Fry

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The sauce gives the meat a just-grilled flavor.

Many cooks of Wisconsin and Minnesota consider it patriotic to add extra butter to a dish whenever possible. At drive-ins in these two states, butter is not considered merely a hamburger condiment but an integral component. After studying a slew of burger flippers at work in Milwaukee, we devised the following recipe:

Make this a new version of Britain's fish and chips with (frozen) steak fries. Lemon tarts from the bakery would be good for dessert.

The Southwest’s favorite breakfast is often topped with a red sauce or salsa. This version has a tomatillo-based green (verde) sauce.

You can form the patties a day ahead, leaving only a quick frying job for the morning.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Buttermilk adds the tang, while bacon lends crunch to this dish.

Traditional potato latkes are spiced up with hot paprika and enhanced with earthy porcini mushrooms. They are especially good with roasted meats, poultry, or fish. This recipe will serve four to five as a side dish.

This breakfast treat tastes decadent but is really quite low in fat. It's topped with maple-spiked yogurt.

Ham and Thousand Island Dressing

"Our family vacations in Albany, New York, wouldn’t be the same without one dinner at Nicole’s Italia in nearby Guilderland," says Stephanie Clauson, Wayne, New Jersey. "I’d love to get the recipe for the spinach salad.'

Active time: 1 3/4 hr Start to finish: 5 hr

I discovered Pot Stickers at about the same time I was introduced to Scallion Cakes. Pan-fried on only one side, the dough for these dumplings is at once crisp and chewy. When I was about eleven years old, I could sometimes devour a dozen of these fried dumplings at one sitting. It was such a sweet pleasure to eat as much as you wanted and still be a skinny child. Filled with pork, cabbage, and a rich broth, every bite was heavenly. The secret of these pot stickers is to reduce the Homemade Chicken Broth until it is concentrated enough to jell when refrigerated. The broth should then be roughly chopped and stirred into the filling mixture right before the dumplings are formed. The Pot Stickers are pan-fried only on one side a few minutes until golden. A little water is added, the lid is placed on the pan, and then, as the dumplings steam-cook, the broth melts. To eat, place a pot sticker in a deep spoon (traditionally, a Chinese porcelain spoon) and sprinkle with a few ginger shreds and a little red rice vinegar. Gently bite into the dumpling and the delicious broth that has now melded with the flavors of the pork filling will burst forth.