
Photo by Cynthia Hochswender
I’ve finally given up any hope of baking giant discs of handmade matzo, in the shmura style, at home — after more than a decade of giving it my best shot.
Matzo is very simple, with only three ingredients (flour, water, salt) — but the method of preparing it is so exacting and difficult, it’s almost like a challenge you’d see on a television cooking show.
We eat matzo to remind us of the flight of the Jews from Egypt: There was no time for the flour and water to do that magical thing they do when they’re combined, which is to become alive and ingest air bubbles and become leavened.
To make authentic handmade matzo, you have to exactly count the seconds that your flour is exposed to your water, so that no leavening can occur. It’s like a challenge you might see on a television cooking show (“The clock is ticking!”).
Then you have to perforate the dough, which is not impossible. What is impossible for most home cooks, however, is the baking. I finally learned this week that the reason my homemade matzo tastes nothing like an authentic delicious shmura matzo made by professionals is that I can’t crank my oven up to between 600 and 800 degrees.
I accept defeat. And in this year where Amazon has been able to get nearly everything I order to my doorstep in two or three days, I went ahead and ordered some shmura matzo (which is very hard to find outside of Brooklyn). I am not observant, so it won’t matter to me if I don’t get an unbroken crisp circle of shmura matzo, which is needed for the Passover seder. I’m ordering it simply because I like the way it tastes, and you can only get it once a year.
But enough about what we can’t cook. What can we make for the High Holidays, while observing the rule that we can’t eat leavened grain products?
I don’t know enough to instruct you on dietary dos and don’ts but one thing I know is that coconut macaroons are a Passover tradition. These are not to be confused with the light, delicate French macarons cookies, although they’re also wheat free and in theory qualify as a Passover treat. They’re fairly challenging to make, however.
But coconut macaroons are wonderfully simple, and can be made by anyone, even a child (with supervision for the part that involves an electric mixer).
The recipe that I used is from Ina Garten and is far from low-calorie, but if you’re going to eat a cookie, you might as well make it a good one. You can find the original of this online from Food Network.
Adapted from the Food Network recipe
Makes about 24 cookies
Whites from two large eggs, at room temperature (an excellent way to use fresh, local farm eggs)
1/4 teaspoon good table salt such as Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
14 ounces of moist, tender shredded coconut from the baking aisle, not the harder coconut flakes you’d buy to snack on
14 ounces of sweetened condensed milk (one can; be sure not to get evaporated milk by mistake)
1 teaspoon good-quality vanilla extract
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (it’s easier to drop your cook batter onto the paper if you trim it to fit the baking sheets; otherwise the edges blow into the air as you’re trying to work).
To whip up the egg whites, you’ll want your mixer bowl and beaters to be perfectly clean, with no grease or residual butter on them. The best way to super clean them is with a wipe of vinegar.
Your eggs should be at room temperature. Use large but not “jumbo” eggs, which tend to have a higher risk of salmonella (again, farm eggs are easy to find around here and give you beautiful whipped whites).
Add the salt to the whites.
The mistake most of us make when whipping egg whites is to treat them with kid gloves and to underbeat them. The longer you beat your whites, at high speed, the stronger they’ll become (up to a point, of course).
For this reason, if you can, you want to use a stand mixer not a hand mixer. If you beat them for about 20 minutes, you’ll get glossy whites that are smooth and creamy; when you turn the beater upside down, the whites should droop nicely into a little elf cap.
While the whites are beating and the oven is heating, combine in a very large bowl (I used my favorite extra wide ceramic salad bowl) the coconut, condensed milk and vanilla.
After your whites are nice and glossy and strong, gently add them to the coconut mixer and gently fold them together, using a sturdy spatula to reach under the mixture and fold it up and over, repeatedly, turning the bowl after each turn.
Then take two large spoons, or one big spoon and an ice cream scoop. My ice cream scoop doesn’t have an auto eject feature, it’s just a deep spoon, but it worked fine. The trick to making nice scoops, which I learned from Dave Cadwell from the former Cadwell’s Corner in Cornwall, is that you have to tamp down the ingredients in the one spoon before scooping them out with the other spoon. This gives you nice sturdy cookies.
Don’t delay unduly in getting your cookies onto the sheet and into the oven, or the liquids will start to separate and leave a milky residue around your cookies.
Each cookie should be about the size of a golf ball.
Bake them for about 25 minutes, until they’re lightly browned on top. Take them out and let them cool completely before you try to move them or they’ll break apart.
If you want to top them with chocolate sauce, wait until they’re cool. Put the warm or room temperature chocolate sauce in a bowl and dunk the top of the cookie into the sauce and turn it until you get as much coverage as you’d like.
Refrigerate them quickly so the chocolate “sets.”
You can store these in a plastic container at room temperature for a week or so.
LAKEVILLE — The Hotchkiss School opened the girls varsity lacrosse season with a big win in the snow against Kingswood Oxford School.
The Bearcats won 19-0 in a decisive performance March 26. Twelve different players scored for Hotchkiss, led by Coco Sheronas with four goals.
Coco Sheronas scored four goals for Hotchkiss in the snowy 2025 season opener.Photo by Riley Klein
Kingswood Oxford is in the process of rebuilding its girls lacrosse program after some time without a team. The first game of the season gave the Kingswood coaches a chance to see their team play and rework position assignments.
At gametime, Downing Field became enshrouded in a veil of snow flurries. Players kept moving to stay warm with the temperature around 39 degrees.
The mercy rule kicked in during the second quarter when the lead entered double digits, causing a running clock to tick for the rest of the game.
Eleanor Helm scored once against Kingswood Oxford.Photo by Riley Klein
In addition to four goals by Sheronas, MaryHelen Cooey and Charlotte Dorman scored three each and the following players scored once: Eleanor Helm, Lily Lavigne, Lilah Crispino, Kailyn Willa, Marygrace Lawry, Lila Snow, Harper Semlies, Allison Wick and Emma Ohler.
Hotchkiss will play the next two games on the road before hosting Canterbury School April 9 at 3 p.m.
Allison Wick, left, and Kailyn Willa rejoice after a goal March 26.Photo by Riley Klein
FALLS VILLAGE — Principal Ian Strever announces the second quarter marking period Honor Roll at Housatonic Valley Regional High School for the 2024-2025 school year.
Grade 9: Parker Beach (Cornwall), Mia Belter (Salisbury), Lucas Bryant (Cornwall), Addison Green (Kent), Eliana Lang (Salisbury), Alison McCarron (Kent), Katherine Money (Kent), Mira Norbet (Sharon), Abigail Perotti (North Canaan), Karmela Quinion (North Canaan), Owen Schnepf (Wassaic), Federico Vargas Tobon (Salisbury), Emery Wisell (Kent).
Grade 10: Sophia Camphouse (Sharon), John DeDonato (Salisbury), Adelyn Diorio (North Canaan), Sydney Howe (North Canaan), Daniel Lesch (Cornwall), Finian Malone (Sharon), Meadow Moerschell (Kent), Jackson Olson (Salisbury), Logan Padelli (North Canaan), Ishaan Tantri (Salisbury), Ivy Zheng (North Canaan).
Grade 11: Lily Beurket (Cornwall), Olivia Brooks (Salisbury), Mollie Ford (Falls Village), Anna Gillette (Salisbury), Neve Kline (Salisbury), Alexa Meach (North Canaan), Ibby Sadeh (Falls Village), Celeste Trabucco (Kent) Silas Tripp (Falls Village), Alex Woodworth (Salisbury).
Grade 12:Tyler Anderson (Sharon), Zachary Bezerra (Kent), Bernice Boyden (Sharon), Daniela Brennan (North Canaan), Amelia Dodge (North Canaan), Madison Gulotta (Sheffield), Harper Howe (North Canaan), Tess Marks (Salisbury), Manasseh Matsudaira (Cornwall), Lola Moerschell (Kent), Diana Portillo (North Canaan), Olivia Robson (Salisbury), Gabriela Titone (Salisbury).
Grade 9: Krystin Ackerman (North Canaan), Travis Barber (Cornwall), Max Bochnovich (Salisbury), Nico Bochnovich (Salisbury), Logan Bronson (Cornwall), Zaira Celso-Cristobal (Sharon), Sadie Chapell (Salisbury), Tess Churchill (Salisbury), Niki Clark (Salisbury), Caitlin Devino (North Canaan), Louise Faveau (Salisbury), Celestia Galvin (Sharon), Samuel Garcia Pulido (North Canaan), Beatrice Gifford (Kent), Madeline Johnson (Salisbury), Marlow LaPointe (Falls Village), Ayden Lemmy (Falls Village), Paul Losh (Falls Village), Chase Lowell (North Canaan), Lily McCabe (Salisbury), Logan Miller (Falls Village), Bridger Rinehart (Salisbury), Vilija Salazar (Salisbury), Camila Sanchez Guerrero (Cornwall), Camdyn Tallon (North Canaan), Schuyler Thompson (Falls Village), Juliette Trabucco (Kent), Payton Wagner (North Canaan), Jessica Watkins (Kent), Olivia Whitney (North Canaan).
Grade 10: Bennett Wyatt Bayer (Salisbury), Selena Black (Cornwall), Georgie Clayton (Salisbury), Christian DeDonato (Salisbury), Natasha Dennis (North Canaan), Layla DiDomenico (Kent), Carmela Egan (Salisbury), Kellie Eisermann (Salisbury), Levi Elliott (Millerton), Lydia Fleming (North Canaan), Grace Graney (Falls Village), Alexa Hoadley (Kent), Jonas Johnson (North Canaan), Aiden Krupa (Torrington), Makenzie Lidstone (Salisbury), Francisco Mendoza Ratzan (North Canaan), Daniel Moran (Norfolk), David Nam (Sharon), Gustavo Portillo (North Canaan), Rivers Richard (North Canaan), Darwin Wolfe (Falls Village), Nathan Zani (Ashley Falls).
Grade 11: Elizabeth Allyn (Salisbury), Steven Barber (Cornwall), Victoria Brooks (Salisbury), Katherine Crane (North Canaan), Richard Crane (North Canaan), Arianna Danforth Gold (Cornwall), Mia DiRocco (Cornwall), Shanaya Duprey (North Canaan), Allegra Ferri (North Canaan), Elizabeth Forbes (Wassaic), Maureen Graney (Falls Village), Taylor Green (Kent), Chloe Hill (Salisbury), Adam Hock (Kent), Hannah Johnson (North Canaan), Madelyn Johnson (North Canaan), Delanie Keeley (New Marlboro), Madison Melino (Austerlitz), Ayden Wheeler (Amenia).
Grade 12: Lucas Caranci (North Canaan), Sidney Crouch (Cornwall), Dylan Deane (North Canaan), Tessa Dekker (Falls Village), Cole Dennis (North Canaan), Leah Drislane (North Canaan), Sara Huber (Salisbury), Dustin Kayser (North Canaan), Rosemary Koller (North Canaan), Kylie Leonard (North Canaan), Katelin Lopes (Falls Village), Khyra McClennon (Amenia), Jassim Mohydin (Salisbury), Patrick Money (Kent), Mason O’Niel (Salisbury), Tristan Oyanadel (Falls Village), Wendy Santiago-Leyva (Salisbury), Elinor Wolgemuth (Salisbury).
Grade 9: Edwin Alonzo Alonzo (North Canaan), Robert Boyden (Sharon), Peyton Bushnell (Falls Village), Winter Cheney (Cornwall), Ayva Fenn (Torrington), Luca Floridis (Salisbury), Angel Gonzalez (Salisbury), Kogan Lawrence (Amenia), McKenzie Lotz (Ashley Falls), Dany Martinez (North Canaan), Wyatt Merwin (Salisbury), Nathan Young (Cornwall).
Grade 10: Byron Bell (Cornwall), Sofia Bindley (Cornwall), Karen Chavez-Sanchez (Salisbury), Braeden Duncan (Salisbury), Wiley Fails (Salisbury), James Flores (Kent), Jasper Oyanadel (Falls Village), Marlene Perez (North Canaan), Carson Riva (North Canaan), Ryan Segalla (Salisbury), Alanna Tatro (North Canaan).
Grade 11: Peter Austin (Kent), Everet Belancik (Cornwall), Carlos Castellanos Cruz (Falls Village), Ashton Cooper (Salisbury), Christopher Crane (North Canaan), Nicholas Gonzalez (Cornwall), Kierra Greene (North Canaan), Marc Hafner (Falls Village), Abram Kirshner (Kent), Riley Mahaffey (Amenia), Simon Markow (Cornwall), Isabella Pugo Dominguez (North Canaan), Deiby Romero Gualan (North Canaan), Gabriele Rooney (Falls Village), Melanie Rundall (Kent), Ava Segalla (Salisbury), Lauren Sorrell (North Canaan).
Grade 12: Brandt Bosio (Salisbury), Jake Bosio (North Canaan), Madeline Collingwood (South Egremont), Ian Crowell (North Canaan), Madison DeWitt (North Canaan), Rose Fitch (Cornwall), Ava Gandarillas (North Canaan), Abigail Hogan (North Canaan), Antonis Karampasis (North Canaan), Ellanor Karcheski (North Canaan), Jonathan Leal-Santiago (North Canaan), Kyle McCarron (Kent), Ledvia Orellana-Lemus (North Canaan), Olivia Peterson (Sharon), Taylor Terwilliger (North Canaan), Emil Urbanowicz (Cornwall), Jayme Walsh (Salisbury), Abigail White (North Canaan), Junxin Zhang (Kent).
ANCRAMDALE — Thomas Ditto of Ancramdale, born Thomas David DeWitt Aug. 11, 1944 in New York City changing his surname to Ditto at marriage, passed peacefully on Pi Day, March 14, 2025. He was a husband, father, artist, scientist, Shakespeare scholar, visionary, inventor, actor, mime, filmmaker, clown, teacher, lecturer, colleague, and friend. Recipient of numerous grants, awards and honors in both the arts and sciences, a Guggenheim and NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow, he was a creative genius beyond his time. In addition to authoring scores of papers, he held several patents and invented the first motion capture system and the Ditto-scope, a radically new kind of telescope. He was a pioneer in computer generated video, film, and performance.
When not hard at work, he was always there to help when needed and he knew how to bring smiles to faces. He loved his family and pets and was supportive of his wife’s cat rescue work.
He is survived by wife Beverly (Botto), son David, sister Alice Pero and nieces and nephews in the extended family. He was predeceased by his parents David and Madlyn Dewitt and sister Peggy.
Memorial contributions may be made to any of the following non-profits.
Collaborative Cats Inc. PO Box 88, Ancramdale, NY 12503 www.collaborativecats.org
eba inc. dance theatre company, PO Box 145, Albany, NY 12201 www.eba-arts.org
Wave Farm transmission arts WGXC 90.7 FM PO Box 13 Acra, NY 12405 www.wavefarm.org
American Astronomical Society 1667 K Street NW, Suite 800 Washington DC 20006 www.aas.org
American Cancer Society 2678 South Road, Suite 103, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. www.cancer.org
A Celebration of Life memorial service will take place at a future date and will be announced on the funeral home website.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the Scott D. Conklin Funeral Home, 37 Park Ave., Millerton, NY 12546. To send an online condolence visit www.conklinfuneralhome.com
SHARON — Winifred Anne Carriere passed away on March 6, 2025, at the age of 87. A resident of Sharon for many years, she later retired to Ancramdale, New York.
Born in New Haven to writers Albert Carriere and Winifred Osborn, Anne grew up in New York City. Raised in a Quaker family, she attended Friends Seminary, and The University of Wisconsin. Anne studied American Architectural History through Bard College’s University Without Walls. For her degree, she wrote a comprehensive history of the architecture of Sharon during its first hundred years.
Anne worked as an editor for her mother’s publication Professional Florist Magazine. She also served as Public Relations Director for South Street Seaport Museum, and later, as a legal secretary at the firms Paul Weiss and Coudert Brothers.
A writer throughout her life, Anne produced numerous short stories and poems. Her work was published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Herald Tribune. Best known is Anne’s children’s book “Jennifer’s Walk” published by Golden Books in 1973, and illustrated by her then-husband New Yorker magazine cover artist Arthur Getz. The book was inspired by the outdoor adventures of their young daughter.
Anne was an activist. She participated in the anti-nuclear movement, volunteering for the campaign Ground Zero. Upon retirement she founded the non-profit community service organization Ancramdale Neighbors Helping Neighbors. She helped develop the somatic nonviolence method, Aiki-AVP, editing its first training manual. Anne served as a Trustee for Fifteenth Street Quaker Meeting in New York City, and later served on various committees of the Bulls Head-Oswego Quaker Meeting in Clinton Corners, New York.
Anne was passionate about nature, and always preferred to be outdoors. She was an avid hiker, long-distance swimmer, cross-country skier, canoeist, and flower gardener.
She also was a voracious reader, and loved poetry, classical music, and humorous wordplay.
Anne is survived by her husband, William “Bill” Leicht of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, her son, Kurt Gubrud of Canaan, and her daughter, Sarah Getz of Sharon.
The family wishes to thank the staff of The Meadows, the memory care division of Brookmeade in Rhinebeck, for their compassionate care of Anne during her final years.
A memorial gathering will take place this spring at the Bulls Head–Oswego Quaker Meetinghouse with a date to be announced.