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Yesterday, just about a week before Pesach (Passover), my kitchen and dining room table were covered in flour. Mounds of dough were portioned out around the edge of the table, potatoes were boiling in the kitchen, and salad ingredients were being chopped on every available surface. My daughter-in-law, Elizabeth, is involved in an organization called […]
January 11, 2015 On our trip to Toronto last month we stayed in a hotel that we had chosen based on location and convenience. The sad occasion for the trip, (my father-in-law had passed away), seemed to be echoed by the hotel. Built in some era long ago, the front part of the property was […]
There is something about porch doors that stir up memories of summer. They remind me of the bungalow colony in the Catskills where we stayed with the “mima” and my cousins, of day trips to family and friends in cottage country outside of Toronto, and of the weekends we spent at my aunt’s house in […]
The Graf brothers all loved nature, the outdoors, and animals. My father would watch shows about the animal kingdom and would tell us stories of the pets he owned growing up in Warka, Poland. A porcupine, really? He was already well into his seventies when he suddenly decided to stop eating chicken and beef, purely […]
It’s been my experience that when my expectations are high, it can sometimes lead to disappointment. How often have you been seduced by that decadent pastry in the display case only to discover that it was tasteless, or had dinner in a restaurant with a great reputation and left wondering why. Thankfully, there is also […]
My mother always hummed when she cooked. Typically, the small radio on the kitchen counter was turned to the Yiddish radio station, but if not, there was always a station that played sentimental music, lots of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. I loved knowing that when I came home, music would be in the air […]
It is Sunday morning and Norm is making bagels in the kitchen and my daughter Shira is on her way to the Bronx Zoo, both part of the Sunday rituals that I grew up with. Plus it is my sister’s birthday. Happy Birthday Anita! Last week I went to synagogue to say Yizkor, the prayer […]
Bamitbach 