Nut

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This cake and custard sauce can also be made ahead. Both should come out of the refrigerator, to take the chill off, when the first course is served. The accompanying caramelized pears, which require not more than a few minutes to sauté, make a welcome addition to the cool custard sauce and moist cake.

Toasted pistachios, apricots, cinnamon and allspice bring great flavor to this accompaniment for the chicken.

For this recipe the lamb racks are frenched all the way down to the eye of the meat. For decorative purposes, we asked our butcher to leave a 1-inch-wide strip of fat along the top of the eye of the rack.

One of our staff members is addicted to the rich, mellow taste of his friend Stephanie's walnut cookies. She began making them as a young bride thirty-five years ago, and her family has never celebrated the holidays without a batch or two since.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This dessert couldn't be simpler to put together. The no-bake crust is made from cookie crumbs and butter, and the pie itself cooks in just ten minutes.

White Chocolate Tartlets with Strawberries and Bananas These irresistible sweets feature a hazelnut crust that is lined with dark chocolate and filled with white chocolate mousse.

"This is a recipe inspired by a salad I had as part of a sumptuous feast at Adriatica, an exquisite restaurant atop Seattle's Queen Anne Hill," says Lise R. Bonin of Austin, Texas. "Both the view and the food made for a most memorable anniversary dinner for my husband and me several years ago."

Served with a salad, this dish is a complete dinner. Though the procedure for trimming artichokes may look involved, it's really quite easy.

"Einstein Bros. Bagels in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, sells a feta-pine nut spread that I would like to make," says Clarissa Gaasch of Andover, Minnesota. "I'm thinking it would be as good on crackers as it is on bagels."

Because the oil in the pistachio paste separates from the solids, it is necessary to blend the contents of the entire can of paste in a food processor until it is creamy and light in texture.