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lightly touched in the center and are golden brown on the bottom. Remove the cookies from the baking sheet while they’re still warm.

INGREDIENT NOTES For crisper cookies, add ¾ teaspoon of baking soda with the flour.

For puffier cookies, add 1 tablespoon of baking powder with the flour.

serving & menu ideas

For delicious sandwich cookies, spread peanut butter or Nutella between the bottoms of two cooled cookies.

two sweet sauces

These two sauces are useful whenever you need to make a dessert in a hurry. Made in minutes, they can turn plain ice cream or store-bought poundcake into something special.

peanut butter chocolate sauce

You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator. When ready to serve, reheat, stirring frequently, until melted.

YIELDS 1½ CUPS

TIME: 10 MINUTES

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons sugar

½ cup water or milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ cup creamy or crunchy peanut butter

In a double boiler or a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate chips and sugar in the water or milk, stirring with a whisk until smooth and shiny. Whisk in the vanilla and peanut butter.

blueberry lemon sauce

This twilight-blue sweet-tart sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week. Made in a food processor, it’s thicker than when made in the blender.

YIELDS 2 CUPS

TIME: 10 MINUTES

1 pound frozen or fresh blueberries (about 3 cups)

⅓ cup sugar

pinch of salt

2 teaspoons lemon juice

In a saucepan on medium heat, bring the blueberries, sugar, salt, and a tablespoon of water to a simmer, stirring often, until the mixture is juicy. Cook for a few minutes, until the blueberries are soft.

In a blender or food processor, whirl the blueberries with the lemon juice until smooth. Add additional sugar to taste. Add more water if you want a thinner sauce.

5-minute milkshakes

Whip up one of these pretty pastel shakes for a casual dessert or any time you finish supper wishing you had made dessert. We suggest Chai Shake after a curry, Vanilla Rum Milkshake after West Indian Red Beans & Coconut Rice, Pineapple Ginger Shake after Asian Braised Fish with Greens—you get the picture.

SERVES 2

TIME: 5 MINUTES

In a blender, purée the ingredients until smooth, about 30 seconds. Pour into small glasses and serve immediately.

orange vanilla shake

1 cup orange juice

1 cup vanilla ice cream

1 teaspoon grated orange peel (optional)

chocolate malt

1 cup vanilla ice cream

2 tablespoons chocolate syrup

¼ cup Ovaltine or other malt powder

¾ cup milk

vanilla rum milkshake

1 cup vanilla ice cream

2 tablespoons rum

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons brown sugar

grated nutmeg for sprinkling on top

banana milkshake

1 cup vanilla ice cream

1 cup milk

1 ripe banana

ground cinnamon or grated nutmeg for sprinkling on top

chai shake

1 cup vanilla ice cream

1 cup chilled chai (look for aseptic boxes on supermarket shelves near the soy milk)

pineapple ginger shake

½ cup pineapple juice

1 cup vanilla ice cream

½ teaspoon peeled and grated ginger root

1 tablespoon lime juice

When your pantry is stocked with interesting foods and your freezer is full, you can eat well without a trip to the market. The authors of Simple Suppers are all Moosewood cooks, and there are plenty of days when we don’t want supper at home to be a major culinary production. A little time in the kitchen, yes. Creative? Maybe. Masterful? We hope. Time-consuming? No. Some days we have a hankering for something in particular and so we stop at the store, but most days when it’s time for dinner we check what’s in the cupboard and refrigerator and pull out our favorite simple supper ingredients.

Each of us has different favorite staples, items that may not have been in our pantries a few years ago but that we regularly use for convenience and good taste today. Our current collective top-ten list of favorites for convenience in our home kitchens includes little cans