Category Archives: New York

New York

Afternoon Sunlight

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Afternoon sunlight

I haven’t centered a post around a single photo recently, so I thought I would today. The sunlight coming through our windows around 6:30 tonight was beautiful. I took 6 photos of the living room, probably my favorite room in the house, and opted for this one for a few reasons. Firstly, it maintains our privacy more than the others. Secondly, it shows off the ancient windows, which I happen to love. Thirdly, I like the contrasting colors as the eyes move from one side to the other. Finally, I’m rather proud of hanging curtains with Scotch tape and thumbtacks – I did it a year and a half ago and they’re still in one piece. Famous last words.

New York

Drinks with Friends

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Cocktails

There’s a really neat cocktail bar in town called Cheshire. It markets itself as a pre-Prohibition Era style establishment, but we researched some of the drinks and found out that many of them were developed long after Prohibition. The bar’s primary charm, though, comes from the mixologists (and I don’t use that word lightly) themselves. Watching them make drinks and peel fresh fruit for garnish is a bit like watching a Food Network show; there’s nothing and then poof, magic.

New York

Food Makes Me Happy

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There, I said it. Food is good!

And what makes me even happier is cooking, especially cooking for others. Maybe that’s because I’m Jewish and grew up in a household in which food was at the center of everything, always. (And yes, my mum’s matzah balls and hamataschen are better than your mum’s matzah balls and hamataschen.)

For Chanukah this year I received a wonderful new cookbook devoted entirely to vegetables. This is an amazing thing. While I’m not a vegetarian, I don’t eat red meat and only rarely eat poultry, so a whole cookbook devoted to things I eat was very exciting. Even better, this cookbook is by a British chef raised in Israel, so his food takes me back to my favorite place on Earth.

Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty turns vegetables into works of art, has encouraged me to use spices I’ve never heard of, and makes it incredibly easy to make delicious, restaurant-caliber food at home.

I know I sound like I’m advertising . . . sorry about that. I just happen to be eating dinner, which features a saffron cauliflower dish from Plenty. You can take a look at the cookbook here. Happy cooking, and happy eating!