Herbs & Spices

A spicy spin on the Cosmo.

Packed with protein, shrimp always make a party feel special.

These beefy bites are filling enough to stand in for a meal.

It's low in fat and high in lycopene (a potential cancer fighter). Dig in!

These tender individual treats are like a cross between a molten chocolate cake and a steamed pudding. The cinnamon gives them a warm, deep scent, which you can intensify by serving them with purchased cinnamon or ginger ice cream in place of the whipped cream.

Watch out, pumpkin pie! This dessert is delicious even without a caloric crust. It's a light and flavorful soufflé consisting mostly of egg whites, a great source of high-quality protein. To further up the health quotient, naturally rich but low-calorie unsweetened soy milk is used in place of whole milk.

This slightly spicy, moist side dish is both deeply satisfying and nutritious. Sweet potatoes are rich in complex carbohydrates and fiber, giving them a low glycemic index (this means that they slow the body's absorption of sugar and help regulate blood-sugar levels). A bonus for weight watchers: All those complex carbs will make you feel fuller longer than white potatoes do.

Contrary to popular opinion, Thanksgiving turkey, when not butter-basted, can be a healthful centerpiece to the meal. It's a superb source of lean protein, B vitamins, magnesium, and potassium. To add flavor without adding fat, this recipe uses a garlic-herb rub and a small amount of grapeseed oil, which raises good cholesterol. Another calorie-saving trick: In the gravy, roasted garlic replaces most of the fat from the drippings.

Que delicioso! A Spanish makeover for this simple pudding creates an elegant dessert for any fiesta.

If you normally take your coffee with milk, you'll find this particular recipe for black coffee a welcome change—the molasses and cinnamon give it a warm and slightly exotic depth that's simply irresistible. Be sure to use coffee that is not finely ground.

Flavored teas such as Meramieh are served mainly in the afternoon when friends come over to visit. The tea is presented on a tray, surrounded by small colored or clear delicate glasses or tiny cups and saucers. Sugar and spoons are placed on the tray for each guest to add as much sugar as he or she likes.

When there is a whole lamb on the Arab table, the occasion is a special one. It is prepared to celebrate the birth of a child, a marriage, the return from a pilgrimage, or the recuperation from illness. For the host, it is an opportunity to honor the guests, showing them how important they are. When I was growing up, my mother always prepared it for the Eid al Adha, the celebration for the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca. It used to be that only families of little means, who could not afford to buy a whole lamb, stuffed the shoulder, neck, or leg. These days, anyone who is preparing dinner for a small gathering will stuff just the leg, as I do here, with a mix of herbs, garlic, and carrots. I prefer farm-raised fresh lamb for this dish, for its tender, delicate meat. Ask your butcher to butterfly the leg of lamb and to leave the thin membrane on the leg; it retains the meat's juices as it cooks.

Easily made with puff pastry, these light, thin apple tarts provide just the right amount of dessert. The skins get added to the syrupy glaze, enhancing the tarts with a bit of sweetness and the faintest blush of pink.

Nothing beats buttery sweet rolls fresh from the oven—and you get the pleasure of filling your house with their warm, yeasty scent as they bake.

A bite of this flan, fragrant with traditional pumpkin-pie spices, is very comforting despite the dessert's modern looks; a topping of pumpkin seeds, seasoned with cayenne, creates a play of sweet and heat.

When the pumpkin pie is gone, but you've only just begun to get your fill of pumpkin desserts, this bundt will fill the void quite nicely (and the somewhat more assertive spices will welcome the season ahead). Best of all, the flavors continue to develop and the cake tastes even better a few days after it's baked, so it's perfect to have on hand at this time of year, when guests tend to drop in unexpectedly.

This meltingly tender jelly is to that stuff in the can what a fine Barolo is to supermarket cooking wine.