The Kitchn Archive: Apr 2011

Many desserts can be fussy and time-consuming but I tend to love the simple ones that come together quickly and allow me to linger around the table with my guests. In many cases, this kind of dessert is more about shopping than cooking, so having the right ingredients on hand is key. Read on for a pantry list and some delicious (but lightning quick!) recipe ideas. And leave us your favorite quick and simple dessert ideas in the comments!

Here’s a funny thing about an egg cream: It contains neither eggs nor cream. What it does offer is a sweet yet light way to end a meal. And, if you’re so inclined (I am) you can slip your booze in at the same time. Bonus! The egg cream is a soda shop classic. In the old days of drugstore soda fountains, kids and teenagers would belly up to the bar for a rich glass of milk, fizzed up with soda, and sweetened with a thick stir of chocolate syrup.

The writing of essayist and novelist Laurie ColwinIn More Home Cooking, one of Colwin’s collections of essays on food and cooking, she writes about Jell-O and other commercial gelatin desserts, and how she was disappointed by their artificial flavorings and taste. But her small daughter yearned for wobbly, brightly-colored gelatin desserts, and so Colwin started making them from fruit juice and plain, unflavored gelatin.

Date night dinners need not be complicated to be fancy. Take this recipe: lasagna noodles trimmed into squares make elegant “open-faced” raviolis. With poached eggs nestled between the layers, some wilted greens, and a simple sauce of brown butter and lemon, this very simple dish becomes a date night win.Greens, garlic, and eggs are one of our very favorite flavor combinations. The bitterness of the greens is tempered by the rich egg yolk, while the garlic brings it all together.

With all the citrus that grows here in Southern California, we’re always searching for new ways to use these fruits – French toast, roasted vegetables, dust… We often add citrus zest to couscous dishes and this time we thought, why not add the juicy segments? Sweet pomelo was the perfect fruit for this experiment, and the result is a dish we can’t get enough of!

Thai curry, how I love thee. You’re spicy yet sweet. You’re rich with coconut milk yet surprisingly light. You’re full of enough vegetables that I can feel vaguely healthy eating you. And now I can make you at home.The “Cooking Without Recipes” section in Fine Cooking magazine is always one of my favorites, and this formula for cooking endless variations of Thai curry is no exception.

Bacon-Cheddar Twice-Baked Potatoes It’s going to involve a little more than butter and sour cream. But making a baked (or sweet) potato a meal is an easy, satisfying way to solve dinner. We don’t do it nearly often enough. How To Bake a Potato in the Oven We were inspired by Faith’s 400-calorie lunches; one involved a sweet potato topped with yogurt and bacon.

Spring seems to have finally settled in down South, and my cooking has already started to reflect the change in the seasons. But just because the weather has warmed up doesn’t mean my cravings for hearty food have completely disappeared.We had a series of torrential April showers blow across the Southeast this weekend that made me want to stay home and pull a blanket over my head. I needed to cook something warm and soothing to calm my nerves.

Q: I saw the question about beans and breakfast, but a lot of the suggestions involve carbs. My boyfriend and I are attempting to add more legumes into our diets, instead of carbs, but we are very unfamiliar with preparing easy, simple recipes. We purchased a can of black beans, a can of kidney beans and a bag of lentils to start taste testing. Any suggestions without all the carbs?

Passover is coming up (it begins next Monday at sundown) and so we have been looking for good Passover recipes to share this week. Most Passover tables are completely free of grains and bread, of course, but those of you who miss your carbs over this holiday week might be surprised and pleased to hear that quinoa is actually kosher for Passover.

Since we’ve been without the use of our stove for awhile now, Spring is a much welcomed season. We’ve been able to bust out the grill and have used it for almost all of our cooking needs. One of our favorite lunch snacks has become these rolled sandwiches are self contained making them easy to eat at work or on the go and are perfect for a lunch or dinner party. Plus — come on, look at those grill marks! My husband and I are just as busy as most of you.

It’s April, which means invitations to weddings, engagement parties, bridal luncheons, and baby showers are flooding my mailbox. Being the proper southern lady, I’m obligated to put on my pearls, brush my hair, and show up with a smile on my face and gift in my hand. I may secretly be wanting to crawl out of the nearest window, but there is always one thing that keeps me coming back for more. That’s good food, and lots of it.