Nut

Serve these as an appetizer with a salad of baby greens.

You can easily recreate this recipe with a wonderful free-range chicken. As for the candied chestnuts, I recommend using freshly cooked, shelled chestnuts which are still quite sweet!

Roasted baby potatoes and steamed asparagus with blue-cheese dressing make appealing sides. Layer sugared sliced strawberries and whipped cream in goblets for dessert.

These rich and chocolaty treats are great for holiday gift-giving—if you can bring yourself to part with them.

Marisol likes to serve the Candied Butternut Squash atop the couscous.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. "Goober"is a southern colloquialism for the peanut — and a great name for our ice cream sandwiches. Be sure to put these together before dinner so that they'll be frozen and ready to enjoy.

"My grandmother, who emigrated from Sweden to the United States when she was a little girl, passed on to our family a taste for cardamom," writes Lisa Tracy of Marion, Iowa.

"Every Christmas, my grandmother's best friend, Mrs. Mack, would give me and each of my brothers just one of these cookies, large and exquisitely decorated," writes Wendy Phillips Kahn of New York, New York. "I would save mine for days and then nibble carefully to make it last. Today, it seems a little decadent to make a whole batch, yet my daughter and I love the excuse to use our extensive collection of cookie cutters, and then enjoy painting our reindeer, Christmas trees, bells, birds, and snowmen, complete with jaunty ribbons around their hats. They may not be as elegant as Mrs. Mack's, but they're a colorful highlight in gift boxes of treats." Note: One of our readers alerted us to a problem with the cover recipe for cinnamon cookies in our December 2000 issue. We forgot the eggs! In order to make the cookies properly, add 2 lightly beaten eggs after beating together the butter and sugar, mix until blended, then follow the rest of the recipe. We apologize to Mrs. Mack, Wendy Phillips Kahn, and all of our readers for this oversight. These cookies are truly delicious, and we hope that you enjoy them.

Makedonitiki Melitzanosalata Editor's note: The recipe below is excerpted from Diane Kochilas's book The Greek Vegetarian. Kochilas also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Kochilas and Greek cuisine, click here.

The recipe calls for a pastry bag, but the meringue disks can also be formed with a spatula. If made ahead, the meringue will soften slightly from contact with the buttercream.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

These fresh-from-the-oven rolls are made with frozen bread dough.