If you’re like me, and always work from home, you used to be very good at balancing the whole working-from-home thing — whether you’re trying to keep a child who’s home sick occupied while on the phone with your boss, or you’re muting yourself on a conference call to sign for a package from UPS, or you’re scheduling meetings for when your toddler is napping on a day that his playgroup morah isn’t working. If you backtrack about two months, working from home in a professional capacity was supposed to mimic an o­ffice environment, meaning the person on the other end of the line shouldn’t know that you’re at home.

And if you’re like me, a work-at-home mother, you might be finding the current working environment as eye-opening as I am. See, professionalism is put on a high pedestal, and those who have aced this skill are on the path towards success, apparently, as this image must be pursued with the exception of all else. (I’m saying this tongue-in-cheek, in case it wasn’t clear.)

Until recently, I also strived for this squeaky-clean work environment. Today, though, so many of us are shushing our kids together, that shiny image is nonexistent, and professionalism has been placed on the back burner. Those who are truly shining in the work world now are those who can multitask and work gracefully under pressure, and it becomes clearer than ever that it’s not about what we look like, but about what we produce.

I’m proud to work with creative people like Miriam Pascal who can work with what they have (literally) and produce magic from their pantries and their laptops, keeping up with the thirst for great Family Table content.

Chanie Nayman

Food Editor, Family Table

Tuna Tweak

Lately, I’ve chopping red cabbage really finely and adding it to my tuna. I love the crunch — and of course the color!

Frozen Fresh

Whenever I have fresh herbs that look like they’re on their way out, I put them in the freezer and use them for soup. They’ll get waterlogged anyway in a soup, so this is the perfect usage.

Here's a trick I've been doing for years. To melt chocolate quickly with no singeing and no mess, put it in a ziplock bag and hang it on the inside of your urn for a minute or two. Leave a few inches hanging out of the top for easy retrieval!

(Originally featured in Family Table, Issue 690)