American

I line the buttered pans with buttered wax paper, then flour them, to make unmolding the cakes easy after baking.

Peanuts are a huge crop in the South, especially in Georgia, and peanut-molasses brittle is a favorite treat. Sesame seeds-called benne seeds by southerners-are popular in Charleston. Brought to this country in the late 1600s by slaves, today the seeds are used in many specialties, including the famous benne seed cocktail wafers and a luscious brittle. We make our brittle out of both peanuts and benne, then crush it and sprinkle it over ice cream or frozen yogurt.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Many New England restaurants offer Grape-Nuts pudding for dessert, and several of the best ice-cream parlors make Grape-Nuts ice cream. The crunchy cereal becomes a soft savory note in sweet vanilla-flavored cream.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Editors note: This recipe was written in 1991, before Southeast Asian ingredients were widely available. For a more authentic take on the dish, substitute rice noodles for the capellini or thin spaghetti. (To cook: Soak the rice noodles in a large bowl of cold water for 15 minutes, then drain the noodles, and boil in salted water until tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Drain the noodles, rinse under cold water, and drain again.) You can also replace the dried hot red pepper flakes with an equal amount of sambal oelek, and use 1 1/2 tablespoons (or more to taste) fish sauce in place of the soy sauce and anchovy paste. Also: Feel free to use flank or skirt steak in place of the shell steak, adjusting the cooking time as necessary.

This recipe originally accompanied <epi:recipe link="" id="100982">Confetti Salad with Ranch Dressing</epi:recipe>.

This is the first published recipe for Girl Scout cookies. It was printed in July, 1922.

A whiskey-spiked variation on classic pecan pie. Serve the tartlets with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, if desired.

These can be cooked two hours ahead, then rewarmed in the oven just before serving.

A classic combination of tender shortcrust pastry and soft, candy-like caramel filling.

These sweet, tangy wings should appeal to even the pickiest kid. Eight pounds may sound like a lot, but no matter how many of these we made in our test kitchens, they always disappeared quickly. You may not have the oven space to cook the wings and the macaroni simultaneously. We found it best to do the wings first, then keep them warm under foil while baking the macaroni. Finally, because the wings tend to leave a mess to clean up, we like to make them in disposable foil roasting pans.

These special sweet buns, marked with a symbolic cross, are a fixture on many Easter tables. They are delicious plain; with fresh fruit (we loved them with the first strawberries of the season); or split, toasted, and spread with butter and jam.

Bilko's spice mix is a closely guarded secret, but Donna King shared with us its fundamental ingredients as well as the basic technique—a long marination, at least 24 hours. This results in some of the juiciest chicken we've ever eaten. The chicken must also rest five or ten minutes after being dredged in the seasoned flour to, as King told us, "get doughy." The Bon Ton recipe calls for Ac'cent (monosodium glutamate) in both the marinade and the dredging mixture. We tested it with and without, and the chicken mainly tasted saltier with the Ac'cent, which some people preferred.

Garnish the turkey with bunches of fresh thyme, sage and parsley.