38 Power Foods, Week 19 -- Kiwi -- Quick Individual Kiwi Tarts with Gingersnap Crust

An ultra thin ginger snap smothered with hot pastry cream serves as the "crust."

How the Quick Kiwi Tart with Gingersnap Crust came to be...

While I love to bake a pie as much as the next woman (more than most, I'd guess), I also like nearly instant desserts that are luscious and don't wear out the soles of your trainers.  (Like after you've cooked for company all day and still need dessert.)  I have a pocketful of favorites like a 30-second pumpkin custard (it'll be in my soup book) and a blink-done  individual chocolate flourless "cake." I also have no-bake favorites like a strawberry ice cream parfait layered with crumbled ginger shortbread and fresh peaches. In cases of real emergencies, I buy ice cream and cones--and not just for the kids.

Women Game-Changers in Food - #34 Ella Brennan - Creole Bread Pudding

  Conventional wisdom says, "If there's bread pudding on the menu, order it."  Now that I've made Brennan's Creole Bread Pudding, I know why.  I won't say who it is, but someone in my house is saying, "Please let me stay out of the frig as long as that bread pudding is in there."

Creole Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce

For number 34 on Gourmet Live's List of Women Game-Changers in Food, there's the infamous and famous Ella Brennan, New Orleans restauranteur extraordinaire.   Hailed as the most influential person in the American restaurant business ever,