Bon Appétit

You can serve these with bacon for breakfast, but they're also a nice side dish with steak or other meats.

Pumpkin adds beautiful color to the all-American cheesecake while pecan praline makes a southern-style topping. Begin preparing this cake a day ahead.

Steamed baby yellow squash and rice pilaf studded with bits of pimiento would look pretty with the scallops. End the meal with a plate of petits fours or fancy cookies and some fresh berries.

The tart-sweet flavor of this sorbet is particularly refreshing after a rich dinner.

For a cozy supper, accompany this quickly prepared dish with pumpernickel bread and hot mustard. Finish with a European-style dessert of cheese and fruit.

Orzo, a rice-shaped pasta, is sold at Italian markets and most supermarkets.

Chicken broth is combined with oil to stir-fry the vegetables.

Steamed asparagus and buttered white rice with some grated lemon peel round out the main course. Angel food cake drizzled with chocolate sauce is just right afterward.

Serve this newfangled main-course salad with a crisp flatbread, such as lavash, and white wine or rosé spritzers.

The 1970s saw perhaps the biggest change in cooking in this century. That's when a group of talented young chefs in France came up with "nouvelle cuisine," emphasizing fresh ingredients, elegant presentation, and interesting and unusual combinations of foods and flavors. American chefs quickly imported it and made it into something uniquely their own. For our take on this landmark in contemporary cooking, we've shaped purchased puff pastry into individual tartlet, filled them with pistachio frangipane and sliced pears, and topped it all off with a sweet-wine glaze.

Here's a quick, modern version of an old-fashioned favorite.