Steam

Potato salad gets perked up with herbs, vegetables and a terrific dressing. Serve the salad warm or at room temperature.

Suzelle Kasaian writes: "Tahoe Joe's here in Fresno may be missing Lake Tahoe's mountain views, but the lodge-style restaurant has plenty of good food. I'd like to get the recipe for the mashed potatoes referred to on the menu as 'mountain mashers.'"

This is a great summer salad, perfect with all kinds of barbecue and grilled foods. It's also a wonderful way to brighten up a winter dinner of broiled chicken or beef.

Offer this main course with plenty of crusty bread to soak up the delicious saffron broth. A crisp Sauvignon Blanc is good here, too.

Serve these clams with some crusty bread for sopping up the sauce, or spoon them over linguine or rice.

Cooking doesn't get much easier than this, but it still took me a while to catch on. Being a northerner, I didn't realize that everyone south of Baltimore knows spiced shrimp like New Englanders know maple syrup. I tried spicing up my shrimp and crabs with a spice mix called "Shrimp and Crab Boil." I took the cue from the name and added the spices to boiling water to boil the shellfish. Not until I moved to Maryland crab country did I find that you douse the shellfish with spices and steam them over boiling water. Perhaps someone should market a spice mix called "Shrimp and Crab Steam" for us literalists. The shrimp are cooked with their shells on, so provide lots of napkins for spice-coated hands and beer or lemonade for spice-coated throats.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Pears add sweetness and texture to these mashed potatoes. Also serve sautéed summer squash to round out the main course.

A classic Italian topping, gremolata is usually sprinkled over osso buco.

Residents of Maghreb use semolina to make tiny pasta pellets called kesksu in Arabic. Unlike pasta made with other types of wheat flour, pasta made from semolina does not become mushy during cooking. The old-fashioned way of making these pellets is to mix semolina flour with water, roll the dough into tiny balls, sift it over a medium-meshed wire sieve to remove any excess flour, then steam the final product over boiling water or a stew. Instant couscous, available at most supermarkets, is prepared by adding boiling water. Although not as fluffy as the classic type, it is more than acceptable for seffa and easy to prepare. Israelis make a larger form of couscous, which is lightly toasted; do not substitute for the regular type. In the Maghreb, couscous is both everyday fare—served in most households, both rich and poor, several times a week—and a food for special occasions. It is most commonly used as the base for flavorful meat, poultry, fish, or vegetable stews. For special occasions, however, it is sweetened and topped with dried fruits and nuts. Seffa is also made by mounding couscous on a platter and sprinkling sugar on top instead of stirring it. Seffa with dried fruits is a traditional Moroccan Hanukkah dish. For Rosh Hashannah, it is sprinkled with pomegranate seeds or small grapes. On Tu b'Shevat and other special occasions, it is garnished with datils rellenos (stuffed dates) and dried fruit. Moroccans prefer desserts rich and sugar, and their seffa is generally sweeter than Tunisian versions.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.