5 Ingredients or Fewer

Serve these beans with bread to sop up the juices.

Start with a platter of smoked salmon drizzled with olive oil and garnished with chopped chives and lemon wedges. Pour an Australian Shiraz to go with the roast, and serve sautéed teardrop tomatoes and the sweet potato puree . Top it all off with fresh raspberries and mango splashed with Sauternes.

Serve with a crisp romaine salad and the Saffron Rice and Red Pepper Pilaf. Marinate the veal six hours before grilling. What to drink: A dry Italian white wine, such as a Vernaccia di San Gimignano.

Swiss Chard a l'Italienne Swiss chard is a rare gift of winter, and this is my favorite way to eat it. You can use this as a base and add tomato sauce, cheese, or hot peppers.

Butternut is one of my favorite squashes. We often bake a small butternut squash (about 1 pound) at home; we split it lengthwise, seed it, score the flesh with a knife, sprinkle on a little salt, and bake, skin side down, for 1 hour in a 400-degree oven. Excellent in soup and pureed, butternut squash is always welcome at our table. This gratin is quite rich and should be reserved for special occasions, like Thanksgiving.

The chilies add lots of flavor and a little heat.

Gâteau Breton aux Noix This is my variation on a traditional butter cake from Brittany. Its dense, rich, and very buttery flavor is amplified by the lightly toasted walnuts, giving it a whole other dimension. In Brittany this cake is served for an afternoon snack, with coffee, or after a meal. I sometimes put it on the breakfast table as well.

Besides garnishing lobster stew , tomalley croutons can be served as an hors d'oeuvre or if you wish to elaborate, as a topping for crostini or pizza. Lobster tomalley can be purchased separately from most lobster dealers. It is inexpensive and tasty.

Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 15 min

Celery root, a popular fall vegetable, tastes like a cross between celery and parsley.

Broil slices of packaged polenta to go with the chicken. Round out the main course with an arugula salad and chunks of crusty whole wheat Italian bread. For dessert? Brownies topped with vanilla gelato drizzled with sambuca.

This salad, or some approximation of it, was on [the Rainbow Room's] menu and my mother loved it and made her own version at home regularly. I do, too. Its ingredients list may sound odd, but this is a combination that not only works but becomes addictive. Don't be alarmed at the amount of vinegar: the astringency of the dressing, against the fulsome oiliness of the nuts and, in turn, nutty sweetness of the carrots, is the whole point.

Cubed and cooked simply with small white onions, Yukon Gold potatoes are combined with crème fraîche and butter while hot.

Choose attractive oval-shaped sweet potatoes for the nicest presentation here.

You just cannot do this one wrong. You don't have to drain the sauerkraut. You don't even brown the ribs; they brown without your help. The recipe was handed down to Camille MacKusick by her father-in-law, from the family archives. All sorts of magical juices ooze out of everything. When the last finger is licked and the last lip smacked, everyone will weep.