Molasses

Limpa—a moist rye bread from Sweden—is often flavored with aniseed (or fennel), caraway seeds, and orange zest. These same ingredients also come together to produce the following fragrant muffins. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The butter for the yams gets a lift from the peel of oranges, plus chili powder and cayenne pepper. Making the topping ahead saves time on the big day.

Serve these sensational ribs with an avocado, citrus and red onion salad, some cold beer - and plenty of napkins.

Ginger provides a nice contrast to the mellow flavor of the cornmeal. If you like, try this with a little low-fat or nonfat milk.

Anadama bread recipes, which date back to pre-Revolutionary New England, all call for molasses and cornmeal for substantial- and delicious- results. This contemporary rendition is no exception.

There's an extra hit of flavor from crystallized ginger in this scrumptious layer cake.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The roulade is particularly stunning when accompanied by a glistening array of the Glacéed Fruits .

Magnolia Grill offers these chops with a black-eyed pea risotto and homemade corn relish. The pork is chilled overnight in brine.

The use of leavening in a cake is first recorded in a recipe for gingerbread from Amelia Simmons's American Cookery, published in Hartford in 1796; I guess you could say it is the original great American cake. Early-19th-century cookbooks included as many recipes for this as contemporary cookbooks do for chocolate cake. This recipe, from Claudia Fleming, pastry chef at New York City's Gramercy Tavern, is superlative—wonderfully moist and spicy.

The pastry chefs at Spago make fresh strudel dough, but we call for packaged phyllo here. For the breadcrumbs, finely grind crustless white sandwich bread in a processor, then toast the crumbs in a 350°F oven until dry, about 10 minutes. You'll need two 14-cube ice-cube trays for the filling.

Jamie Davies and her late husband, Jack, were pioneers in the California wine industry. In 1965 they purchased and restored Schramsberg, a vineyard estate established in 1862, and they soon began producing the first American sparkling wine. When Davies thinks about comforting desserts, she remembers her childhood in Pasadena. "I was about eight when I started making upside-down cakes with my older sister, Dallas. We’d come home after school and mix up the recipe; I loved the sensual pleasure of making the batter. We'd put the cake in the oven, then go play croquet with our friends. Then we’d all come in and eat it up. We thought we had died and gone to heaven." The easy upside-downer here has wonderful spice flavors. Using canned pineapple chunks keeps the preparation simple.

Each recipe makes about three dozen cookies, depending on the size of the cookie cutters used. The gingerbread cookies are crisp and lightly spiced, while the sugar cookies have lively lemon and tangerine flavors. Both are perfect for a variety of imaginative decorations.