Gourmet

Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 1 3/4 hr

Serve this perfect fall dessert after a dinner of roast pork tenderloin.

These bar cookies feature two layers of decadence — chocolate chip cookie and brownie. Additional butter and egg in this cookie dough give the bars a chewier texture.

If you are looking for a chowder that is deeply flavored and hearty but not overly rich, this is it. It's perfect for a casual occasion, but the "meatballs" deliver an element of surprise, along the lines of an optical illusion, and make it really quite special. The idea for this chowder came from an old San Francisco recipe for "Force Meatballs" in a cookbook called Joe Tilden's Recipes for Epicures (1907), reprinted in Richard Hooker's Book of Chowders. The "meatballs" were actually made from crabmeat, a fun idea that I knew had great potential. Tilden, a renowned Bay Area amateur cook, left only these instructions for his meatballs: "Serve in any fish chowder or soup." So I paired my version of his meatballs with a chowder that had flavors similar to cioppino, the famous San Francisco seafood stew flavored with garlic, onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes. I served it to my wife and kids, telling them only that it was "meatball chowder." The well-browned meatballs look like the real thing, so they were all a bit dumbfounded when they tasted them. My son, J.P., said "Wow, they taste like crab cakes!" Everybody loved the chowder!

Cappe Sante con Mandorle Venice and nearby Trieste are two Italian cities that know how to use scallops well. After all, the shellfish is abundant in the northern part of the Adriatic. In this recipe, from Venice's Fiaschetteria Toscana, almonds add texture to an otherwise soft dish, and the brandy playing off the natural sweetness of the scallops gives the sauce a Sherry-like flavor.

This salsa would also be great on chicken or pork.

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 30 min For those who don't like their oysters raw, there's the classic po'-boy sandwich. New Orleans's first po'-boy makers settled on a roll that is light and mild, so that it doesn't overpower the tender oysters inside, yet is substantial enough to keep its shape when the sweet juices are released from their cornmeal crust. We discovered that a soft-crusted French, Italian, Portuguese, or Cuban loaf works well. Hot pepper sauce is the traditional condiment, but we've improvised a little, using chipotle mayonnaise to add a layer of smokiness instead of pure heat.

"I usually make way too much barbecued chicken and devised the following recipe for leftovers," says Louise A. Peterson of Brooklyn, New York. We tested this recipe with barbecued chicken and also with plain grilled chicken and found both to be delicious. You might even just buy a rotisserie chicken.

For this recipe we call for a 13 1/2- by 4- by 1-inch rectangular tart pan with a removable fluted rim; you could also use an 8 1/2- by 1-inch round tart pan (both have about a 3 3/4-cup capacity).

Jambon au Sirop d'Erable Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 4 hr

It appears on your plate wrapped up like a present. But there's more to this dish than pretty presentation. When you bake salmon, potatoes, and fresh herb-sprinkled vegetables in parchment paper, something magical happens. Nestled in the package, the ingredients cook in their own juices. And when you snip the papillote open, dinner reveals itself in a cloud of aromatic steam. Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 1 1/4 hr

Before spooning yogurt out of the carton, pour off any liquid on top. If you use a particularly thick yogurt, you may need to thin the sauce with a little water.

Active time: 1 3/4 hr Start to finish: 5 hr

There are generally two kinds of wheat berries available at natural foods stores and Middle Eastern markets: hard (high-protein) and soft (low-protein). Though either will work fine, we prefer the chewiness of the hard variety for this particular recipe. If you can find only soft wheat berries, subtract 10 minutes from the cooking time.

Biscotti Quadrati al Miele e alle Noci Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 2 hr

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 1 1/4 hr Savory pastries are a popular element of Turkish cuisine, with a seemingly endless number of shapes and fillings. These little rolls are called sigara böregi, or pastry cigars, because of their shape.