Cookbooks

Dripping with honey and sprinkled with fresh thyme, cracked pepper, and sea salt, these warm, crunchy toasts make a delicious breakfast, after-school treat, or lunch when matched with a handful of salad greens. I'm always amazed how something so simple, and a tad messy, can be so unbelievably good.

When Chris Lilly is at the grill and says to you, "Come on back and have a bite when this is ready," he's not making polite idle talk. Take him seriously. Ask him when it will be ready and make a point of being there. Chris, with father-in-law Don McLemore and the Big Bob Gibson competition barbeque team, has brought home so many contest cooking and sauce awards to his hometown of Decatur, Alabama, that we've lost count. Chris has honed his culinary skills to reach far beyond the basic superb down-home flavors of Alabama barbequed pork and chicken. This grilled flank steak recipe is a perfect marriage of authentic Asian flavors and grilling techniques. If you've ever enjoyed grilled meat skewers at an Asian farmers' market—Guangzhou, for example—this dish will put some good memories and wow in your mouth. Chris's version is second to none!

This recipe is excerpted from Cooked by Michael Pollan. Read more about the origin of this recipe in our interview with Michael Pollan.

This recipe is excerpted from Cooked by Michael Pollan and is recommended as an option to serve with his Pork Shoulder Barbecue recipe. Read more in our interview with Michael Pollan.

Wiśniówka "Life is dandy, cherry brandy!" So goes a line from a poem by Russian writer Osip Mandelstam—meant to be ironic, of course, as he lived in the darkest days of Stalinism and died in the Gulag. Cherry brandy, cherry vodka, cherry liqueurs: These are the obvious consequence of Eastern Europe's famous and abundant cherry orchards, of which there are just as many in Poland as there are in provincial Russia. Do note that this recipe works for any kind of fruit that is not too sweet. In particular it is worth trying with black currants or Polish jagody—wild blueberries—if you can find them. The quantities given here are for a 34-oz/1-L jar, but do reduce them (or increase them!) in proportion to the bottle you are using.

Miód Pitny na Ciepł Mead—fermented honey—is a Polish drink that goes back to the Middle Ages. In Polish sagas and epics, warriors drink mead before battles. Even now it has an indefinable, and probably undeserved, reputation as a healthier form of alcohol. In Poland you can buy bottled mead, the making of which grows more sophisticated every year. At a dinner organized in Warsaw not long ago by Slow Food Polska—the Polish branch of the international Slow Food movement—Anne was served several extraordinary organic meads, each made by a slightly different method. The company that produces them, Pasieka Jaros, has been researching and experimenting with ancient methods of mead production for more than thirty years. This recipe is something slightly different: It's a hot form of Honey and Ginger Spiced–Vodka, which you can make at home. Serve this as a winter cocktail—or after a day spent cross-country skiing—and drink it in front of a roaring fire.

Salmon is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are known to lower cholesterol, and it is about as healthy as fish can get. But that is really a side benefit to this great-tasting main-course salad. It fits into the Motivating Mondays scenario, but I would happily serve it any day of the week and for any occasion. The warm orzo salad, with crunchy pine nuts, fresh basil, tender spinach, and tangy feta, is also good on its own. The salmon can also be cooked in a ridged grill pan.

Thai red curry paste typically has more than eight different ingredients, including hot red pepper and lemongrass, so buying it ready- made is certainly easier than making your own. Look for it in the ethnic foods section of your supermarket or at Asian grocers. You can add 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined, to the curry during the last few minutes of cooking, if you wish.

Sautéing is another fast way to make a meal, especially when the pan juices are turned into a sweet and savory sauce, as they are here. This comforting dish features an array of autumn ingredients—apples, fennel, and sweet potatoes—roasted in the oven to caramelize lightly and bring their sugars to the forefront. The sauce, which mingles apple cider with the meaty browned bits in the skillet, is sharpened with a bit of Dijon mustard to balance the sweetness.

We don't often call on white chocolate, but when we do, we've got our reasons. In this case, we use it with creamy ganache and sweetened matcha, or green-tea powder. The tea's subtle sharpness reins in the sweetness of the white chocolate, and its natural color adds an unexpected soft green hue. As for tea's antioxidant properties, there may not be enough of the green here to protect you from cancer and heart disease, but what is there can't hurt! This recipe was inspired by Mary's Chocolates of Belgium, experts in high-quality chocolates with artful designs.

Can candy be too sweet? Not for us! The real delight of this sweet, sweet pairing of fluffy nougat and shredded coconut is what professional taste-testers call mouthfeel. The airy nougat softens, the coconut and almonds crunch, and the hefty milk chocolate shell melts and coats your palate with feel-good chocolate.

You might like to double up the ingredients here, because this is effectively two meals in one. You start by making a wonderful, rich mushroom risotto, which you could serve warm one night (perhaps finished with a drizzle of olive oil), and then you could make these rice balls for the following evening. They are perfect with a glass of prosecco (or champagne if you haven't really gotten the hang of this economizing business).

I don't know why some people don't like mackerel and why it's not more widely served in the States. It's such a lovely fish, cheap and plentiful, and, served with this gently Spanish vinaigrette, an absolute winner. Make sure you dress the potatoes while they are still warm as they'll take on the dressing much better.

Editor's note: Use this recipe to make Milk Chocolate Cup-of-Fluffs . Nougat has a light, chewy consistency, a bright white color, and a charming ability to hold on to crunchy things like nuts or caramel pieces.

I know deep-fried doughnuts don't strictly count as baking, but I've included them here because they start with a dough, and they taste too good to leave out, especially made with a chocolate ganache filling instead of the ususal jam.

Editor's note: Use this recipe to make Milk Chocolate Cup-of-Fluffs . Milk chocolate's flavor, while less powerful than that of dark chocolate, is just as precious. Choose a premium brand with 38 to 50 percent cacao.

Baking is a science. It's about ratios and chemical reactions and, over the years, I have learned where variations can be made and how best to modify a recipe to achieve my ideal. But I've also learned that sometimes a recipe is just too good to modify. There is a lot to be said for exercising restraint and knowing when a recipe wouldn't be improved with your fingerprints all over it. Rose Levy Beranbaum's Downy Butter Yellow Cake and White Velvet Cake are two such recipes. They are the foundations for the two most iconic works of art in this book, and I am happy to admit that I couldn't have invented a better recipe to use in these desserts. Wayne Thiebaud's painted cakes are classic, nostalgic, and all-American. They're not challenging in flavor—they're just simple cakes, like the type your mother might've made for your birthday. Rose's Downy Yellow Butter cake is the perfect recipe with which to create cakes commemorating Wayne Thiebaud.

Almost nothing makes me happier than buttercream at the perfect temperature, a small offset spatula, and a beautiful cake waiting to be frosted. There are different types of buttercreams, but I prefer the Italian-meringue version, perhaps because its consistency is very similar to thick oil paint, Thiebaud's medium in Display Cakes. If you're making one of the variations, ensure that whatever you're adding is at room temperature and incorporate it slowly.

Ellsworth Kelly's enormous sculpture, Stele 1, was the anchor in the Rooftop Garden when we opened our café in 2009. A 1-inch-thick oblong steel plate weighing seven tons and rising eighteen feet into the air perched on one narrow end, the sculpture seemed to defy gravity. The deep rust-colored patina of the Corten steel was an incredible contrast against gray volcanic stone walls of the Rooftop Garden and the stunning art deco Pacific Bell building that towers over the east side of the museum. Of course, I thought the piece looked like an enormous slab of chocolate. Trying to figure out a dessert based on the sculpture, I played with various truffle recipes and cakes baked in oblong pans, but nothing was giving me the rich matte color and texture of the weathered steel. One day I was chatting with the museum's brilliant and witty social media guru, Ian Padgham, about Stele 1, and I asked him what the sculpture reminded him of. "A Fudgsicle, of course!" he said. And, so it was. I found some silicone ice-pop molds in the shape of the sculpture and developed a creamy, rich chocolatey base with a touch of natural cocoa powder to give the frozen fudge pops the reddish matte finish of Corten steel.