Sherry

At the restaurant the chef garnishes this dish with fresh seasonal flowers, chervil, and chives.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

There's nothing like grilling some meat on the barbecue pit to make a weekend complete. Go ahead and serve this with potato salad. Oh, and remember, when slicing flank steak or London broil, you always want to cut across the grain. I made this for a kicked-up tailgating show on Emeril Live, and it definitely was one of the hits of the party out in the parking lot!

These chicken wings need to marinate for at least 8 hours — we recommend putting them in the refrigerator before you go to bed so they'll be ready for roasting the next day. The deep, almost beeflike flavor of these wings comes from the red wine in the marinade; both the wings and the mayonnaise get a boost from the Spanish smoked paprika.

In Chinese culture, noodles symbolize longevity and are often served at New Year celebrations and traditionally left very long.

The following dish was a popular choice for bridge luncheons in the 1960s.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

(Salade Verte à la Vinaigrette) This is a basic recipe, one that should be part of every culinary repertoire. On the farm it is an everyday salad that changes according to the season, depending on what greens are fresh in the garden. In winter I am a slave to escarole, which I occasionally combine with Belgian endive. In spring and summer I mix greens, using green or red oak-leaf, mesclun (a fragrant mix of young greens), arugula, and fresh herbs.

A longtime favorite of copy editor Brenda Koplin. They are great for parties and make lovely gifts, too. Brenda likes to pack them in pretty containers, with the recipe included.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This cake and custard sauce can also be made ahead. Both should come out of the refrigerator, to take the chill off, when the first course is served. The accompanying caramelized pears, which require not more than a few minutes to sauté, make a welcome addition to the cool custard sauce and moist cake.

The name of this cake derives from the flavors that are reminiscent of the classic mole, an aromatic, delicious chocolaty savory sauce that originated in Pueblo, Mexico. I have always thought that dried chiles were a surprisingly good match for chocolate, and with the addition of canela, cloves, and pumpkin seeds, the full mole flavors emerge. For a shortcut, substitute sectioned grapefruit for the orange caramel.

The following is our own recipe for shrimp De Jonghe, the Chicago specialty. All recipes for shrimp De Jonghe are pretty much the same, the major variable being the amount of garlic used-from one to five cloves, depending on whether you want it to taste like a dainty, ladies' lunch kind of dish or a hearty casserole.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.