Roast

One kind of roasted potato is good, and two kinds are doubly delicious. This recipe is twice as good in another way, too: You get roasted potatoes for today and a start on German or Mexican Potato Salad (pages 80, 81) for later.

Combined with the tang of balsamic vinegar and the crunch of pecans, these roasted brussels sprouts will win over even the most sprout-phobic.

Zesty, tangy, and naturally sweet—this salad is all those rolled into one.

With their slightly caramelized flavor, roasted vegetables make a wonderful spread. Serve with pieces of toasted whole-grain pita rounds or baked tortilla chips.

Caramelized onions are a great accompaniment to many dishes, but I never order them out because they’re almost guaranteed to be doused in oil or butter. Here, I make them much lighter but still get that to-die-for flavor I love so much (and you likely will too).

Please note the thickness of asparagus spears varies widely. Thinner spears take only a few minutes to cook, while thicker spears easily take 6 minutes or even longer with this preparation. So plan based on the thickness of the spears you have, and make sure to stop cooking them as soon as they reach desired doneness.

I was at a restaurant while on the road for an appearance when I glanced at a menu and saw “Old Bay Potato Wedges.” Though the idea seemed perfect, I knew they’d be fried. So instead of ordering them, I immediately texted Stephanie, my Test Kitchen Goddess, and told her we needed to make them. Within days, we created our version, which makes me way happier and more satisfied than any fried version ever could.

I love using tiny potatoes and baby carrots, which makes this recipe insanely easy. That said, sometimes tiny potatoes cost a minor fortune. If that’s the case, save money by using larger boiling potatoes. You’ll have to spend time cutting them into cubes, but it might make sense. You don’t have to use the nonstick foil here if you have a really good nonstick roasting pan, but it makes cleanup almost nonexistent, so I swear by it.

Pat: There is nothing like the smell of a pot roast cooking in the oven. My mother made a mean pot roast; her secret was using dried Italian seasoning on the meat, and it’s a technique I’ve incorporated into this recipe. The flavors of the dressing really permeate and tenderize the roast. A well-seasoned cast-iron Dutch oven (or an enamel-coated Dutch oven) is our favorite cooking vessel for this roast. Here we call for a boneless chuck roast, because the well-marbled cut keeps plenty moist, but you can also use a 4- to 6-pound bone-in roast (you’ll need to cook it for another 45 minutes). Gina: Ladies, this is also a great dish to make when your schedule is tight. You can sear the meat, then throw it and the remaining ingredients into a slow cooker and head off to work. Make some cornbread when you get home, and it’s a wrap.

Gina: In our house, pigs rule (they even have their own room), and we wouldn’t have it any other way. We love pork. Adore it. Worship at the pork altar. There are, however, parts of the pig that we favor over others. And ham is at the top of our list. The key to great ham is the glaze. You’ve heard Pat go on and on about pulled pork and coleslaw. Well, we feel the same way about ham and glaze: can’t have one without the other. Our glaze is a special combination of Creole mustard, dark-brown sugar, and cane syrup. If you put this ham next to the turkey on the holiday table, that bird just might get ignored! This glaze couldn’t be easier to prepare, and it infuses the pork with an incredible flavor. Reason enough to make this ham is the leftovers it will provide what could be better than thinly sliced ham and mayo on soft white rolls, with a bag of salty potato chips and bottle of cold root beer on the side? That’s what I said nothin’!

Gina: These days, with both of us being so busy, Pat usually smokes our holiday hams and turkeys at the restaurant (what can I say, it’s a perk of being in the barbecue business), but when we first got married we prepared them at home. Pat and I are holiday people. We love Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the festive traditions associated with each day. It’s a special time of year for our families, and Lord knows we have a lot to be thankful for. When it comes to the holiday table, I want the flavor and presentation of everything to be the best. With this bird you can’t go wrong. We’ve been serving it on the Neely holiday table for decades. We hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. The flavor, the juicy texture, and, most important, the love that inspires it are simply unbelievable.

Gina: Pat and I love, absolutely love, Cornish hens. One year we took a family vacation to Florida’s Gulf Shore for Thanksgiving. When we got there, we had a beach view as well as the beach to ourselves. It was going to be a special Thanksgiving. Here’s what happened: Before we left for our vacation, Pat begged me not to go overboard packing the foodstuffs. He said, “I don’t want to smell collard greens up the road.” Well, I said, “Too bad,” because I knew stores might not be open, and I needed my ingredients for cooking the birds. See, ladies, this is why we are so special, because we know. Well, guess what, when we got to the coast, we couldn’t find any stores that were open. So it was lucky for us that a smart momma had packed all her ingredients, and we were able to cook our entire Thanksgiving dinner. Long story short: It was a wonderful meal. We enjoyed our dinner overlooking a beautiful beach, and the meal remains one of our most cherished memories. Lesson here, ladies: Never let a man tell you what to pack! As for the birds, they are surprisingly easy to prepare. After the hens are rubbed with spices, the fragrant cornbread stuffing can be assembled in minutes in one skillet. The real appeal is the flavor and the stylish presentation. This recipe promises to be a holiday staple for years to come, with or without the view!

In Italy, this dish would be prepared with rombo (turbot), but flounder is certainly an excellent substitute. Flounder is a flakier fish and will cook quicker, so either cut the potatoes into slightly thinner wedges, or boil them a minute or two longer. The flounder you choose for this dish should be a thick one. The dark skin is removed while the white is left on the bottom so the fish does not fall apart when it is being served.

Flavored butters—whether this one or a variation of it—are handy to have around. A little bit goes a long way to add flavor to quick dinners. Just slice the butter and use it to top broiled seafood or pan-seared chicken breast. If you need to speed things up a little, spoon the cooked garlic-shallot mixture into a small bowl, set that into a larger bowl of ice, and stir until it is completely chilled.

I like basting roasts with a mixture of pan juices, balsamic vinegar, and honey. It adds flavor and a wonderful mahogany color to all kinds of roasts, from poultry to pork to veal. I also like to serve roasted vegetables as a contorno (side dish) with roasted meats. It makes sense: the oven is going, so you might as well make use of it. Sometimes I add more large-cut carrots and celery to the roasting pan with the meat and serve them alongside the carved roast. Or I put together a separate pan of other root vegetables—leeks, onions, parsnips, turnips, or even mushrooms—season them with salt, olive oil, some of the herbs I used to season the roast, and roast them on a separate shelf from the meat. While they roast, I add enough chicken stock to moisten them and stir them once in a while until they are caramelized and tender.

Poussins—young chickens that weigh about 1 pound each—are great for this dish. Figure on one per person, and cut them into pieces at the joints; there’s no need to cut them into smaller pieces across the bone. As good as poussins are, I made this dish using supermarket-bought fryer chickens, because I want to be sure you try this delicious recipe. The secret to golden-brown chicken pieces is to leave them be as they cook. They will brown better if you’re not constantly turning them or checking on their progress.

For this dish I prefer luganega, a thin (about 1/2-inch-wide) pork sausage seasoned only with salt and pepper and without fennel or other seeds. If that is unavailable, use the wider (about 1-inch-thick) sweet pork sausages, preferably made without aromatic seeds of any kind. Cut the smaller luganega into 1-inch lengths, and the wider sausages into 1/2-inch lengths. When I cook a whole chicken, or any chicken on the bone, I always salt it three times: in its raw state, when I first begin to cook it, and as it finishes cooking. It seems that the first two saltings are absorbed and somewhat dissipated, especially if you add more ingredients as the chicken cooks. The last salting should be to balance the whole act. Each time you salt, it should be done judiciously, to avoid oversalting and ruining the dish.