Bread in an hour

This recipe is adapted from Mark Bittman, who is correct in saying that this isn’t the best bread you’ll ever eat, but it’s quick and it will do if you want something to dip in your soup or spread cheese on. How to make bread Preheat the oven to 450. In a medium-size mixing bowl, …

Vegan chocolate mousse

Simple, elegant, delicious, vegan Regular chocolate mousse is delicious, but it’s definitely not vegan, and also it’s not safe for people with weak immune systems because it has raw eggs in it. This version is a little harder to make, but it has no eggs and is completely vegan – it has nothing in it …

Vegan chocolate cake

Simple, elegant, delicious, vegan My daughter puts on a pop-up restaurant fund-raiser for homeless people every year, and all kinds of people come, so we always need to have good vegan desserts. One of the waitresses – a friend of my daughter’s – brought this vegan chocolate cake one year, and we’ve made it every …

Valerie cake

The best chocolate cake ever A few years back, I went to a Christmas party at a friend’s house, and everybody brought something. Our French friend Valerie brought this French chocolate cake, and it was so extremely delicious that after that party practically every single woman asked Valerie privately for the recipe. So every time …

Sweet potato pie

White girls can’t make no sweet potato pie… One year, I made this sweet potato pie for my office Christmas party. On the light-rail train on the way home that evening, I had the remains of the pie under my seat. One stop before mine, I stood up and moved over to the door, and …

Strawberry sauce

Strawberry Sauce In May when they finally come into season, it’s been so long since we had fresh juicy fruit – since August, when the peaches dried up – that we just grab handfuls of strawberries and cram them into our mouths plain. But after a few days, we’re ready to eat strawberries in more …

Strawberries and sugar

Don’t eat New Zealand Strawberries These days, they sell things that look like strawberries at the store all year round. But they’ll only *taste* like strawberries in May and June, and maybe into July. While they’re good, buy two or three flats of strawberries and slice them up and freeze them, and you’ll have delicious strawberry …

Sponge cake with pineapple

With Pineapple! In the winter, pineapple is good when no other kind of fruit is, and this sponge cake makes it into a delicious dessert! How to make sponge cake: Preheat oven to 350. Put the springform pan together, or use a cake pan, and grease the pan. Separate 6 eggs and mix the yolks …

Rugelach

Great cookies, no sugar! Sure, we make hamentaschen in February or March for Purim – it’s traditional – but really it’s an excuse to make rugelach at the same time. We all like rugelach better – which is funny, because rugelach don’t even have any sugar in them. But they do have lots of fat …

Rhubarb crisp

Rhubarb’s one of the first things you get to eat fresh in the spring, plus it grows like a weed for practically everybody wherever you plant it (except for me; I have a rhubarb plant in a big pot that never produces anything ever. But for everyone else.) But in the fall, I make the …