Dried Fruit

This spinach salad speaks to all the wonderful autumnal flavors of the Pacific Northwest. The new crop of bronzed Bosc pears is piled high at the farmers' market; the hazelnuts have been harvested, shelled, and bagged for sale; and the cranberries arrive from the Long Beach, Washington, coastal bogs. I buy sweetened dried cranberries from a local producer, but they are readily available at the grocery store (Ocean Spray is a good-quality packager), found alongside raisins and other dried fruits. This salad is a snap to assemble if you buy the packaged prewashed and trimmed baby spinach.

Golden Delicious apples hold their shape even when baked at a hot temperature and wrapped in puff pastry. Their honeyed flavor adds just the right amount of sweetness to balance these slightly savory turnovers.

An assortment of apple varieties adds complexity to this nicely spiced apple pie. The Pink Lady apples are just slightly tart with hints of raspberry and kiwi. Pippins are firm with crisp and tart flavors. And Golden Delicious apples (a classic choice for pies) have a juicy texture and honeyed sweetness.

The brisket tastes best if prepared ahead, so make it at least one day and up to two days before you plan to serve it. Chilling the brisket makes it easier to slice. Rewarm the meat in the sauce and serve with a full-flavored dark beer (see our suggestions below).

Legend has it that on December 13, 1764, a gentleman in Sweden was roused in the middle of the night by a beautiful voice. He saw a young woman in white moving through his room singing. She had wings and was carrying a candle. That was Lucia the Saint. She brought light, food, and wine as comfort on what was, in the Gregorian calendar, the longest night of the year. We celebrate Saint Lucia on December 13. Children will walk with lit candles singing the beautiful Lucia carol and bringing the Lucia bread.

Use a tablespoon to shape the dough.

Dripping with snowy-white icing and paired with fresh berries and a ruby-red currant and raspberry sauce, this sheet cake is a charming way to end a dinner party.

This delicate, floral-scented chocolate showcases lavender. To harvest fresh lavender, select the freshest-looking flowers with the fullest color. Immerse all the blooms in water a few times to remove insects and soil. Then lay the flowers on towels and pat dry or gently spin dry in a salad spinner.

Fennel and raisins are a classic combination, and they come together here with rice to make a gratifying side dish. Dried fennel seeds help boost the fresh vegetable's delicate anise flavor, while plump golden raisins thread the rice with sweetness.

Travel the world's barbecue trail and you’ll find meat on a stick almost everywhere. South Africa's version goes by the Afrikaans name sosatie. Like all good Cape Malay meat dishes, fruit and curry are never far off—the former (usually apricots) interspersed with the meat on the skewers, the latter used to flavor the marinade and sauce. "Cape Malay," by the way, refers to the descendants of Indonesian and Malaysian slaves and indentured servants brought to Cape Town to work in farming. "There is perhaps no other single dish that can be regarded as more genuinely Afrikaans than sosaties," wrote South African poet and food writer C. Louis Leipoldt. Writing in the 1940s, Leipoldt was to Afrikaans food what James Beard was to our own. Like all great food writers, Leipoldt dispensed not only recipes but the wisdom gleaned from considering cooking a manifestation of culture. The following sosaties are based on Leipoldt's.

This recipe was a winner in the 2001 Plains Peanut Festival Recipe Contest in Plains, Georgia and appears here courtesy of the The Peanut Institute. It was also reprinted in Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook. Clark writes: This prizewinning recipe offers a yummy alternative to commercial energy bars. These homemade bars are perfect for when you are hiking or biking, as well as for a satisfying afternoon snack. They are relatively high in fat, but it's healthful fat from peanuts and sunflower seeds. For variety, make this recipe with cashews and cashew butter and add a variety of dried fruits (cranberries, cherries, and dates).

These cakey, low-fat cookies digest easily and are good for a preexercise snack or recovery food. The recipe makes about 5 dozen cookies—enough to feed the whole team. If you are cooking for yourself, you might want to cut the recipe in half.

Flax is rich in substances that have been shown to protect against heart disease and cancer. It has a very mild taste and is good mixed into muffins and breads as well as sprinkled on cereal. This flax muffin recipe is one way to add a daily tablespoon of flaxseed to your breakfast and snacks. These muffins are remarkably sweet and moist, despite having no added fat. (The 3 grams of fat per muffin are from the health-protective fats in the ground flaxseed meal.)

Be sure to buy four extra cups of spinach if you plan to make the frittata.

All the other kids at school will be jealous when they get a look at these delicious, colorful, healthful wraps.

Soundtrack: "Sankofa" by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and Tony Allen from Allen Chop Up and "Sankofa" by Cassandra Wilson from Blue Light 'Til Dawn This recipe was the seed of Vegan Soul Kitchen... a brand new classic, if you will, dedicated to my home city in the mid-South—Memphis, Tennessee.

This rich Belizean pudding, or pone, is delicious warm or chilled.

The mild heat and deep flavor of Maras and Urfa peppers are wonderful not just in kebabs but also in soups and stews.

If you're under 30, you've probably never heard of rumaki—unless you saw Betty Draper serve the appetizer during the second season of Mad Men. In the 1950s and '60s, the best hostesses wrapped bacon around slices of water chestnut and bits of chicken liver, then broiled the nibble until the bacon was crispy. Rumaki fell out of favor decades ago, but we've noticed that bacon-wrapped dates—the darling of restaurant menus everywhere—have a lot in common with the old-school app. In our version, we stuff the dates with Asiago and brush the bacon with smoked paprika.