Cured Meat

Steamed spinach and parsleyed baby red potatoes round out this seasonal plate. Chocolate cream pie is always in season.

Cut into slim wedges for an appetizer or into larger pieces for a main course.

"One evening my husband took me to a marvelous restaurant, Al Biernat's, in nearby Dallas," says Janice E. Bryant of Irving, Texas."I had an innovative salad—greens tossed with grilled pear slices, walnuts, blue cheese and a terrific vinaigrette."

If you can't find fresh lobsters, frozen lobster meat can be used.

This is a wonderful way to experience onions and it is reminiscent of the Alsatian specialty, flammekeuche. Combined with the cream, the onions (Rose de Roscoff, if you can find them) create a sweet, succulent foil for the bacon and the pizza dough. I like to serve this as a first course, with a lovely Gewurtztraminer.

Veal and pork combine in the rustic sauce.

Perfect before grilled fish or roast chicken.

This is a fine dish for a cold day, and one that cries for ice-cold akvavit and beer. So popular is this soup with all the Nordics that it is said that the King of Sweden eats it every Thursday.

Western ingredients are particularly well suited to the Thanksgiving feast, as evidenced by this robust, satisfying gravy. It comes from Montana-based Greg Patent, the author of New Cooking from the Old West (Ten Speed Press, 1996), and it has an appealing home-on-the-range quality, thanks to plenty of fresh sage and the smoky taste of bacon. It's rich, delicious and perfect for smothering turkey and potatoes. Follow these directions to make a foolproof gravy no matter what recipe you use for roasting the turkey. Since the broth and giblets can be prepared one day ahead, the last-minute steps are kept to a minimum.

Put the dressing in the oven as soon as the turkey comes out to rest before it's carved.