April is here, and for a lot of folks it means spring break, Passover, Easter celebrations, and warmer weather upon us.

A good hollandaise sauce is a must in every cook’s repertoire. It goes great with eggs, fish, roasted potatoes, and that plate of asparagus at Easter dinner. There are many recipes out there for this creamy, buttery, lemony sauce.

Several years ago I elected to help with my mother-in-law’s Easter dinner. She is a very proud and experienced cook. I had my work cut out for me; I also wanted to prove that the woman who married her son wasn’t a slacker in the kitchen. The week before the dinner, she called me with her menu. I was given the job of side dishes and, being an overachiever, blurted out that I would make hollandaise sauce to go with them. She sounded impressed with my eagerness; we said our goodbyes and I hung up the phone. Then I remembered one important thing—I didn’t know how to make hollandaise sauce—S@&T! I had two choices: one, call her back and ask her how I make this concoction or two, look it up and figure it out. I took the latter, and this was before the internet recipe world we live in now, so I began scouring recipe books on how to make the sauce. The classic recipe involves lots of whisking over low heat while trying not to cook the eggs—tricky and labor intensive—and I wasn’t looking forward to it. A few days later, I was telling a friend my kitchen duties and what I had promised. She chuckled and said, “Why don’t you just do it in the blender?!” To this day, she is my superhero for giving me this advice.

Since then I’ve made both the blender and the classic Julia Child recipe, whisking and tempering to perfection. But what can I say—I’d rather whirl last-minute in the blender, holding a mimosa in one hand while chatting with friends and family, than spend a lot of time bent over a stove worrying that a moment of inattention will ruin my sauce.

This recipe works every time and is easy to prepare in under two minutes. There are a lot of recipes for blender hollandaise out there today; I have tinkered with this recipe over the years and have found three egg yolks works better than two, and it always turns out smooth and creamy.

Please make sure you read the recipe illustration all the way through before you make it.