Epicurious

This is easily one of my three favorite dishes in my mother's repertoire. She only started making it five years ago, and whenever I'm home I ask for it. It takes well to substitutions, so go ahead and experiment.

This is a very near replica of the small cheese quiches Madame Fromage sells each Saturday at the Louviers market.

My mom (the "Jill" of this recipe) used to make lots of finger foods when I was younger. These were always a big hit. Easy to make, easy to love, these snacks are equally at home at a fancy dinner party as they are during the Super Bowl. You can experiment with this recipe to alter the taste: Use vegetable or flavored cream cheese, or any other kind of easily spreadable cheese (I like that Alouette herb cheese a lot).

This recipe can be multiplied indefinitely.

Long pepper (sometimes called diplii diplii) is a small, cylindrical pinecone-shaped spice that tastes like a cross between pepper and cassia. When toasted and crushed, it's delicious in any kind of Asian-inspired salad. Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 20 min

This recipe was developed by Houston pastry chef Pamela Manovich, with the help of Girl Scout Laura Watkins.

Although they no longer remember who gave it to them, my parents received a fondue pot for their wedding. I have distinct memories from childhood of standing on my tiptoes, peering over the stove top and begging my mother for another chance to whisk the bubbling cheese mixture. As the cheese became thicker and thicker, we all took turns stirring. Since preparation for dinner was a family affair, fondue was a meal reserved for special occasions.

Holidays in our home were strategic missions. We had a plan, everyone had a job, and in a perfect world, we would somehow deploy the food from a cleaned kitchen to a set table, complete with ice in glasses, by 5:30 p.m. Time was scarce. To compensate, my mom had a collection of simple coffee cakes that were quick, had enough chocolate to qualify as desserts in my family, and didn't contain walnuts (as they bother her mouth). This was the first from-scratch cake she taught me. It's good, easy, and practical, with chunks of chocolate and a sprinkling of spice.

Grilling the fish makes it moist and tender.

This must be made in a deep, oven-proof earthenware (lead-free) bowl to have its special rich taste!

This recipe for chiles en macedonia combines ingredients from three states—Jalisco, Colima, and Michoacan. It came from the late Juan Diego Michel, who taught in Billy Cross's schools in Napa Valley and PuertoVallarta. The dish was a favorite of the Michel family in Jalisco, where, in his younger days, Juan Diego had his own restaurant and used the recipes from 200 years ago that had been passed down to him. To Cross, he was a Mexican-cooking mentor.

This sauce evokes Provence at its productive best, in summer, when farms and family gardens are at their peak production, yielding vegetables with an incomparable depth of flavor. Note: be sure all of your ingredients, and the bowl or mortar you are working with, are at room temperature. Differing temperatures can cause the aïoli to separate. When making aïoli - or any mayonnaise-like sauce - think slow, slow, slow. There is a simple remedy for separated aïoli. Put an egg yolk in another bowl, and slowly whisk the separated aïoli into it.