Make Ahead

Good for Slathering: Pork; chicken, turkey, duck; beef; lamb: It doesn't get any easier than this! And this mop is probably what 90 percent of the competition barbecuers use—with maybe a little beer mixed in for good measure!

Good for Slathering: Pork; beef; duck; ribs My students make this barbecue sauce every month in my Southern-barbecue classes. It is the only red sauce that we make in the class, and we always double the recipe because the class slathers it on everything! This sauce has been printed in many places and thousands of students have the recipe, but I couldn't write a sauce chapter and not include it here. The Dr. Pepper gives this sauce an edge over most basic sweet barbecue sauces.

This rich, delicate cake forms the basis for many filled, frosted, and glazed cakes. A good plain gênoise is hard to beat—it has an elegance that derives from its simplicity, and I even like them unadorned. Many recipes for gênoise add butter as an enrichment. Unfortunately, sometimes the extra manipulation the incorporation of the butter necessitates causes these light batters to fall. So I prefer to add a few extra egg yolks instead—they not only help enrich the cake, they also provide greater stability to the foam, ultimately making the batter easier to prepare. This recipe originally accompanied the Strawberry Roulade .

The fine, moist crumb of this cake makes it perfect for any type of filling or frosting.

This almost doesn't need a recipe because it is based on the classic proportions of a pound of each of the four main ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. I have played with the quantities a little bit so that the recipe doesn't make such a large cake. I like to flavor this type of pound cake with just a little vanilla—it keeps the flavor delicate and doesn't mask the lovely flavor of the butter. If you want more vividly flavored pound cake, try any of the variations.

In Philippine cuisine, dark, fairly harsh soy sauce is favored, but it's often combined with sugar to create a syrupy dressing for vegetables. The added garlic gives this sweet and salty sauce a pleasant kick. This recipe originally accompanied Lumpia Rolls .

Dashi is a traditional Asian stock. The recipe is simple—the only ingredients are dried kelp (seaweed) and flakes of dried bonito, a type of fish. However, both ingredients are packed with flavor, creating a rich, aromatic broth.

These are very similar to crêpes—the staple of Brittany—but thinner and more delicate (and the filling is like nothing you'll find in the French tradition).

Make this salad for lunch but serve it hot at dinner first. To give kids extra protein at lunch, add 1/2 cup finely chopped cold cooked chicken and round it out with a small whole-wheat roll and an apple.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy this lunch. Store this tasty salad in a wide-mouthed thermal container, use several Bibb or Boston lettuce leaves to wrap around the salad instead of bread, and pack the nuts separately in a little plastic bag for sprinkling. For those who can take the heat, add a splash of Chinese hot oil or hot sesame oil to the salad.

These wee sandwich cakes, also known as Moon Pies, got their start in Pennsylvania Dutch country. They are known as whoopee pies because children exclaim, "Whoopee!" when the cakes are ready. Whole Foods sells Tiny Trapeze brand marshmallow cream, made with "no junkie stuff," as the container states.

Editor's note: The recipe below is from Kimberly Kennedy's The Art and Craft of Entertaining. For Kennedy's baby shower tips click here.

Editor's note: The recipe below is from Kimberly Kennedy's The Art and Craft of Entertaining. For Kennedy's baby shower tips click here.

This unusual slaw is a delicious accompaniment to any Mexican- or Southwestern-style entrée.

Périgord is as famous for its walnut trees as it is for its black truffles. In this rich tart, a substantial, buttery crust cradles a chewy, candylike caramel filling bursting with deep, nuanced flavor.

Flour and water—can it get any more basic? After a few minutes of kneading, the dough magically comes together into a smooth, supple ball. Fettuccine is the goal here, but Chun also likes to cut the pasta into free-form "rags" to serve with a wild-mushroom sauce.

After such a substantial meal, you'll want to keep things light for dessert. A little fancier than a fruit salad yet almost as easy, this cool combination of musky cantaloupe and honeydew gets an unexpected fillip from icy granita. Don’t worry if the granita melts faster than you expect—it will slump into a lovely sauce over the fruit.

The mild heat and deep flavor of Maras and Urfa peppers are wonderful not just in kebabs but also in soups and stews.

Radicchio is a type of chicory with an alluring bittersweet flavor. The variety called Treviso, so named for its growing region in Italy, has tapering, wine-colored leaves. Its charm increases exponentially when it's cooked—in this case, broiled—and tossed with a sweet balsamic dressing. Fresh basil and a dollop of creamy ricotta round everything out.