Ginger

Each recipe makes about three dozen cookies, depending on the size of the cookie cutters used. The gingerbread cookies are crisp and lightly spiced, while the sugar cookies have lively lemon and tangerine flavors. Both are perfect for a variety of imaginative decorations.

For those who've found the consistency of okra unappealing, there are secrets to keeping it crisp and toothsome: Don't cut into the pod when trimming the stems and don't overcook it.

The use of leavening in a cake is first recorded in a recipe for gingerbread from Amelia Simmons's American Cookery, published in Hartford in 1796; I guess you could say it is the original great American cake. Early-19th-century cookbooks included as many recipes for this as contemporary cookbooks do for chocolate cake. This recipe, from Claudia Fleming, pastry chef at New York City's Gramercy Tavern, is superlative—wonderfully moist and spicy.

Also known as jook, congee turns up in Chinese households morning, noon, and night. This thick rendition is made heartier with the addition of chicken.

Buy a heavy coconut that has no cracks and that sounds full of liquid when shaken.

Here, you get an entire meal with a single, 45-minute recipe. Udon, Japanese wheat noodles with a chewy, stretchy texture, are available dried in the Asian food section of most supermarkets (along with mirin and chile paste with garlic) or fresh in the produce section. Sliced pineapple or mango sorbet would be an ideal dessert.

So many German settlers carried their gingerbread treats to small towns around this country that the sweetly spiced cakes and cookies have become an all-American tradition. Coated with a chocolate ganache glaze, the homey cake of holidays past is transformed into a special-occasion dessert.

"My wife, Jean, and I run a coffee farm on the Big Island of Hawaii," writes George Fike of Keauhou Mauka, Hawaii. "I really love to cook, so we entertain a lot, and I enjoy planning the dinners as much as I do making them. I tell people the best restaurant in town is our house! Since I do most of the cooking, recipes must either be relatively fast or look after themselves." This recipe is an accompaniment for Hawaiian-Style Braised Pork with Stir-Fried Cabbage .

These exciting flavors complement seared or grilled scallops, fish fillets, or chicken.

Jamie serves the Stir-fried Sesame Asparagus with the steak since they complement each other so well. Look for rice vinegar in the Asian foods section of the supermarket.

A turkey seems simple to prepare but needs extra attention, so make the glaze and stuffing ahead. Wash the bird well, refresh it with an orange and use cooled stuffing! The cooked-turkey temperatures given here are USDA-approved.

Purchased phyllo makes this pear strudel quick and easy to prepare. For best results, let the thawed frozen phyllo stand in its box at room temperature a few hours before starting. Be sure to use ripe fresh pears for the filling.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 30 min

These creamy custards feature the flavors of chai, a spiced tea that's enhanced with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and ginger.

English Christmas "pudding" is really a dense, moist spiced cake. This gingerbread version is flavored with orange marmalade and topped with a traditional hard sauce — butter and sugar mixed with brandy.

"I'm from India," writes Hema Kundargi of Cupertino, California, "and I enjoy the foods of my homeland. My children are the opposite — they like 'American' food. But I haven't given up trying to make Indian meals that the whole family will like. This recipe pleases everyone."

Jamie Davies and her late husband, Jack, were pioneers in the California wine industry. In 1965 they purchased and restored Schramsberg, a vineyard estate established in 1862, and they soon began producing the first American sparkling wine. When Davies thinks about comforting desserts, she remembers her childhood in Pasadena. "I was about eight when I started making upside-down cakes with my older sister, Dallas. We’d come home after school and mix up the recipe; I loved the sensual pleasure of making the batter. We'd put the cake in the oven, then go play croquet with our friends. Then we’d all come in and eat it up. We thought we had died and gone to heaven." The easy upside-downer here has wonderful spice flavors. Using canned pineapple chunks keeps the preparation simple.

A soy-sake marinade is the base for a delicious reduction sauce. For convenience, begin this one day ahead and refrigerate the steak in its marinade overnight.

To sweeten the whipped cream topping, simply add a little honey instead of sugar.