Electric Mixer

Avgolemono, a classic Greek sauce flavored with lemon juice and thickened with eggs, adds richness to the tender stewed chicken in this outstanding main course. Pour a chilled Chardonnay, and offer purchased baklava for dessert. See how to joint a chicken.

Terrific when served with vanilla or coffee ice cream, and a very appealing breakfast or snack cake on its own.

Whole eggs, angel food cake, light cream cheese and light sour cream bring the calorie count of this Italian dessert way down.

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.

Cakes resembling Yule logs are very popular at Christmastime in Canada and the United States. Though you'll see them in bakery windows elaborately decorated with marzipan woodland animals and meringue mushrooms, we went with a simpler but more elegant look. Active time: 1 1/4 hr Start to finish: 3 1/2 hr (includes making buttercream and brittle)

A sophisticated cookie for sesame lovers.

We tested this recipe with a variety of cornmeal brands, all of which worked fine. Do not substitute polenta, however; it made the soufflé much too heavy.

Instead of using a pastry bag to pipe the meringue for the baskets, just snip a corner off a resealable plastic bag. Begin preparing this one day ahead.

This recipe is used to prepare <a></a>Espresso-Banana Napoleons .

Serve with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or crème fraîche, or with slices of aged kefalotyri cheese or white cheddar.

Although nougat is made on many Mediterranean islands, the honey-and-nut confection is a real favorite on Minorca.

Meriel MacDonald of London, England, writes: "Having grown up at Kinloch Lodge, my family's hotel on the Isle of Skye, I truly understand what it means to be too busy to cook. There were always guests to attend to, telephones ringing, and other interruptions. Still, my mother found the time to cook while overseeing the hotel's day-to-day business. Today, she continues to run Kinloch Lodge, and over the years she has shared with me many of her recipes and cooking tips, which have helped me in my job as catering manager for a large advertising agency. For work events, I often rely on family recipes, because they're dependable and delicious. I also use many of those same recipes for simple home suppers during the workweek." This pudding is really more like a warm chocolate soufflé cake.

We found that Grade A dark amber maple syrup (in addition to maple sugar) gave this frosting the deep, rich taste we wanted. Curiously, Grade B syrup, which is typically more robust than Grade A, didn't give us as flavorful a result. This recipe is an accompaniment for Maple Walnut Bûche de Nöel. Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 35 min

Over the past century, pecans have become closely associated with the South. However, walnuts were actually the pecan's predecessor in the Low Country, and were far more popular in earlier times.