Garlic

Be sure to serve this with thick slices of good bread to soak up the dressing.

Because these crab cakes are made with lots of crab meat and not much filler, they require gentle handling during cooking, but the results are well worth the extra effort. At the restaurant '21' the chef makes decorative squiggles with the chili mayonnaise using a plastic squeeze-bottle of the type used for ketchup at hot dog stands.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

If you can't find fresh sea scallops, use peeled large shrimp, leaving the tails on. Rice pilaf or orzo would be a good accompaniment.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Complete the main course with buttered sweet potato chunks (they can roast alongside the chicken) and sautéed Swiss chard. Serve purchased éclairs for dessert.

Mustard greens, increasingly common in supermarkets today, cook as quickly as fresh spinach. Their assertive taste is terrific here in a warming winter soup.

For best results, use a grill basket. It should be big enough for the fish but snug enough to keep the fish and lemon slices from moving around. The one we used in the Bon Appétit test kitchen was 17 by 6 inches.

These can be enjoyed on their own, added to recipes or used to embellish a Martini.

(Garlic Roast Beef) My husband's Aunt Enza has played an important role in my life as a born-again Tuscan. We often dine at her home on Sundays for a traditional family lunch. The main course is usually what Enza calls magro, which can actually mean meatless but in Enza's lexicon signifies merely a lean or fatless choice cut of beef, sliced thin, lightly sauced with meat juices, and topped with golden brown cloves of garlic. Because Italian home cooks in cities rarely had ovens until the postwar period, meats were often cooked on top of the stove, as is Enza's. It's faster than oven-roasting and a perfect technique for people who love rare "roast" beef.