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Favorite Danish ingredients get dressed up in pretty packages for the holidays. Complete the side dish offerings with some oven-roasted potatoes topped with butter and lightly sprinkled with caraway.

Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

Try this with any roasted meat or as a topper for crostini. Begin making it a day ahead.

"A friend served my homemade pear chutney at her dinner party, and everyone thought it was an unusual and delicious accompaniment for chicken," says Susan Banks of Seattle, Washington.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The popular North African chili paste known as harissa is featured in a braised-chicken dish from Laura Dewell, chef-owner of Pirosmani restaurant in Seattle.

Serve this appealing hors d'oeurve with cut-up fresh vegetables and breadsticks.

Try these alongside egg dishes at brunch or with soup and salad for lunch.

Choucroute — the pickled cabbage that is a cornerstone of Alsatian cuisine — is similar to sauerkraut. One key difference is that choucroute is always cooked in wine. Here, sauerkraut is combined with smoked ham hocks, sausages and potatoes.

Food writer Adam Rapoport fried these latkes in a combination of vegetable oil and schmaltz (rendered chicken fat), a tactic that apparently gave him the edge over the competition in the James Beard Foundation's Fourth Annual Latke Cook-Off. He won both the People's Choice and the Amateur awards. This recipe has two things going for it, shared by most really good recipes: it's tried and true, and it came from someone's mother, in this case, Rapoport's mom, Maxine.

Wolfgang Puck gets the credit for redefining pizza at his trend-setting Spago restaurant in West Hollywood. The inventive pizzas came topped with everything from goat cheese and Black Forest ham to artichokes and exotic mushrooms. Duck sausage pizzas, like this one, were a real hit.

Peeled, split fava beans for this Egyptian falafel are available in most Italian or Middle Eastern grocery stores. Ta’miyya is served with tehina.

Vinegar adds some pleasant zip to this side dish, which gets its richness from the sautéed bacon and onions. Serve the kale with roast pork or chicken.

At Canyon Ranch, the ahi is sometimes seared on the grill. We've opted for pan-searing, given the winter weather.