Cooking enough for an army has been a long established tradition of Jewish mothers across the globe, but mine takes it to a new level. I can’t think of a meal prepared by my mother where there wasn’t enough food for each diner to have second or even third helpings. In fact, guests know that if my mom is preparing a festive meal, they most certainly should arrive hungry. This, of course, is no accident. As an immigrant who suffered great hardships in her native land of Cuba, my mother’s biggest fear in life is not having enough food. One look at the luxury of an American supermarket where there are aisles upon aisles stocked with countless varieties of culinary offerings, you’d think that fear would be quashed. However, this deeply rooted concern reflects less on the abundance that is available in the states, and stems more from her experience growing up in a third-world country, where she wasn’t sure if her next meal would offer enough to fill her then-growing belly.

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