…who doesn’t try this deliciously simple dessert. As summer is approaching I can feel my culinary muscles getting sluggish. I don’t want to turn on the oven. It is enough to set a pot of water on the stove to boil. And baking? Well, just forget about it. I am tired, or maybe it’s just that I am lazy. That is why I’m happy to announce the discovery of the strawberry-rhubarb fool.
I had never had a fool– that mix of freshly whipped cream and fruit compote of your choosing– they had always seemed like a bit of a hoax to me. “So it’s some whipped cream, anyone can do that,” I questioned. And the answer is: precisely, anyone can do that. That is what makes this dessert so wonderfully egalitarian.
When I was a little girl we always had large Thanksgivings with all of the fixins’ at home. Except for one [...]

Perhaps you all remember my quandary over the fridge that wouldn’t grow? My svelte refrigerator took some getting used to, and Brian was on the unhappy end of hearing my continual complaints, and the happy end of eating my latest, leftover inventions. So let me tell you what recently happened in my little kitchen. It goes something like this:
Brian answers his ringing cell phone only to hear the voice of his charming wife, “Can you pick up a container of plain yoghurt on your way home?” I ask.“Sure, how much do you need?”“Oh, about a cup, of plain– not vanilla.”“Got it, I’ll see you later.”Then I hung up the phone, and awaited my husband’s return. A few hours later, Brian came trudging home, carrying the hugest tub of yoghurt money can buy.“What is that!?!” I exclaimed.“It’s the yoghurt you asked for.”“Okay, but I asked [...]

I have been on a mission. It is one that has taken me as far as the depths of my kitchen and the to the wiles of the public library. Yes, I have searched long and hard, and waged many a calorie-ridden day happily in hungrily in pursuit of the perfect cake recipe. And by perfect cake I mean this: it has to be versatile, it must be trustworthy, and it has to be simple. Those are the hallmarks of a good recipe if you ask me. And I just may have found the cake of my dreams.
Simplicity, meet coconut cake. Coconut cake, meet simplicity. This cake is really only called a coconut cake because of the thin shavings of golden, toasty brown coconut sprinkled gingerly on top. The cake is truly called Brown Sugar Lightning Cake from Sally Schneider’s tome, The [...]