Potato

These potatoes, oven-crisped on the outside and tender inside, go especially well with red meat.

"When I had dinner with my son recently at Wild Abandon restaurant in Portland, our bread was served with a garlicky potato spread," says Pauline E. Dickey of Medford, Oregon. "It was a nice alternative to the usual butter or olive oil."

You might have to grill these in batches.

This easy dressing makes a great side dish for roast chicken or fried pork chops.

This tsimmes created by Chef Lenard Rubin of the Phoenician Club in Phoenix, Arizona, is so good that I sometimes serve it alone without stuffing it into the chilies.

The olives can marinate before starting the stew, which cooks in just over 30 minutes.

This salad was inspired by a classic Salade Niçoise with its fresh anchovies, potatoes and green beans, and one offered to me by Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse, who comes to France every year to avail herself of, among other things, the fine green beans of summer.

This duck recipe is unusually light and delicate.

Early in this century, fresh meat became a staple on many American tables. But old methods of flavoring and preserving beef-corning, for instance, which involved brining the meat with spices-remained popular. Often in New England, leftover corned beef simmered with vegetables would be chopped up and transformed into red flannel hash, so called because of the crimson color beets gave to the dish.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Round out this menu with boiled green beans and corn muffins. Finish with chocolate pudding topped with whipped cream.

Whether they feature shellfish, smoked fish or fresh fish, chowders are an essential part of New England cooking. Ours is prepared with a mixture of fresh cod, haddock and halibut, three important North Atlantic ocean varieties. We've made the surprising addition of butternut squash and kale--both popular regional vegetables--to this hearty soup for extra color and texture. Curry powder lends an unexpected bit of spice.