Weeknight Meals

In the eighties, the popularity of this homestyle dish caused take-out rotisserie chicken shops to spring up across the country.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Here we've cooked the rice like pasta—a method that can be applied to any long-grain rice (preferably not converted). As for the fresh herbs, we used lemon thyme and chives, but take advantage of whatever you have on hand.

A spicy arugula and tomato salad accompaniment makes this a perfect light summer entrée that could easily serve as a one-dish meal, or a piatto unico as they are known in Italy. The trick is to cook the chops slowly over even, meduim heat, so that they cook through without burning the bread-crumb crust.

Chef Tory McPhail writes: "I was 19 years old and just out of culinary school when I first started at Commander's Palace. Despite my training, nothing prepared me for the pressures of working in a fast-paced kitchen, or in a restaurant of such high quality. I think my success came down to sheer effort and a lifelong passion for cooking. Even as a kid I loved playing with cookie and pie dough. "After a seven-year absence, which I spent working abroad and opening a new Commander's Palace restaurant in Las Vegas, I came back to New Orleans last year. Since returning I've enjoyed cooking for my friends. On the weekends we'll go fishing, and then I'll grill our catch and serve it along with a fresh salad. That meal combines the two best things about living in the South — lots of fishing and great fresh produce."

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Complete the entrée with a dilled cucumber salad, steamed squash and popovers (from a mix). End with purchased strawberry tarts.

Julia Shure of Albany, California, writes: "This comforting soup has both cream cheese and cheddar, which give it a rich, smooth texture. While it makes an elegant first course, the soup can also be a satisfying meal partnered with a simple salad and some crusty bread."

Serve these hearty meatballs over noodles or mashed potatoes.

This soup is from Italy.

This is an adaptation of the Cantonese classic. In China fried rice is seasoned with salt rather than soy sauce (which darkens the grains). However, a bit of soy sauce for extra flavor is nice.

"I run a salon, and I’m an instructor at a cooking school," writes Sandy Ercolano of Ridgewood, New Jersey. "It seems that I’m always in the kitchen. At home I cook meals and come up with recipes for my classes. Of course, my family eagerly tries anything I make." To turn this main-course salad into a side dish or vegetarian entrée, omit the shrimp.

"Blue Moon in Dayton serves a fabulous goat cheese salad with a raspberry-poppy seed dressing," writes Susan M. Berry of Dayton, Ohio. "Would they share the recipe?"

When accompanied by the delicious tang of chimichurri sauce, all this steak needs is to be seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled to the desired doneness.

In this luscious soup, the restaurant uses a squash that is relatively new to the American market: the kabocha, a beautiful jade-green winter squash with deep orange flesh. Chipotle chilies canned in a spicy tomato sauce, sometimes called adobo, are available at Latin American markets, specialty foods stores, and some supermarkets.

Melon wedges wrapped in prosciutto make a lovely first course; the garlic mashed potatoes, baked tomato halves topped with Parmesan, and an Italian Chardonnay are perfect with the fish. Offer an arugula salad after the main course, and fresh strawberries in grappa with lemon sorbet and biscotti for dessert.

Sprinkle caraway seeds into tomato soup to begin the meal. Serve assorted mustards and pumpernickel bread with the choucroute, an Alsatian dish of sauerkraut and sausage. Then enjoy another flavor from Alsace: kirsch (clear cherry brandy), drizzled over cherry ice cream.

Serve with Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc.

Complement this meatless supper with a chopped romaine and sliced avocado salad, followed by orange sorbet with nut cookies for dessert.