Gruyère

This can be completely assembled up to eight hours ahead, and then it requires only a short time in the oven.

A gratin is the golden, epicurean crust that forms on the surface of savory baked or broiled dishes. Pungent Gruyère makes a genial topping that acts as a protective layer, preventing the potatoes from drying out.

"I never had a cookbook until I moved here in my twenties to do some graduate work at the University of Oregon," writes Fanny Carroll of Eugene, Oregon. "I fell head over heels for this guy (now my husband), and he gave me Pellaprat's Modern French Culinary Art for Christmas. Still, many of the everyday dishes I made when I was raising my daughters are recipes I learned from my mother while I was growing up in the suburbs of Paris. She was quite a cook, and with a husband and seven kids to feed, everything had to be fast." Called gougères in French, these cocktail snacks are irresistible.

Quiche made its way from France to our shores in the sixties, but it was in the seventies that its popularity soared.

Beet salad is delicious alongside. Rewarm leftovers for lunch the next day.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The fondue is the centerpiece of a casual dinner with the LaGuardias. They insist that whoever drops the most bread into the pot is stuck with cleanup duty.

Offer with your favorite tossed green salad and some crusty bread.

If you can't find Yukon Gold potatoes, use russets instead.

A lightened version of a first course that traditionally precedes choucroute garnie.

Offer a plum-tomato salad with the sandwiches. Round out the meal with sliced strawberries drizzled with crème de cassis.

"Every time I visit my sister in Los Angeles, we make a point of having dinner at Mimosa, a popular French bistro," writes Frances Candler Brown of Birmingham, Alabama. "I like to think I'm an adventurous diner, but my order there has become only too predictable: a glass of wine, a salad and the restaurant's delectable version of macaroni and cheese." This French take on macaroni and cheese has a nice assertive flavor.