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Pat: Bisques are the most luxurious soups around. With a base of cream and seafood and brandy, they have a way of filling you and sating your appetite. This recipe is an easy, satisfying version of a dish that usually takes much longer to prepare. A quickie homemade shrimp stock provides an essential depth of flavor. And though the small amount of rice might seem unusual, it helps thicken the soup.

Pat: When Gina and I are on a fitness kick and determined to lose a few pounds, I love having healthy, vibrant vegetable soups on hand. The soups help us fight the flab without sacrificing taste. And they fill us up, too! We often serve soup as a nourishing lunch or first course, and this carrot soup is one of my favorites. It has a velvety texture and an orange color that pops, and it includes a secret ingredient (sweet potato) and warm spices like cumin, coriander, and cayenne to give it depth and an irresistible aroma. Puréeing this soup in a blender instead of a food processor makes it especially silky. It’s great hot, but it’s also good chilled, topped with a swirl of plain yogurt or sour cream, during our sultry Memphis summers.

Pat: This is our kind of tomato soup—it has plenty of attitude! A double dose of heat (crushed red-pepper flakes and chipotle-pepper purée) gives it a smoky undertone; a garnish of avocado relish balances the flavors and provides an appealing texture. This soup is delicious with hot cornbread or grilled ham-and-cheese sandwiches.

Pat: This creamy corn chowder, packed with vegetables and spices, has more sass than your average chowder (and the sweet potato and spices give it a distinct orange hue). The ingredients smoky bacon, fresh herbs, and a little Neely kick (cayenne pepper) combine for an over-the-top, out-of-this-world chowder flavor. When corn is at its peak, during the summer, we use fresh kernels straight from the cob. But since we crave this soup all year long, we use frozen corn as well and get great results. If you use frozen corn, look for the white kernels—they are particularly sweet.

Pat: When the grill is fired up for dinner—as it often is in our house—these toasts make great appetizers. The grilled vegetables and vinegar create an appealing relish that’s the perfect foil for Gorgonzola cheese. The pungent, savory flavors are a fantastic kickoff to a juicy grilled steak and a killer bottle of red wine.

Gina: Pat is a meat-and-potatoes man, but me, I’ve gotta have my crab cakes. Every year, we go to a fancy restaurant in Memphis for our wedding anniversary, and I order crab cakes off the menu every time. I love them so much that Pat has started making them at home. Do you think he’s being cheap or treating me special? The secret to these crab cakes is using plenty of crab and not too much filling. The sunny Lime Mayonnaise packs a piquant punch.

Gina: We’ve taken a few memorable family vacations to the Gulf Coast of Florida, which is a great place to indulge our passion for the beach and fresh shrimp. These pickled shrimp are perfect for entertaining, because they are actually best made a day in advance. They’re delicious on their own, or eaten with buttered slices of French bread.

Gina: This appetizer—a Neely Señoritas’ Night favorite—couldn’t be easier to prepare (or more satisfying to eat). I use the meat from a store-bought roasted chicken, and combine it with tortilla chips and a homemade version of that molten guilty pleasure, cheese dip made from processed cheese (hola, Velveeta!). I also add Southwestern flavors, like green onions, pickled jalapeños, and cilantro, and a Neely finish, Barbecue Pico de Gallo, which gets its sweet, tangy undertone from our sauce (and comes together in minutes in the food processor). Chicken nachos are a great appetizer, especially when there’s a game on television, but they also make a fun end-of-week dinner with a couple of cold beers. So, whether the occasion is Señoritas’ Night (put on the salsa music, girl) or game day, these nachos are always a hit.

Gina: These crispy crackers—cheese, nuts, and a serious visit from the spice fairy—are my kind of snack. I like this recipe because it makes several logs of dough, giving me a few to bake off now and a few more to have in the freezer, for the next time guests stop by. These crisps are the perfect holiday appetizer, when folks are overloaded on sweets and craving a savory snack to have with their drinks.

Gina: They call me the spice fairy on our show, but my husband is the hot man! If you can’t take the heat, you might want to reconsider this dish. Pat: Living in the South, I have, of course, acquired a taste for both spicy food and fried chicken. In fact, I love fried chicken so much that I eat it at least once a week. And the wings happen to be my favorite part of the bird. No cut is more succulent or flavorful, especially when dusted with fiery seasonings, dipped in batter, and fried. To fire up the flavor in this recipe, I season both the wings and the batter with cayenne, red-pepper flakes, black pepper, and even a little hot sauce. Like Gina says, I just can’t seem to get enough spice or fire. I should add that Gina not only understands my fried-chicken affliction, she encourages it, and several years ago, she went so far as to purchase me a countertop fryer. This has made it easy for me to come home any night and fry up some chicken (it has also saved on time and mess). You will definitely want to adjust the heat levels in this recipe. I have to do the same thing at home, because if it’s too hot my girls won’t eat it.

Gina: A few years ago, Pat and I had the honor of visiting Madrid, Spain, to cook at the U.S. Consulate there. The idea was for the Spaniards to taste some real Southern barbecue (see page 52). Well, my poor husband got straight off a plane and headed for a makeshift smoker, while I got to lounge in a fabulous hotel and drink champagne. But the dinner turned out to be a huge hit, and afterward we got to celebrate by exploring the city and hitting several tapas bars. When I saw that the streets and the restaurants were still buzzing with folks of all ages late into the evening, I decided the Spanish have it down—they know how to have a good time. When Pat and I got home, we decided to put our own spin on a favorite tapas dish. Down South, we like our “crostini,” or grilled toasts, with a little soul. So we started with a rich, creamy pimento cheese that we love and gave it a little kick with the addition of some cayenne pepper. For a truly Southern spin, we added crumbled bacon (Pat and I will find a way to incorporate pork into just about any recipe). As a finish, we slathered the cheese spread on toasted bread and sprinkled the crumbled bacon on top, then slipped the toasts under the broiler until the cheese was just melted. Good Lord, what’s not to love? These toasts are amazing with chilled white wine. Covered and chilled, the pimento-cheese spread will last for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

Gina: My friends call me the collard-green queen—I love to cook them up any and every way imaginable. So it was only a matter of time before I decided to replace spinach with collards in the classic artichoke dip. Ohmigoodness, the results were even better than I anticipated. If you want to surprise your friends with something delicious and unexpected, this is the appetizer to prepare. You can buy baked pita chips to serve with this dip, but they’re so fun and easy to make that you might just want to do it yourself (which also gives you a little more control over the amount of salt and oil used). This dip goes well with salsa and sour cream on the side.

Pat: When we were growing up, deviled eggs were a staple at any celebration, like a Fourth of July picnic or Easter Sunday brunch, and at family feasts at Momma’s, alongside fried chicken, pork roast, green beans, and creamed corn. In my mind, deviled eggs are an appetizer or a snack, something you grab when you’re passing through the kitchen or hanging out by the picnic table. But every once in a while, Momma served deviled eggs with tuna fish and crackers for a light Sunday dinner, proving that they can work as a meal just fine. This is our spin on a great Southern tradition (one of the many joys of cooking is infusing a recipe with your own personality). The sweet, tangy flavor of barbecue sauce blends surprisingly well with rich, creamy egg yolks. Topped with thinly sliced scallions, these eggs are perfect for a picnic, a backyard party, a down-home brunch buffet, or a light Sunday dinner (thanks, Momma). Gina: I wonder what the grandmothers would say about our adding barbecue sauce?

Gina: Girl, my favorite nut is the pecan! It is the all-American nut, and once you mix in cashews, you’ve got somethin’ rocking. I serve this dangerously addictive appetizer at my “Girl Power” get-togethers because it’s great with drinks (and because we ladies deserve a special treat). The combination of dark rum and soy sauce gives these nuts their exotic flavor. For a true island feel, and a little kick, use a hot sauce made from Scotch bonnet peppers.

I love the flavors of spinach and chives in these timbales when served with the Scampi on page 287. Vary the herbs and greens, or include other members of the onion family—sautéed leeks or onions, for example—if you are serving the timbales alongside other dishes. You can make the timbales up to a couple of hours in advance and leave them at room temperature, but try to avoid refrigerating them. That will change the flavor, and not for the better.

The secret to bringing out the flavor of the zucchini without making it soggy is to cook it whole for just long enough to soften it. If you don’t have cherry tomatoes, cut regular tomatoes into chunks more or less the size of the sliced zucchini.

I always have tomato sauce in the kitchen, and that is what I would use to bake these eggplant fans. But if you don’t have any on hand, or don’t want to make it, just use homemade or canned chicken broth. The idea is to keep the eggplants moist as they bake.

The point of a fritto misto is to enjoy the flavors and textures of a variety of fish. You can vary the roster of fish according to what is in the market and increase or decrease the amount according to the number of guests you’re cooking for.

I love this prepared in individual baking dishes, as described in the note below. But I know most people don’t have six such dishes, so I’m offering the recipe prepared in a single large baking dish—I don’t want you to miss out on the wonderful flavor of fresh anchovies just because you don’t have small baking dishes. If you serve the anchovies from a large round dish, cut them into wedges, like a cake. Don’t be alarmed if the “slices” crumble a little; that is the nature of the dish. You can easily prepare this recipe for two people: decrease the amount of anchovies by two-thirds to 1/2 pound, but cut the remaining ingredients in half.