Cheese

Celery root gives the potatoes an intriguing new taste; mascarpone cheese provides the ultimate in creaminess.

Buttered steamed broccoli and carrots are great with this ultimate comfort food; end with grapes and cookies.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Garnish with whole gingersnaps, cherries and mint for a beautiful presentation. Begin preparing the cake a day before the party.

On a weekday, accompany this main course with breadsticks and marinated vegetables from the deli. Wrap up with grapes and cookies. For a festive occasion, start with an antipasto of olives and roasted vegetables, then serve an arugula, radicchio and toasted walnut salad dressed with lemon vinaigrette. Finish with an Italian fruit crostata.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

I love cheeseburgers, but I think that I like this meatloaf even better, especially when served with sesame-seed rolls and french fries.

This dish, which pairs the sunny flavors of Provence with the comfort of mashed potatoes, makes a nice accompaniment to grilled meat, poultry, or fish.

Rick Rodgers, cookbook author and teacher, says, "I've always thought of mashed potatoes as an everyday way to serve potatoes, but scalloped potatoes really say special occasion to me. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter—they all call for scalloped potatoes, not something as humble as mashed. And since I've never been one for bland food, I kept fiddling with the amount and types of cheeses until I got this full-flavored version. If you like it with turkey, wait until you try it with the Easter ham."

Serve this appealing hors d'oeurve with cut-up fresh vegetables and breadsticks.

Eating your spinach (and radicchio) has never been more pleasant.

A lightened version of a first course that traditionally precedes choucroute garnie.

Prepared pesto is put to delicious use in this easy and elegant appetizer.

Wolfgang Puck gets the credit for redefining pizza at his trend-setting Spago restaurant in West Hollywood. The inventive pizzas came topped with everything from goat cheese and Black Forest ham to artichokes and exotic mushrooms. Duck sausage pizzas, like this one, were a real hit.