Artificial Intelligence, Real Flavor

“What are we having for dessert?” I muttered to myself as I looked at my laptop. My last-days-of-Pesach menu stared back at me, every meal planned with dips, soup, main, and sides. My husband and I had agreed to host last-minute guests for meals, and I wanted to serve something more elevated than the cut fruit I had originally planned.

Something. But what? I left my laptop and ducked into the kitchen, looking for ingredient inspiration. I found cocoa powder, almond flour, and sugar — not a bad start.

Maybe brownies, I thought, and turned to hunt for some vegetable oil so I could start baking. Only there was no vegetable oil. I had run out over Chol Hamoed. All I had left was a nearly empty bottle of extra-virgin olive oil. You know, the kind for salad dressings and savory sautés and definitely not brownies?

I sighed and went back to my desk, resigned to the fact that we would just have fruit for dessert. I didn’t have time to either shop for new ingredients or trawl through the Internet for a Pesach dessert recipe involving olive oil. I decided to take my mind off the disappointment by knocking a few things off my to-do list for work and opened my project-planning app.