New Years

My mom ate a lot of things — frogs' legs, escargots, sweetbreads — that horrified me as a child, but I took to caviar right away. She didn't use the good stuff, but even made with supermarket roe, this dish makes an elegant impression. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 30 min (includes making pancakes)

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Although we call for canned black-eyed peas, you can use frozen peas or cook up a batch of dried ones.

The following dish was a popular choice for bridge luncheons in the 1960s.

Pan-roasting the vegetables imparts an earthy sweetness to this dish.

"I've been telling everyone about the absolutely incredible birthday meal I had at Park Avenue Café here in New York City," writes Sherri Steinfeld Maxman of New York City. "The knee-weakening menu included Burke's famous "pastrami" salmon; a morel flan served with eggshells nestled in eggcups; basil-rubbed rack of lamb with oven-dried tomato ravioli; Camembert fondue with truffle essence; and a dazzling array of desserts." Executive chef David Burke uses the term fondue freely, in this case applying it to a truffle-flavored cream sauce served with a slice of Camembert. He likes to use Hudson Valley Camembert, a blend of sheep's and cow's milk. It is available by mail order from the cheesemaker, Old Chatham Sheepherding Company in Old Chatham, New York , tel. (888)743-3760.

Serve these pancakes immediately, since they do not keep well in a warm oven.

With months to go before the summer tomato season, we've found that slow-roasting brings out the flavor of winter plum tomatoes.

Using a pastry bag to pipe the hummus onto the pita toasts saved us a lot of time (and made for nice-looking hors d'oeuvres). You can make your own pastry bag with a heavy-duty plastic bag. Just spoon the hummus into the bag and squeeze it into one corner. Then snip off the corner to make a small hole and begin piping.

Cele Bullis of Gainesville, Georgia, writes: "My husband and I recently went to a restaurant in Alpharetta, Georgia, called Vinny's on Windward. He ordered a pasta entrée with lobster and cream sauce and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd love to make the dish for him. Can you get the recipe?" This can be prepared with 20 ounces of large raw shrimp instead of lobster, if you like. Peel and devein the shrimp, then sauté uncovered in butter until opaque in center, about three minutes. Cut each shrimp lengthwise in half.

This pâté is neither easy nor inexpensive, but when you are looking for a tour de force, it is a gorgeous thing. If you feel the urge to simplify, omit the topping, but frankly, the pâté won't be quite as impressive without it, and you also won't have the exquisite contrast of the parsley and the crunchy almonds.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

In Sweden various combinations of matjes herring — a type of herring cured in a spiced sweet-and-sour brine — are eaten with the first tender white potatoes of the season. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

At the Perryville Inn chef Paul Ingenito uses the succulent bits of meat from lobster knuckles in a bread pudding, which he bakes and serves in empty lobster tail shells as an adjunct to a whole lobster. We thought the pudding was stunning enough to stand on its own and so adapted the recipe, using the meat of a whole lobster for the pudding and the shells and body for the sauce.

A twist on the traditional sauce for raw oysters. It works well with steamed clams, too.