mut I uLvvion PICYVJ COOKING Plain Jane: How To Gain And Gain One Sure Wail To Get Results! Did you know that your area newspa- per reaches more people than any other advertising medium ? Because of that fact, it's the best vehicle to get your message across ... and get results! Call us right now! The Jewish News 354-6060 I To: The Jewish News I 20300 Civic Center Dr., Suite 240 Southfield, Mich. 48076-4138 WElf JUST From Acct. # NAME ADDRESS CITY STATF enclose old label In her first book, Plain Jane Works Out, Linda Sunshine took a humorous stand on working out — stay home. In her second ven- ture, Plain Jane's Thrill of Very Fattening Foods Cookbook, (St. Martin's Press), Sunshine tells us how not to lose weight. The paperbacked book, with illustrations by Alison Seiffer and designed by Larry Kazal, is filled with tongue-in-cheek advice, let- ters to "Jane" and an appendix with cooking terms (using Sun- shine's own definitions) and of course, recipes guaranteed to put on the pounds. The dessert recipes come first, and upon a cursory glance one can almost feel the calories mounting just by reading the names of the items contained therein: My Mom's Incredibly Fattening Noo- dle Pudding, Rebel Yell 15,000 Calorie Cake, Sandra's Mother's Frozen Chocolate Velvet Pie, M & M Cookies, Flo's Cool Whip Mousse, Fattening Fruit Salad, Cooking With Ice Cream and the Chocolate-Dipped Calvin Klein Strawberry. There are also recipes for ap- petizers, snacks, entrees and side dishes. Herewith, a taste of Sunshine's humor: "Tips for ransacking the cookie jar: Only eat the broken cookies — you can keep eating pieces and never feel like you've eaten a whole cookie." "The three most admired women in America: Nancy Re- agan, Betty Crocker and Aunt Jemima." "Always be prepared for an emergency. Keep your pantry well stocked with the basics for survival: confectioner's sugar, condensed milk, graham cracker crusts and Marshmallow Fluff." "The World of Woks: Stir-frying is only one of the many ways to use your wok. Did you know, for instance that the wok makes a perfect sundae dish? To season for dessert use, fill with two quarts of Jamoca almond fudge ice cream and lick clean." "A blintz by any other name would be called: a crepe (French), an egg roll (Chinese), a cannelloni or ravioli (Italian), a blini (Rus- sian), an enchilada (Mexican) and teki-maki (Japanese). Following are some sample re- cipes: M&M COOKIES 1 stick sweet butter /4 cup light brown sugar 1/2 cup sugar 1 egg % tsp. vanilla 1 cup plus 2 tbsps. flour 1/2 tsp. salt % tsp. baking soda 6 ounces or so of M&Ms 1 7IP To: Please allow 2 weeks Effective Date mai Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and add sugars. Add egg and vanilla. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and add to butter-sugar mixture. Mix in M&Ms, being careful not to crush them while mixing. Using a tsp., drop cookies onto a greased cookie sheet. Dot each cookie with one or two extra M&Ms. Bake in 350 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until browned. Grocery tip: When buying the ingredients for these cookies, I purchase the One Pounder bag of M&Ms. I use 6 ounces for the re- cipe and the rest are for me. THE CHOCOLATE-DIPPED CALVIN KLEIN STRAWBERRY Strawberries - buy the biggest, freshest, most beautiful berries you can find. Chocolate - you will need about 5 ounces of semi- sweet chocolate per pint of strawberries. Buy the best you can find: Tobler, Lindt, Michel Guerard. To save money, I combine one of these with 1/2 part Baker's Chocolate. Heavy sweet cream (whipped) Raisins, nuts, coconut (for extra chocolate) Wash the berries the night be- fore -preparing this dessert and allow at least 12 hours for them to air-dry. (Do not refrigerate.) It is essential that the berries be abso- lutely dry. Leave the stems and leaves intact. Use a double boiler to melt the chocolate. Melt over barely sim- mering water and make sure that the water does not touch the top of the double boiler. Stir frequently. Make certain that no water gets into the chocolate. Even a few drops of water from your spatula or steam from the double boiler can separate the chocolate beyond repair. While dipping, replace the pan over simmering water every few minutes, but keep the flame of the heat very low. Do not allow any steam to build up on the pan while dipping and stir chocolate fre- quently. (An alternative method is to keep the top of the double boiler on a heated heating pad while dipping.) Hold strawberry by the top stem and dip into pan. Cover three quarters of the strawberry with chocolate. Place all the berries on waxed paper. If possible, balance the strawberry upside down, on its stem, to cool. If it won't balance, lay it on its side. If you have any leftover choco- late, drop the nuts, raisins, or coconut (your choice) into the pan and stir. Remove in teaspoonful chunks and drop onto waxed paper. (Homemade raisinets are even better than the kind you buy at the movies.) Do not refrigerate chocolate- dipped strawberries as they will sweat and the chocolate may crack. Leave them near an open window or other cool place. they will keep for about 24 hours. Serve Calvin Klein strawber- ries with a dollop of whipped cream and a smile. Keep the raisinets for yourself. MY SISTER'S MUSHROOM TARTS Crust: 3 3-ounce packages cream cheese 1/2 cup soft butter 11/2 cups flour Filling: 1 small minced onion 4 tsps. butter 2 cups mushrooms, coarsely chopped 1/2 cup sour cream Salt Pepper Thyme 4 tsps. flour Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix together cream cheese- and butter. Add 1 1/2 cups flour and work into dough. Refrigerate for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, saute onion in but- ter and add mushrooms. Stir in sour cream, salt, pepper, and thyme and set aside. Roll dough very thin on a floured surface and use the rim of a 3-inch glass to cut out rounds. Fill each round with about 1/2 teaspoon of filling, fold and seal edges like a turnover. Pinch sides all around. Prick each tart with a fork. Bake in a 450 degrees oven for 15 minutes or until brown. You can prepare these tarts the night before serving, but don't freeze them. BLINTZ SOUFFLE 2 packages of frozen blintzes (12), fruit or cheese % cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1 pint sour cream 6 eggs 1/2 stick sweet butter Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place blintzes in buttered fitted oven-proof dish. Mix sugar, van- illa, sour cream, eggs, and butter. Pour mixture over blintzes. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour (until bubbling). Kosher cooks should be aware that substitutions may have to be made on some recipes.