The Just Desserts Club

  JOHANNA HURWITZ

  Illustrated by KAREN DUGAN

  Text copyright © 2014, 1999 by Johanna Hurwitz

  Illustrations copyright © 2014, 1999 by Karen Dugan

  All rights reserved.

  Published by StarWalk Kids Media

  Except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and articles, no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher. Contact:

  StarWalk Kids Media

  15 Cutter Mill Road, Suite 242

  Great Neck, NY 11021

  www.StarWalkKids.com

  ISBN 978-1-63083-004-5

  Once again for Caroline Feller Bauer,

  who’s been sharing recipes with me for forty years. At least two of Cricket’s cookie recipes came from her.

  Contents

  Recipe for a Good Time

  ONE

  The Zucchini Houdini

  Zucchini “Apple” Crisp

  Brownie Surprise Cake

  Zucchini Bread

  Zucchini Cookies

  TWO

  Cooking Up a Plan

  No-Bake Orange Balls

  Not-for-Breakfast Cornflake Candy

  No-Bake Peanut Butter Balls

  Use-Your-Noodle Cookies

  THREE

  Sweet Valentine

  Sweet Kisses

  “Be My Honey” Cookies

  Chocolate Truffles

  “Let’s Make a Date” Nut Squares

  FOUR

  April Food’s Day

  Cricket’s Souper Surprise Cake

  Better-Than-17-Carat-Gold Carrot Cake

  Dirt

  Mystery Ingredient Chocolate Cake

  Recipe for a Good Time

  Ingredients

  1 group of friends—any number, girls and boys large amount of cooperation—as many parts as there are participants

  1 part sense of humor

  2 parts sharing

  2 parts compromise

  1 kitchen and 1 parent to oversee use of stove, sharp utensils, and general activities

  Cooking Directions

  • Wash hands before touching food.

  • Take turns doing all activities.

  • Follow directions carefully. Mix all ingredients listed above. If something doesn’t turn out as planned, don’t blame anyone. You can always learn from your mistakes.

  • Clean up kitchen while food is cooking.

  • Enjoy the results!

  ONE

  The Zucchini Houdini

  Cricket Kaufman had a secret. She couldn’t admit it to her friends because they would think she was weird. But the truth was, she wished the summer vacation were over. Cricket loved school. She liked her teachers and most of her classmates. She even enjoyed doing homework assignments and the challenge of taking tests. So when summer vacation stretched on and on for two full months, she became miserable. She began counting the days until school would reopen and sixth grade would begin.

  Someday in the future, when Cricket was the first woman president of the United States, one of the first laws she’d make would concern school vacations. She’d make a law that instead of having all of July and August off from school, four days of school would be followed by three-day weekends all year long.

  This summer had started out pretty great. Cricket had gone to Washington, D.C., with her mother and her classmate Sara Jane Cushman. After returning from the trip, Cricket went swimming at the community pool and enjoyed backyard picnics with Sara Jane and her other best friend, Zoe Mitchell. Then in mid-August, both Sara Jane and Zoe had gone away on family vacations, and Cricket was alone.

  To pass the time, she read many books, including twelve biographies of American presidents—but it turned out that most of them had led lives that were just as dull as hers. Every day started to feel exactly the same. Why, her mother had even prepared zucchini for supper three nights in a row! That was another law President Cricket Kaufman would have to make: No more zucchini!

  Cricket didn’t actually dislike zucchini, but three nights in a row was too much. It was all because her father had come home from work with an enormous bag of the long green vegetables.

  “Bob Eversham says his garden is exploding with zucchini this year,” Mr. Kaufman had reported to his wife. He put the brown paper bag down on the kitchen counter. Mrs. Kaufman removed a total of nine zucchini.

  “How wonderful!” Cricket’s mother had exclaimed.

  So on Monday night the family ate steamed zucchini with their chicken cutlets.

  On Tuesday Mrs. Butler, who lived across the street from the Kaufman family, dropped by with a large plastic grocery bag. “I’ve just returned from visiting my sister in Delaware,” she said. “She wouldn’t let me leave without some vegetables from her garden. I’m keeping the tomatoes that she gave me, but I thought you could use these.” The bag was filled with zucchini.

  When Mrs. Kaufman had finished preparing zucchini in tomato sauce for that evening’s supper, Cricket noticed that they were now down to eleven zucchini in the refrigerator. But a little later, her father returned home from work with a second bag of them from his coworker.

  “At this rate, we won’t have room for even a quart of milk,” said Mrs. Kaufman as she stuffed several more zucchini into the refrigerator. The six zucchini that she couldn’t fit inside remained on the kitchen counter. It looked like the Kaufmans would be eating zucchini until Halloween.

  Since Cricket’s mother knew only two ways to prepare zucchini—steamed or with a tomato sauce—on Wednesday Cricket was faced with eating the steamed vegetable for the second time in three days. She shuddered.

  “I’m tired of eating zucchini every night,” Cricket complained.

  “I understand how you feel,” said Mrs. Kaufman. “But we can’t let this fresh produce go to waste. So you’ll just have to pretend that you’re eating something else for the next few days.”

  That’s ridiculous, Cricket thought. How can you eat zucchini and pretend that it’s something else? It was at that moment that Cricket made an executive decision. She would figure out another way to cook those vegetables. She finally had something new to do with her time!

  On Thursday morning she headed off to the public library. She returned the biographies of John Tyler and Calvin Coolidge and then, instead of looking for another life story of a former American president, she headed for the cookbook area.

  That’s when Cricket made one of the most amazing discoveries since gold was found in California back in the nineteenth century. In addition to finding recipes for frying, roasting, and baking zucchini, she learned that the vegetable could also be used as an ingredient in several desserts.

  Cricket copied some of the most interesting recipes into the notebook she had brought with her, and then she started for home. She could hardly wait to try one of the new recipes.

  As she was hurrying down the street, Cricket met two of her friends from school, Lucas Cott and Julio Sanchez. They had their skateboards under their arms, and Lucas was carrying a plastic bag of marshmallows.

  “I thought you were at sleep-away camp,” Cricket said to Lucas.

  “I was. For three weeks. But now I’m home again.” He looked at Cricket, who was holding her notebook in her left hand. “Don’t tell me you’re doing homework already! School doesn’t start for another two weeks.”

  “I’m not doing homework,” Cricket said.

  “What were you writing in that notebook?” Julio asked.

  “I was doing some private research,” Cricket retorted. Why did Julio and Lucas have to know about everything? “What are you doing here with that bag of marshmallows?” Cricket asked Lucas.
>
  “We just bought them,” Lucas explained. “I’m going to show Julio how to be a chubby bunny. It’s a game we played at camp.”

  “I never heard of it,” said Cricket.

  “Me neither,” Julio said. “But it sounds like fun. All you have to do is stuff your mouth with marshmallows. The one who can put the most inside is the winner.”

  Lucas ripped open the bag and pulled out a fistful of marshmallows. “Start counting,” he said.

  Cricket and Julio kept score as Lucas stuck one marshmallow after another into his mouth. When he reached eight, he couldn’t fit another one in.

  “Boy, do you look stupid,” Cricket told Lucas.

  When Lucas tried to protest, two of the marshmallows popped out of his mouth and landed on the ground. He began chewing the ones still in his mouth. “It’s fun,” he said in a voice choked by the contents of his mouth. “Especially if you like marshmallows.”

  “I like everything,” said Julio, reaching for the plastic bag. “Let’s see what I can do. I bet I can beat your record.”

  Julio managed to push nine soft white pieces into his open jaws.

  “You don’t look like a chubby bunny. You look like a hamster,” Cricket proclaimed. She was remembering the class pet from back in first grade.

  “Do you want a turn?” Lucas asked, offering the bag.

  “I’ll just take one to eat,” said Cricket, and turned to walk away. It might be fun to see how many marshmallows she could fit into her mouth, but she certainly wouldn’t do it out on the street, where anyone could walk by and see her looking so ridiculous.

  “Where are you going now?” Lucas wanted to know.

  “I’m going home to bake some—” Cricket stopped herself from finishing the sentence. “I’m going to cook a surprise. I bet you’d never be able to guess what mystery ingredient is in it.”

  “Sure we could,” said Julio, who was licking the powdered sugar from his lips after swallowing all the marshmallows that had been in his mouth.

  “I eat everything, and I always know what I’m chewing on.” He grinned at Cricket. “What do you want to bet that I can guess whatever your mystery ingredient is?”

  “If I win the bet, you have to give me a prize,” said Cricket. “And if you win, I’ll give you something.”

  “Like what?” Lucas asked suspiciously. He wasn’t certain he wanted to taste anything Cricket cooked up. Once last spring he’d eaten a cupcake that she’d made, and it had been pretty awful.

  “Wait and see,” Cricket told Lucas. She wasn’t worried about having to give him or Julio anything. There was no way they’d guess the mystery ingredient.

  “Come over to my house at three o’clock,” she told the boys.

  “Okay,” Julio agreed. “See you later.”

  Back home, Mrs. Kaufman was amused by her daughter’s research. “Which of these recipes do you want to make?” she asked.

  “This one,” Cricket replied, pointing to the pie recipe. If it tasted as good as it looked in the cookbook, it would certainly trick Lucas and Julio.

  Mrs. Kaufman studied the recipe. Luckily, they had all of the ingredients in the house. As soon as lunch was over and Cricket’s little sister, Monica, was in bed for her afternoon nap, Cricket and her mother began working together.

  By three o’clock Monica was wide-awake and playing on the backyard swings. Cricket was sitting on a lawn chair, keeping an eye on her sister. A spicy, cinnamony odor, like apple pie, was coming from inside the house. Cricket could hardly wait for the two boys to arrive. She just knew this was one bet with Lucas Cott that she was guaranteed to win.

  Suddenly Cricket heard Lucas’s voice. “Stop that,” he ordered someone.

  Cricket ran to the front of the house and was dismayed to see that Lucas and Julio were not alone. They were accompanied by Lucas’s younger brothers, Marcus and Marius.

  “Why did you bring them?” Cricket demanded.

  “My mother said I had to take care of them. A filling fell out of her tooth at lunchtime, and she had to make an emergency appointment with the dentist. She didn’t think Marcus and Marius would sit still in the dentist’s office while they waited for her.”

  “We never sit still,” said Marius proudly.

  “We never sit still. We never stand still,” said Marcus. He jumped up and down to prove his point.

  “Well, you’d better sit still in my house,” Cricket warned the boys. “Come on inside.” She called to Monica, and the little girl came running.

  “Who are you?” Monica asked Lucas’s brothers.

  “Marcus.”

  “Marius.”

  “How do you know which of you is which?” Monica asked them. It was a logical question for a three-year-old. Lucas’s brothers were identical twins.

  “I just do,” said Marius.

  Mrs. Kaufman greeted everyone. “This is turning into a real party,” she said as she took plates and glasses from the cupboard.

  “Boy, that apple pie sure smells good,” Julio commented as they all sat down around the kitchen table.

  “Wait till you taste it,” said Cricket, smiling mysteriously.

  “I want a big piece,” demanded Marcus.

  “Me too,” said Marius.

  “Me too,” said Monica.

  “Not me,” said Lucas. “I’ll just take a little bit.” There was something about the expression on Cricket’s face that made him even more suspicious than he was before.

  Mrs. Kaufman poured glasses of milk for everyone. Then she cut big and small slices of the pie.

  “Oh, man,” said Julio, chewing his first mouthful of the pie. “This is the greatest.”

  “More,” demanded Marcus as he stuffed pie into his mouth.

  “Careful, Marius,” said Mrs. Kaufman, looking at him. “You almost knocked your glass of milk off of the table.”

  “No, I didn’t,” said Marius. “You mean Marcus.”

  Mrs. Kaufman turned her head from one twin to the other. At that moment one of them did knock over his glass of milk. The milk spilled onto the table and dribbled down onto the floor. Some of it landed on Marcus’s bare knee.

  “The milk tickles,” he announced cheerfully.

  “Let me wash you up,” said Mrs. Kaufman, taking Marcus away from the table.

  “I want to watch,” said Marius, following his twin.

  “Me too,” added Monica. “I’m a big girl. I don’t spill anymore,” she told Lucas’s brothers.

  “So what,” said Marius. “We’re bigger than you. We’re going to be in kindergarten.”

  “Spilling is fun,” said Marcus as he followed Cricket’s mother to the bathroom.

  There was one slice of pie left. Julio looked at it longingly.

  “You can have it,” Cricket told him. “But first you have to guess what the mystery ingredient is. And if you can’t get it, I win the bet.”

  “Apples?” suggested Lucas.

  “Nope.”

  “Pears?” guessed Julio.

  “Nope.”

  “Only one more guess each,” said Cricket. “Otherwise you could go through everything they sell at the supermarket until you accidentally guess the right thing.”

  Lucas rubbed his tongue around in his mouth. “Peaches?” he asked.

  “Last guess,” said Cricket, looking at Julio.

  Julio licked his lips. He looked around the kitchen for a clue. “It sure tastes like apple pie,” he said. “But if it isn’t apples then it must be, be, be . . .” His eyes landed on the row of zucchini sitting on the kitchen counter. “What do you call those green things over there?” he asked Lucas.

  Lucas turned to see where Julio was pointing. “You mean those vegetables? That’s zucchini.”

  “That’s it, then,” said Julio. “I bet you made this pie out of zucchini.”

  “You’re just making a guess.” said Cricket. “You don’t know what I used, do you?”

  Julio shrugged his shoulders. “Okay,” he sighed. “What d
id you use?”

  “Zucchini!” Cricket called out triumphantly. She was delighted that she’d outwitted both boys.

  “But that’s what I said,” Julio insisted. “I said zucchini.”

  “You said it, but you didn’t mean it. It was just a wild guess. You didn’t think you were right. You didn’t even know what they were until Lucas told you.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” argued Lucas. “He said it, and he was right. He won the bet.”

  “That’s right,” said Julio smugly. “Now you have to give me a prize.”

  “You’d never have guessed if my mother had put those zucchini inside the refrigerator,” Cricket protested.

  “You must be a magician to make a pie out of a vegetable like that. It doesn’t taste like a vegetable at all,” Julio said.

  “You’re a zucchini Houdini!” Lucas admitted.

  “I could Houdini zucchini into a lot of other things,” Cricket bragged. “I found out how to make brownies and cookies and other desserts with zucchini when I was in the library this morning.”

  “No kidding,” said Lucas. “Is that what you were doing? I wish my mother would cook vegetables that way. Vegetables for dessert. I like that idea.”

  “Do you want to come over tomorrow and help me cook one of the other recipes?” Cricket suggested. “But only if Lucas leaves Marcus and Marius at home. You can’t cook and baby-sit at the same time.”

  “That’s okay,” said Lucas. “My mother doesn’t lose a filling from her teeth every day.”

  “That’s a great plan,” Julio said.

  “Yeah,” Lucas agreed. “Cooking would be fun. But don’t forget: just desserts.”

  Soon it was time for Lucas, Marcus, Marius, and Julio to go home.

  “Hey,” Lucas said to Cricket suddenly. “I have a food riddle for you. I heard it at camp: What food is this? You throw away the outside, cook the inside, eat the outside, and throw away the inside?”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Cricket complained.

  “It does when you know the answer,” said Lucas. “Give up?”

  “I do,” said Julio. “What is it?”

  “An ear of corn,” said Lucas, proud to have stumped both friends.