Cubby Archive

As a kid, there were few things more exciting this time of year than the annual tradition of baking holiday cookies with my family. From pressing my fingers into dough to make thumbprint cookies and adding the chocolate kiss to the peanut butter blossoms, to decorating sugar cookies and even pouring the chocolate chips into the bowl, there was always a way for me to get involved.

When I was growing up, we didn’t eat meat on Fridays. Instead, in our household, the sad alternative was usually fish sticks. I don’t have particularly fond memories of them from back then — the standard ones we often bought were usually pretty bland and soggy — but nevertheless, we ate them for dinner and got on with it. I now can honestly say that frozen fish sticks don’t have to be sad. In fact, they have come a long way since the days of my youth.

In January of this year, back when we were all children, I read a tweet from author Jennifer Lynn Barnes about the prolific romance novelist Nora Roberts. Barnes recalled, “One time, I was at a Q&A with Nora Roberts, and someone asked her how to balance writing and kids, and she said that the key to juggling is to know that some of the balls you have in the air are made of plastic and some are made of glass.

Now and then, a girl needs a little magic to get through the day and fly above it all. While moving a mile a minute isn’t my preferred way to live, it’s been a reality. At times, I move so fast that I forget to eat, and I get clumsy and frantic. That’ll knock the wind right out of a lady’s magic fairy wings. To make sure I stay on top of it all, I need a nourishing and energizing breakfast. For years, the smoothie routine was yogurt, orange juice, and frozen fruit.

Last week I asked some fellow parents how they’re feeling about the looming holiday. Henry, a coworker, said something that got our virtual heads nodding: “Right now I would appreciate other voices saying that it’s OK to not have a real ‘celebration’ this year.” Did you nod too? Are you still struggling over whether to gather with your parents?

I was raised as a Muslim. There are no celebrations in the Islamic faith that do not center reverence for Allah—but for my family, Thanksgiving was an exception. On the hour-and-a-half bus ride to my aunt’s home in South Philly, my mother would remind us to make sure that what we put on our plates did not contain any “swine,” her favorite word to use describing anything pig.

Thanksgiving is almost here and, if you’re like me, you’ve probably barely started on your holiday meal planning. Those of us who are parents—especially if your kids are small, like mine—are busy enough already, and it’s been a tough season. I have found it hard to get jazzed up about cooking for a holiday that will just be my immediate family. But then today I kind of shook myself and said, Why so glum?

I spent the spring eyeing Chrissy Teigen’s spicy miso pasta, a combination of one of my favorite dishes (carbonara) with extra umami from miso and a hit of spice. Photo after photo popped up on Instagram, my Twitter feed seemed to taunt me with its popularity and its savory, carb-y heat. The internet seemed to be obsessed in general, but also a lab designing my favorite food could only have come closer by somehow working in a little ice cream at the end.

If you count up the whole year, every day of lunches, from now until summer break, did you know that back to school means packing 180 school lunches? I’ll let you sit with that for a moment. Whether your district started back to school virtually or you’re adjusting to a new normal in person, getting your kids to help with lunch will obviously make your life a little easier. Just like any new skill, teaching your kids to prep and pack their own lunches takes time and patience.

A banana split for breakfast? Oh, yes! This quick, easy breakfast takes a dessert classic and lightens it up for the morning with ultra-creamy Greek yogurt and a warm drizzle of jam. It’s also a perfect antidote to those fussy mornings when your child doesn’t want to eat anything.No, there’s no ice cream involved. (Ice cream for breakfast—that seems best saved for birthdays, eh?

Salads are a staple of healthy eating. Add in the fact that a good salad requires zero cooking, and I’m won over. But I am a salad-lover who is also a mom of two. And when guests come over, they are often surprised to see me making salad for my kids—and more surprised to see the kids eating it. How do I do it? The answer is actually simple: I make finger salads.

At 5, my youngest has officially left the toddler years, but the struggles of feeding a toddler are not too far away from my memory. Toddlers bounce from happy and inquisitive to tired and cranky easily without the capacity to tell us that they are hungry and headed for a meltdown. All of this is to say that after a day, or a week, or even hours of extraordinary emotional highs and lows and generally wrestling a wild, stubborn 2-year-old, you are tired. And you all still need to eat.

I’ll be honest with you: Classic snickerdoodles are one of my least favorite cookies. I love their crunchy cinnamon-sugar coating, but I’ve always wanted something more—something to really kick them up a notch. So in an attempt to reimagine the snickerdoodle into a cookie I would actually get excited about, I added an additional layer of flavor to the mix, completely transforming them into a brand-new treat that’s bold, delicious, and unexpected. My secret ingredient?

Do you remember the absolute joy you’d feel when your mom would pop open a can of biscuit dough and a package of bite-sized sausages — meaning pigs and a blanket were on the horizon? Our version embraces that exuberance, but we’re upgrading the whole thing. Thanks to our smart technique, you don’t have to individually wrap 50 tiny sausages to create the perfect bite of flaky, buttery pastry and smoky sausage (but more on that later).

Hello, and welcome to the first recipe in my new column, But First, Breakfast! I’ve been thinking about the idea for this series for a long time, probably ever since I started touring to promote my breakfast cookbook, Whole Grain Mornings, and readers told me how much they longed for really simple weekday breakfast ideas. This series is about real-world, make-ahead breakfasts that you can actually fit into your busy, everyday life.