Oregano

The Mexican sausage called chorizo teams up with other southwestern ingredients-including corn bread, an Anaheim chili, cilantro and oregano-for a delicious stuffing.

It takes one to two days to marinate the meat for this recipe, but it's worth it. These will be some of the best ribs you'll ever eat.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This specialty is about as regional as you can get. Although the recipe's name and origin are shrouded in mystery, in central Iowa it's a traditional steak dish topped with butter, Italian herbs, and garlic. The version featured here uses fresh herbs for extra flavor.

This quick, casual recipe endows beef burgers with the flavors of a great pizza.

In Cuba, this dish is traditionally served on New Year's Day. In this tradition, as in the Hawaiian luau, the pig is usually covered with banana leaves and cooked over a coal fire in a pit that's dug in the backyard. Because this method is not easy to do at home, the recipe below uses a small suckling pig that will fit in the oven, yet deliver the same delicious flavor. Ask your butcher to split the pig for you. Don't be afraid to give this recipe a try — cooking a whole small pig is like cooking a whole turkey.

Although these are super-fast to make, you can assemble them the night before so that they're ready to bake in the morning.

We recommend using a sturdy food mill (available at cookware stores) to help produce a thick stew base from simmered vegetables and fish. Alternatively, you can use a large heavy-duty mesh sieve to strain the seafood broth. Then push through enough fish and vegetables to make 13 cups of stew base. Serve cioppino with sourdough toasts.

Offer with artichoke hearts, olives, and salami.

It's easy to keep the Greek theme going by starting with stuffed grape leaves, widely available at supermarkets. Accompany the chicken with orzo and steamed baby carrots with mint. Finish with purchased cheesecake.

More sophisticated than macaroni and cheese—and just as good. Use a cheese slicer to make the very thin slices of Fontina called for here.

These can be made one day before serving.

We seasoned this salad — based on the Middle Eastern bread salad called fattoush — with za'atar, a mixture of salt, sumac, sesame, and thyme.