Lime

A Vietnamese-style salad that makes a refreshing accompaniment to any kind of barbecued meat.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Serve this stew over rice or on its own as a soup. Either way, sprinkle lettuce with rice vinegar and oriental sesame oil for a light salad. Sliced blood oranges and holiday cookies will do nicely afterward.

Juicy cantaloupe makes a refreshing salsa for grilled chicken or fish. For a milder salsa, discard all the chile seeds.

Begin preparing the kebabs one day before you plan to serve them.

This recipe yields more meringue squares than you'll need for the ice cream–filled napoleons. The extras can replace any that break — and they also make a delicious snack.

This recipe doubles or triples easily.

This silky-smooth dessert has only two grams of fat per serving. Just be sure to mix the ingredients according to the recipe instructions and not to overbake the custard, or it will lose its luxurious texture.

The almonds and crisp green beans lend good crunch. For a light lunch, serve this with French bread and a fruit salad.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

A flavorful accompaniment for roast pork, chicken, burgers, or grilled shrimp.

These sweet, tangy wings should appeal to even the pickiest kid. Eight pounds may sound like a lot, but no matter how many of these we made in our test kitchens, they always disappeared quickly. You may not have the oven space to cook the wings and the macaroni simultaneously. We found it best to do the wings first, then keep them warm under foil while baking the macaroni. Finally, because the wings tend to leave a mess to clean up, we like to make them in disposable foil roasting pans.

Wendy Popp of Richmond, Virginia, writes: "My job as a physical therapist and my hobby, horseback riding, keep me pretty busy. But my sons — Sammy, two, and Weston, four — keep me moving the most, which has changed my cooking style. In fact, a friend and fellow mom had a great idea for a cookbook that she wants me to help her write. We would call it The One-Arm Gourmet, and it would be filled with quick dishes you can make while holding a kid in one arm and cooking with the other. "

While in Costa Rica, Boston chef Steve Johnson was inspired to make fish cakes from leftover red snapper and boiled yuca. The combination takes clever advantage of the vegetable's starchy character, which binds the cakes together while allowing the flavor of the snapper to come through cleanly. We prefer to use frozen yuca, which has a better consistency and is easier to prepare.