American

This take on classic Caesar salad uses nonfat yogurt in place of oil and egg (or oil and mayonnaise) for a lean but creamy dressing that is enhanced by grated Parmesan.

Variations of this salad are often served on Christmas Eve in both old and New Mexico.

A hearty family meal, susceptible to many variations. The second day, slice it thin and make sandwiches on rye bread with sweet pickles.

This quick one-pot meal is especially good with garlic toast or corn bread.

"Cooking is my passion, and my husband and some of our friends share it," Kim Bartel, Youngstown, Ohio. "Our favorite weekend activity is making dinner together and pairing it with wine. When developing new recipes, I often refine and retest, but everyone loved this chicken dish the first time around. I serve it with rice, green beans and a crisp Chardonnay."

Many cooks of Wisconsin and Minnesota consider it patriotic to add extra butter to a dish whenever possible. At drive-ins in these two states, butter is not considered merely a hamburger condiment but an integral component. After studying a slew of burger flippers at work in Milwaukee, we devised the following recipe:

Most cookware stores carry baker's peels (wooden, paddle-like implements used to slide pizza into ovens) and pizza stones; these tools make it easy to create a crust with character, but good crusts also require a very hot oven. In our experience, the most common flaw in home-made pizza is mozzarella overdose: Too much of it smothers the rest of the pie, causing what's below to steam into softness. The following pie is made without any mozzarella at all. Needless to say, the roster of toppings is flexible.

These peel-and-eat shrimp are great fun. Just make sure to have plenty of napkins on hand.

The Southwest’s favorite breakfast is often topped with a red sauce or salsa. This version has a tomatillo-based green (verde) sauce.

Present the turkey before carving it. I suggest garnishing it with fresh sage and kumquats.

"My husband, Garry, and I do a lot of business travel together these days," writes Sheryl Hurd-House of Jupiter, Florida, "so one of our favorite things is spending a very lazy Sunday morning at home reading the paper, sipping Bloody Marys, and having a nice brunch. This blueberry croissant French toast is one of my fastest, and most popular, brunch dishes. It’s Garry’s new favorite, and when our kids come to visit, they love it, too." A rich and delicious way to use leftover croissants. Sheryl always keeps some in the freezer, just in case.

"Recently my future in-laws came to dinner for the first time. My fiancé had mentioned their love of chocolate and coconut, so I knew I had to dazzle them with a sensational dessert," writes Sarah Smythe of New London, Connecticut . "This cheesecake worked beautifully."

Despite its name, this luau classic is actually a noodle dish (rice-free). At least there is chicken in it — stock as well as shredded chicken.