Dried Fruit

For best results, use fresh ricotta, which is sold at Italian delis and specialty cheese shops. Avoid packaged brands that include gelatin and preservatives, as these can be watery and have a grainy texture. Prepared cannoli shells are sold at Italian markets.

Lauren Beal of San Rafael, California, writes: "When it comes to making dinner, my husband, Stuart, and I have the perfect system. He's in charge of our backyard garden, and I'm in charge of cooking with what he harvests—things like basil, onions, lemons, and even apples. It's our favorite way to create a meal together."

Jan Schroeder of Corvallis, Oregon, writes: "A great thing about my job is that I get to do a lot of cooking. I work for the berry industry and one of my duties is developing recipes. I often get ideas from local chefs, but it's also rewarding to see what I can come up with on my own." Ribbon-tied jars of this chutney would make a nice holiday gift.

Using blood orange juice in the dressing means less oil is necessary, which lowers the fat in this dish. Mâche, sometimes called lamb's lettuce, can be found in four-ounce packages in the produce section of many supermarkets.

Fredricka Schwanka of Terryville, Connecticut, re-created her grandmother's recipe for these pastrylike cookies. This dough is extremely tender — if at any time during the filling process it gets too soft to work with, chill it on wax paper on a large baking sheet. You will have leftover filling, which is wonderful spread on toast or an English muffin.

Michele Evola of New York, New York, writes: "I thought you might enjoy this family recipe. My aunt Bess puts fresh persimmons in the freezer so she can make these bars anytime." When Hachiya persimmons are very ripe, they're so fragile that they nearly turn to juice. If you want to freeze them as Michelle Evola's aunt Bess does, we suggest first putting them on a baking sheet in the freezer until they harden. Then wrap them in plastic wrap while they're hard and freeze them in a sealed plastic bag.

This dish, combining crunchy almonds and sweet apricots, tastes great with lamb or chicken.

Agrodolce, an Italian sweet-and-sour sauce, combines vinegar and sugar. For tender results, be sure to peel off any leathery outer layers from the shallots.

Hachiya persimmon puree flavors the pudding; using arborio (the starchy, short-grained risotto rice) gives it an especially tender, creamy texture.

You can use bloc de foie gras (imported from France in tins) or a slice of fresh foie gras pâté or mousse, sold at many specialty foods shops and cheese shops.

Here, you only boil the rice briefly before combining it with the dried fruit and cooking it without water. We adapted this rice from a Persian method that yields a buttery crust (called tah-dig) on the bottom of the pan — later the crust is served with the rice. Usually you have to dip the pot in cold water at the end of cooking to release the crust, but a happy kitchen accident occurred when we tested this recipe. Food editor Ruth Cousineau let the rice stand for almost an hour (things can get hectic when you're preparing a holiday meal), and the crust came right out without the dipping. Using a heavy pot helps keep the rice hot, too.