Fairfax Avenue's Profile

This was named a keeper recipe after I made it! Thanks!

In historical society weddings - Eleanor Roosevelt, for example - the bridesmaids helped write thank you notes.

There is neighborliness - and there is a lack of privacy. In my previous residence, the side of my living room and the side of next door's living room were lined up, window to window. For 23 years, neither of us had heavy drapes. We sometimes had sheers, sometimes bare windows facing each other. NEVER a problem (I miss you, Betty!). Where I am now, the side of the living room faces entrances to the apartment units next door. Now I have sunbathers six feet away from my French doors, which means seven feet away from my young children.

Aside from the lack of privacy, with French doors, whether or not I have curtains, someone can see in if the window is open and the noise is unreasonable. Someone yells in a foreign language to communicate with a hard of hearing person all day long - and by night there is also noise. If I had air conditioning this wouldn't be an issue, but it's nearly summer and this place gets hot if the windows are closed.

My bedroom windows face the garage, which has a rental unit above. As soon as I heard it was rented, I bought sheer fabric and liquid starch and covered the windows - so neither the new tenant or my house lost any privacy.

Sorry to gripe, it's been a tough adjustment.

We have inherited furniture that we love, and we are trying to place it into our new home (moving in mid-June). The new place is very asymmetrical and the living room is narrow and long, making layout challenging. We have 18 feet of full bookcases that make narrow spaces more narrow and our art collection needs wallspace, too. We would appreciate advice!

My first impression of the final image: is that bowl standing on toothpaste?

Congratulations! This looks so refined and timeless.

90! Need to learn more about roof lines. Surprised I knew anything at all!

We have an under counter in-line filter that filters all cold water that flows through the existing faucet. Compared to bottled water of any type, or to installing a dedicated little faucet, it's so inexpensive that we had it installed in our apartment and change it at least twice a year. However, these filters are hard to find. We get ours at B&B Hardware in Culver City, CA (they do have everything).

My son is currently working in China. During the week-long New Year break he got on the high speed train together with some friends and travelled an hour or so out of Shenzhen. The only food they took with them was pita bread. Emailing me during his trip he said, "One thing I've learned is people with no income living off their own small farm alone can be the most hospitable people in the world."

It helps if the kids want to be there and have something to share. All my children study the details of Passover in the weeks before the holiday and they share their learning during the seder. Additionally, we have many different Haggadahs and use a variety at the table. Each participant is welcome to compare the various commentaries.

When my crew was little, I didn't expect them to stay at the table the whole evening. Now, the youngest is eleven and she's warmly concerned that her seven year old cousin will be restless. So I give prizes. Usually Jewish books. And I don't wait until the Afikomon after the meal. I usually give them out after the Four Questions, right at the beginning of the evening. If the children are little, it tends to keep them at the table and the big ones are pleased either way.

Being the youngest in my family, I'm really not the children's table type. I sat there forever...and when I finally grew old enough for the big table, I had to sit by the table leg, because I didn't have long legs. Now if I set up an additional table, I make it my business to seat young and old together, and I sit at the additional table so the everyone feels close to the host at the dining table or to the hostess at the extra table.