The only thing that has remained constant since my childhood with regards to Eid is the wonderful home-made cookies that my mother always bakes days before the big celebration. The new clothes have come and gone, the money my brother and I used to receive for Eid is a long distant memory. But the Kahk has always been around. My mom will never buy them from a store. If they're not home-made, they're not allowed to pass our lips.

Every year she gets together with my next door neighbor where they break night making trays and trays of scrumptous, super fattening cookies. It is their major social event, a time to exchange in the friendly gossip of who still needs to get married, who is past their prime in marriage, who is pregnant, who should get pregnant and then they develop appropriate strategies to get all this done. I've never joined them in the cookie baking, though plan to do it one day sans the gossip.

They baked the cookies this year last week, five to six days before Eid. And when my mother finished making them, she hid them from me. I spent three days looking for them to no avail.

Then one day she gave me a box of cookies to give to Toots , warning me that if he didn't receive its entire contents I would be in trouble. I know better than to cross my mother and I had all the intentions in the world to give Toots the cookies, but our plans got cancelled and we didn't have the chance to meet up. I came home with the box of cookies in tow, thinking she would be kind enough to give me some.

So after we broke our fast I asked her if I could have some cookies and she said no. I had to wait till Eid. I threatened that if she didn't give me my own cookies I'd steal a some from Toots' box and the physical fight that ensued over than tiny box was classic! She finally relented and told me that she'll give me my own cookies but I was not to touch Toots' cookies (she spoils him).

She started rummaging through the pots and took out some cookies for me, cursing herself for not kicking me out of the kitchen and therefore revealing her hiding place. I didn't even think to look in the pots for them!!!

Here, however, is the nutritious information on these cookies:


You think they're fattening enough??????????

I've lost exactly 12 & 1/2 pounds since the beginning of Ramadan. I've never lost that much weight in a month. It was unintentional. I would always break fast with some soup, which then made me so full that I'd end up eating much less. I would then work on my lesson plans and by the time I finished them it would be time for bed. A handful of these kahks should get me right back on track.