Fall

A delicious and much lighter version of a favorite dish. Serve this gratin with roast chicken, pork, or beef.

"I have a 'stragglers Thanksgiving' — that's what I call it — at my house every year," writes Frances Teasley of North Hollywood, California. "I know a lot of people who, like me, don't have any family nearby. Thirteen years ago I started inviting a few people for dinner. And that small holiday gathering has become a big tradition among my friends. For weekday meals, I look for shortcuts and do-aheads. But for holiday meals, I like to do everything the same day because I love the smell of cooking that fills the house." An impressive holiday entrée.

When preparing beets, trim off all but 1 inch of the roots and the stems. Cooking time may vary, depending on the size of the beet.

You might be tempted to bake 2 sheets of cookies at a time in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Don't give in to this urge—the cookies must go in the middle of the oven to cook through and brown evenly.

Chicken in Pumpkin-Seed Sauce

Serve the crisp warm, topped with vanilla ice cream.

Apple orchards of all kinds can be found throughout the middle of the United States. Interestingly, Red Delicious apples are a heartland original, first discovered in 1872 in Peru, Iowa. They are celebrated here (with their sweeter yellow cousin, the Golden Delicious) in a double-crust pie that's truly a "Delicious" closing to the Thanksgiving feast.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The chef bakes individual tarts in small cast-iron pans, but he suggests that the home cook make one large tart. He serves each tart with a scoop of his own vanilla-bean ice cream and a "barber pole" of dark and white chocolates.