Buttermilk

Serve with black-eyed peas, biscuits, a watercress salad and cold beer or iced tea.

These muffins are at once light and chewy.

The lovely color and tangy taste of this starter make it a real crowd pleaser. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional unattended time.

Made with a mixture of cooked and raw potatoes, boxty was created as a way to use a few readily available ingredients to produce different results. It can take shape as bread, pancakes or dumplings. The recipe has been popular for so long that one traditional rhyming song goes, "Boxty on the griddle, boxty on the pan; if you can't make boxty, you'll never get a man." The households that didn't have a store-bought grater improvised by using nails to punch grating holes into a box or flattened tin can. Boxty is most often made as a griddle bread, served with bacon and eggs for a special breakfast treat.

From Figtree's Cafe in Venice, California.

The original cornmeal batters, as made for the settlers by the Indians, consisted of cornmeal, salt and water. These simple batters quickly evolved to include eggs, butter and milk, and were the basis of many of the most celebrated Early American breads, cakes and puddings.

In this recipe, the oven does the frying, eliminating most of the fat, and all of the messy splatter of traditional pan-frying. This quick and easy supper will be a sure family favorite, especially if you serve it with steamed green beans, sliced tomatoes, and biscuits.

Try these alongside egg dishes at brunch or with soup and salad for lunch.

Walnuts add crunch to these breakfast treats served at the Mirror Lake Inn in Lake Placid.

Fans of Buffalo wings will understand why we suggest serving these chicken cutlets with Crunchy Iceberg and Watercress Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing . Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 35 min

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 45 min

This is my favorite mashed potato recipe. These mashed potatoes taste as if they contain a great deal more fat than they do. I use buttermilk to mash the potatoes because it has a natural creaminess yet is far lower in fat than milk or cream, and I add a small amount of butter at the end, only after the potatoes have absorbed the liquid. The butter stays on the surface of the potatoes, its flavor readily discernible, imparting a truly rich finish. Be sure to use fine-textured, thin-skinned potatoes like Yellow Finns or Yukon Golds, which become extremely creamy when mashed. If made with baking potatoes, the result will be grainy and watery.

Waffles put on their black-tie best in a treat that is both elegant and homey.

This corn bread is less moist than others, but it's perfectly delicious for eating, especially when spread with butter. Active time: 10 min Start to finish: 1 hr (includes cooling)