Bon Appétit

"While vacationing in northeastern Minnesota, I had dinner at the Cove Point Lodge in Beaver Bay. The highlight of my meal there was called Lucca pasta, a blend of fettuccine, chicken and vegetables in a creamy, slightly spicy sauce," says Debra Adam of St. Paul, Minnesota.

An easy soup from Caffe Trinity in San Francisco.

This simple side dish from River's End Restaurant is terrific with grilled fish. For a pretty presentation, serve the slaw on radicchio leaves.

Great with just about any main dish.

The Kitchen Conservatory, a popular St. Louis cooking school, knows how the superb beef of the Midwest should be cooked. Suitable accompaniments are baked potatoes, steamed carrots and a green salad. Complete the meal with a pear tart.

This dip is also nice with raw vegetables.

Throughout Abraham Lincoln's political career, his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, would periodically bake for him the Todd family's favorite cake, based on a recipe dating back to 1825. On first tasting it, Lincoln is reported to have said that this white almond cake was the "best I ever ate." That's high praise, but we've made a good thing even better by adding a coffee-cinnamon layer and drizzling the cake with a luscious coffee glaze.

A colorful and unusual first course.

Great with salads, with soups or for tea.

This can also be made with turkey cutlets.

Originally made to accompany Black Bean and Sweet Potato Stew with Chillies and Polenta Triangles.

These replace the more familiar Hanukkah latkes that are prepared with grated raw potatoes. The croquettes are made with bolbess, the Jewish mashed potato stuffing for goose. But like latkes, they are fried in oil to symbolize the miracle of the oil that is the basis for Hanukkah. In the second century b.c., a one-day supply of oil burned for eight days and nights after followers of Judah Maccabee captured the Holy Temple of Jerusalem from their Syrian oppressors. Fried foods are served at Hanukkah in commemoration.