditures from day one, but you can tweak categories and individual entries to make it more accurate and it will remember your changes for future transactions. I don't know how well this works for people with complex financial lives but for us it's been a simple way to track money in and money out and to give us the cold hard facts about just how much money we've spent at the local Indian buffet this month.

I am so thankful to the brilliant and generous people who make these tools available for free.

December 22 Startup.

What's a business that you found this year that you love? Who thought it up? What makes it special?

I am particularly pleased that we have a brand new Indian restaurant right here in our food wasteland neighborhood. I was not prepared to love buffet style North Indian food, but every time we've been the food has been quite tasty. There's good variety, great value, nice folks working there and top in my kids' view is the soft serve mango ice cream machine. What's not to like?

Namaste Indian restaurant at NE 82nd and Sandy in Portland.

December 21: Project.

December 21 Project. What did you start (or in my case finish) this year that you're proud of?

The skirt! For sure--the skirt! I had no idea I had that much patience or that I would enjoy hand sewing quite so much. The Alabama Stitch Book and the Flickr group I joined were both tremendous sources of inspiration and encouragement.


With luck, I'll be able to add a beautiful green February Lady Sweater to my 2009 accomplishments as well. One sleeve to go!

December 20--New Person

New person-- She came into your life and turned it upside down. He went out of his way to provide incredible customer service. Who is your unsung hero of 2009?

This one was easy. While I met Chris a couple of years ago, only this year did we start spending time together. Chris is an amazing person who knows so much about raising, cooking, and preserving food and she is very generous with her knowledge. I love how she tackles big projects with the right combination of research and fearlessness. We've done a few food oriented projects together now and I love when we work in the kitchen, her calm and quiet energy balancing my more hyper tendencies. If you're reading this, Chris--thanks for hanging out with me this year!

A little handmade holiday goodness

I always have to laugh a bit when people bring up that myth of eight nights of Chanukah gifts. Seriously? I don't know of anyone who does that. We usually stick with one night of gifts and I like to have as many as possible be homemade. The teen boys, of course, would be happier with cash or video games, but they smiled politely at their freezer paper stenciled shirts. Tovah, on the other hand, is a maker and as a maker she's still delighted by home made gifts.

She's currently in a big cat phase: lions, tigers, pumas, you name it. She will confidently list the differences between cheetah and leopards (who knew?) and fill you in on all the details of diet, habitat, and more. So it was easy to pick a design for her stenciled shirt.

I can't quite remember where I came up with the idea of this skirt, but I really liked the idea of a pieced border near the hem of a full, swingy skirt. It all made sense in my head but when I started putting it together I had trouble securing the top edge of the border neatly and that's when I began rummaging through my stash of old trims. I was delighted to find I had enough of the cherry red to trim both edges. I find sewing rickrack to be somewhat harrowing, but it came out well enough with a bit of hand sewing here and there.

I'm not sure how long my sweet girl will enjoy mama made gifts but she appeared to be delighted with this one.

December 19--Car Ride

What did you see? How did it smell? Did you eat anything as you drove there? Who were you with?

This was the second year I drove to California with my kids over Spring Break and much as I love my husband (and knitting while he's driving) I also really love loading my kids in the car and heading off on an adventure. Like most fathers I know, my beloved is, shall we say, rather goal oriented. But when I'm at the wheel, there's a bit more wandering.

On this trip we listened to Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country, stopped for coffee and ice cream whenever necessary, and took a little time to explore, leading us to the most amazing Sundial Bridge in Sacramento. And I only had to pull over once to make the sibling bickering stop. They got the message pretty quickly and we went on to have a grand journey.

Best of Catchup

I'm catching up on a few days of Best of 2009 prompts:


12/15 Best packaging--Did your headphones come in a sweet case? See a bottle of tea in another country that stood off the shelves?

I freely admit to buying these ginger chews based entirely on their packaging. They aren't the best ginger chews I've had but I love their fancy little tin.

I almost bought a set of these just because I was similarly charmed by the packaging but then reminded myself that I hate working with double pointed needles. More money for ginger candy, I guess!

12/16 Tea of the year? I can taste my favorite tea right now. What's yours? So far no one has been able to make me like tea. Apart from my delicious, spicy homemade chai, I'd never choose tea over coffee. But, on the ever changing coffee front, I recently scored a little old Krups espresso maker that makes a lovely cup of coffee, especially when I use Doreen's Italian roast.

12/17 Word or Phrase--A word that encapsulates your year. "2009 was _____."
How could one word or phrase describe a whole year? What stands out most about this year has been waiting. We're doing a lot of waiting to see how it all turns out. When raising little ones it was easy to feel confident about where they'd end up but now with almost-adults making their own choices it's harder to be certain. So we're waiting to see how it all turns out and hoping that all these bumps prove useful in the long run.

December 14 --Rush

Rush. When did you get your best rush of the year?

Ha ha ha. I'm a middle aged mother of three. Rush? I don't do rush. I don't even think I'd recognize rush if it smacked me upside the head.

Insanely Good

When I saw this recipe in my friend's Fine Cooking magazine, I was very, very interested. So many flavors that I love: brown butter, pecans, blue cheese, and Brussels sprouts. Sounds a little busy, doesn't it? But it is a heavenly combination.

The first time I made it I followed the recipe exactly and loved the rich, buttery flavors. When I made the dish tonight, I used onions in place of shallots, half and half instead of heavy cream, and Gorgonzola in place of the blue cheese because these were what I had on hand. The resulting dish was a little lighter, but no less delicious.

I particularly love the Brussels sprouts which are sliced and then roasted before being tossed into the pasta. I'd never had them prepared this way and will definitely consider the roasted sprouts as a side dish.

December 13

What's the best change you made to the place you live?

Well I didn't make it but one day I came home to find that my lovely husband had taken it upon himself to rearrange our microscopic living room. I was skeptical as part of the shake up involved adding furniture to an already tiny space but somehow it worked and it's a more pleasant space than before. Thanks, dear!

December 12--New Food

Image via Wikipedia

You're now in love with Lebanese food and you didn't even know what it was in January of this year.

Colleen introduced me to idli last spring: spongy steamed cakes made of fermented rice and lentil flour which require a funky little tiered stand to steam properly (and yes, I bought one). So far I've only made them from a mix but they're so tasty I haven't felt a need to make them from scratch. Soon, I'm sure. Especially wonderful is the dry chutney powder served with them: nutty and spicy and wonderfully complex. Great stuff!

Chanukah Around the World

Chanukah is here and the deep fryer has been released from its basement exile for its one week of service. A holiday that gives a green light to fried food--what's not to like?

On the first night, of course, we had the classics: potato latkes and doughnuts, both delicious. Tonight we opted to begin our international tour of fried foods with Swedish rosettes. My dear friend loaned me her rosette iron and I googled until I found a promising recipe.

The rosette iron is just a little metal snowflake on the end of a long handle. I did my research and learned that after heating the iron in hot oil, it's dipped into a thin batter and then back in the hot oil where the rosette shaped cookie thing magically disengages and bobs about until fished out, crunchy and golden brown. I had my doubts about how simply the rosette would leave the iron but it was a snap. I just held the iron in the oil and watched. After just a few seconds, the batter had cooked just enough to float off on its own and continue cooking until done, about a minute later.

The cookies were delightfully light and airy. We ate them dusted with powdered sugar and they really were just a little bit magical.

Oh, and if you think that Scandinavian Chanukah cookies are a stretch, I am one eighth Swedish so I figure it kind makes sense. More sense than the Sonoran enchiladas (minus the lard, of course) and Indian jalebis I'm planning to make later in the week, anyway.

Chag Samech!

I don't have the skills to get the whole greeting in one frame, but the sentiment is sincere. Tovah helped me design our new family Chanukah banner and it really does make things jsut a little bit more festive. I hope those of you who are celebrating enjoy a warm, light-filled holiday.