Spyglass’ Picks: Holiday Recipes

When I think of Ramadan, I always think of my dad’s katayif. He’s been making them all his life for himself, me, and my brother every Ramadan. His mom used to make them for him back in Cairo, and he’s always talking about how they give him some sweet nostalgia. My best Ramadan memories are sitting two hours or so before dawn eating katayif for suhur so I could fast all day. It’s a sticky, ...

My great-grandpa created this recipe, and my grandpa continued it, making it during the holiday times when my dad was young. My grandpa was an avid baker, and he often experimented with new recipes. However, this is a simple one that is easy to whip up quickly for the holidays. Ingredients 1 ½ cups sugar 1 cup condensed milk 4 tbsp butter (plus extra for the baking sheet) 1 tbsp corn syr...

After a long, successful cookie season in my 3rd grade Brownie troop, we ended up with some leftover cookies that we didn’t end up selling. To make sure the thin mints didn’t go to waste, my mom came up with this dessert to incorporate them into something our whole troop could enjoy. Needless to say, my mom’s Thin Mint ice cream pie became a favorite in our troop, and has been a family favorite ...

Jewish people have been eating Chinese food on Christmas since the early 1900s. Manhattan’s Chinatown borders on the once majority-Jewish Lower East Side, where the early 20th century's two largest non-Christian immigrant groups spent December 25 sharing cultures at their restaurants, the only ones open on the holiday. My parents don’t miss the bad winter weather of their native New York, but t...

Recently, after the survival drama television series “Squid Game” aired in September, dalgona candy, or ppopgi, became a worldwide sensation and people from all corners of the world were seen on instagram pouring the shiny brown liquid on wax paper.      The meaning of the word “dalgona” came from the word “dalguna,” which literally translates to “it’s sweet.” The candy is normally sold by street vendors in Korea, where the candy is...

My family is big on Greek yogurt; my parents believe that yogurt is the best food for the digestive system. While they love eating it straight, my sister and I find it very bitter, leading us to dislike yogurt. So, with help from my mom, we created a great recipe for berry compote. I usually add a spoonful of it on top of my Greek yogurt, vanilla ice cream, and sometimes bread. I hope you enjoy it!  ...

To celebrate the Jewish new year of Rosh Hashanah, for the past few years, my family has enjoyed a lovely apple cake. Whether it was my mother baking it, or myself, this delightful desert is highly regarded in my immediate family. Traditionally, apples and honey are eaten on Rosh Hashanah, and this cake does a wonderful job of bringing out those two foods' sweetness. This easy recipe causes no stre...

Although they’re not festive, matcha muffins are so much fun and very easy to make! My friend originally found the recipe on Pinterest and we thought it looked interesting. We made them together a few times for sleepovers and picnics and loved them! I wrote down the recipe, and my family and I make them together often. They’re light and fluffy, and I love eating them with ice cream or milk. ...

Throughout the year, my mom and I often bake our family’s favorite: coconut mochi. It originally comes from my mom’s friend’s recipe book Better Baking: Wholesome Ingredients, Delicious Desserts. For the holidays, however, I alter the favored recipe slightly and top it with finely shredded coconut to imitate snow. After baking, the coconut darkens to a caramel color, so it helps to top with more...

My family tends to celebrate the holiday season quite unconventionally. We like to bake and cook things that aren’t traditionally associated with the holiday season. This is one of our favorite twisted holiday recipes: white chocolate peppermint macarons.   Ingredients: Macaron Cookies: 3½ cups powdered sugar 2 cup almond flour 2 teaspoon salt  6 egg whites, at room temperature ...

Ingredients:  Graham Cracker Crust: ⅓ pound of graham crackers (finely milled in a food processor) 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter 2 tablespoons of sugar   Key Lime Filling: 1 can of sweetened condensed milk ½ cup lime juice The zest of 2 limes 5 egg yolks (to add richness and color)   (Optional) Whipped cream: ¾ cup heavy whipping cream 5 tablespoons ...

While the weather is getting colder, soup is perfect to keep warm. Every autumn and winter, my mom makes her homemade Oxtail Tomato Noodle Soup. This soup tastes just like home to me and I hope when you take a big slurp of the soup noodles you can feel right at home too! Ingredients/Materials: Pressure cooker Cabbage Tomatoes  Oxtail  Twin Marquis Plain Noodle (Thick) Black Vinegar Cooking Wine Soy Sauce Fish Sauce​​ Re...

My family and I love dates. Whether we drink them with tea for dessert or include them in recipes for natural sweetness, dates are a staple in my house, especially during the holidays. When I was ten years old, I took it upon myself to create a dessert for my family around Christmas that uses dates as the main ingredient. After playing around with a recipe and making alterations, I finally came up...

The best meal I ever had was Christmas dinner in 2020. Covid and online learning were stressing me out, but winter break was my time to de-stress. During the break, I helped my mom prepare a big meal for Christmas dinner. We cooked steak, bought crispy bread, and steamed vegetables. For dessert, we made these incredible chocolate mousses. We ate dessert on the couch of our living room while watchin...

 While this is a simple meal that can be made any day, each year me and my family make sure that this staple piece is on the table ready to eat and warm our hearts with its rich flavor. Ingredients: 1 tablespoon Canola Oil Vermicelli Pasta 16oz Tomato Sauce 32oz Chicken Broth   Directions: 1. In a pot, put a thin layer of canola oil and place on medium heat 2. Once the oil is warmed up, place the pas...

In the winter (or, I suppose, at any time in general), I find myself often craving something sweet and manageable to procure on impulse. Enter: matcha latte cookies. These cookies, although seemingly difficult (I say this because they aren’t chocolate chip cookies), are mostly foolproof and are definitely worth the search for milk powder at your local supermarket.  As a bonus, I found the re...

Although my dad is the designated baker of the family, baking new types of cookies or cakes each week, this is one recipe that we always love making together. Although we’ve made the cake several times in the last few years, we always end up accidentally showering the electric mixer in our dry ingredients or fearing that the batter is too thick. Despite our initial panic each time, it always turn...

My family is a box mix cake type of family. Other than the store bought goods that we buy, any ‘homemade’ goods usually end up being the just-add-water type of treats. However, a few years ago, we decided to repurpose our carved halloween pumpkins and turn them into pumpkin pie. Sometimes we will make multiple batches that last all the way through the holidays. It’s a great way to reuse the carved...

My Asian family has always celebrated the holidays with our own traditions. For example, we substitute turkey on Thanksgiving with chicken and hot chocolate with tea. However, on Lunar New Year, the adults love enjoying the traditional foods made in a specific traditional way. They often eat fish, rice cakes, and items with deep traditional meanings and history. However, in contrast, my siblings who ha...

My family loves potatoes all year round, but during the holidays, my mom loves to experiment with new recipes that involve using potatoes! My mom made this dish for Thanksgiving dinner this year, and it has become one of my favorites. It includes two of my favorite foods, garlic and potatoes! This recipe is from Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbook, Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love.   Ingre...

When my grandparents first came to this country, they met some Americans from Chicago who eventually became their best friends. They introduced this dish, the watergate salad, to them at their first Thanksgiving together. It was such an interesting concept to serve a sweet dish with all the main courses and serve it as a salad, so it became a favorite in our family. We only serve it at Thanksgivin...