Casserole

This tortilla casserole is a great holiday dish to prepare when you want to use up leftovers. Miguel uses shredded leftover turkey as well as whatever vegetables remain from the holiday feast. It is a reliable dish for brunches or luncheons, paired with a seasonal salad. The tangy tomatillo sauce in this dish can also be used in recipes for other chilaquiles as well as Enchiladas Verdes. Though often referred to as "green tomatoes," tomatillos are members of the gooseberry family.

These creamy potatoes would be a welcome addition to any meal. Leftovers reheat nicely in the microwave.

This lightly sweet, tangy bread pudding is a snap to assemble. Feel free to use any kind of white bread you like — presliced sandwich bread (cut into 1-inch pieces) will give a smoother texture, while cubes of French or Italian bread with their crusts will make the pudding chunkier.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Feast: Food to Celebrate Life, by Nigella Lawson. Strictly speaking, I don't think of this as a casserole, but I know that this is the traditional nomenclature; and, besides, I do sometimes serve the beans in one so it seems silly to quibble. This is another recipe I'd never have thought of adding to my Christmas till I started cooking for Thanksgiving, but I love its fresh, citrussy crunch. Actually, all I've done is bring on board an amplification of the way my mother always cooked green beans: just plenty of butter, plenty of pepper, and vicious amounts of lemon.

In this version of cassoulet, garlic-crumb topping is served on the side. Rather than acting as a thickener, the crumbs give our brothy version of the dish a crisp layer of texture.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Ted Allen's The Food You Want to Eat. For Allen's tips on throwing a Thanksgiving party, click here. The intent with this dish was an entrée — an entrée not just appropriate for vegetarians, but for vegans. But in the context of Thanksgiving, it serves either as a wonderful companion to turkey (or as that too-rare dish at the American dinner party: a hearty, bona-fide vegetarian option). You can assemble it ahead and refrigerate. (If you do, bake it at 350°F for 45 to 50 minutes instead of the below instructions.)

Editor's note: The recipe below originally appeared in One Potato, Two Potato by Roy Finamore with Molly Stevens. It was reprinted, along with the introductory text included here, in The 150 Best American Recipes by Fran McCullough and Molly Stevens. __ Probably the most frustrating part of preparing Thanksgiving dinner is the last-minute potato mashing and gravy making. If you have this recipe in your arsenal, you can knock off the mashed potatoes 2 days ahead and have them sitting pretty in the refrigerator, ready for a last-minute heating. But that's not the only time you need these potatoes; they're also great for a buffet or for any crowd. These luxurious mashed potatoes have a couple of other virtues, too. They're light and fluffy because they're whipped with an electric mixer, and they're incredibly luscious because they have sour cream and butter, plus cream cheese to give them a little edge. __

With ingredients like bacon, garlic, and butter, how could this hearty casserole be anything but wonderful? You'll definitely wish you'd made more.

Susan Elizabeth Fallon of Boxford, Massachusetts writes: "I love to create new recipes to share with my husband, nine-year-old son, and friends. For me, that's the fun and adventure of cooking. I believe that eating well means using fresh, high-quality ingredients, so I'm choosy about what I buy and I grow many of my own herbs." Here's just what to do with all those tomatoes you have now. This versatile dish is great as a side, on toasted baguette slices, as a zesty omelet filling, or atop grilled fish.

This would be a hot contender for South Africa's national dish! The recipe was selected for an international recipe book published in 1951 by the United Nations Organisation. Bobotie is a Cape-Malay creation, and they spice it up even more with cumin, coriander and cloves. A similar dish was known in Europe in the middle ages after the Crusaders had brought turmeric from the East. When our first Dutch settlers arrived, Holland was largely influenced by Italian cooks, and a favorite dish was a hashed meat backed with curried sauce, spiked with red pepper and 'sweetened with blanched almonds.' There are many local variations, but the idea is that the mince should be tender and creamy in texture, which means long, slow cooking. Early cooks added a little tamarind water; lemon rind and juice is a more modern adaptation.

This crab dish is as much of a treat as digging in to a good book: It's adapted from a scene in the novel The Hours and featured in The Book Club Cookbook (Tarcher/Putnam), which pairs recipes with great reads. The casserole offers lean protein and doses of vitamin A and folate. Plus, Self substituted soymilk for cream and replaced butter with olive oil, giving this storybook recipe a healthy ending.

The casserole comes back. What do June Cleaver and the American Institute for Cancer Research have in common? They both love casseroles! Yep, health advocates are lobbying for the return of this dish as an easy way to pack disease-fighting veggies into a comfort food. The key is to modernize. (Sorry, Mom, no breadcrumb topping.) Our post-Cleaver, 21st-century version is warm, satisfying and more nutritious than June's.

Serve this hearty side dish with a pork or lamb roast.

Think of a strata as a savory bread pudding; here, leftover stuffing serves as the bread.

Make or buy a favorite pumpkin pie for dessert. What to drink: A fruit-forward Zinfandel or Malbec.

Creamy, cheesy, and light, this wonderful custard packs a few of the most delicious ingredients—sweet corn, earthy mushrooms, and spicy chorizo—into one amazingly satisfying dish.

Karen Schineller of Ridgewood, New Jersey, writes: "Every year, I visit my cousins in Dallas, and every year, we try a different restaurant. This time, we went to George. The short ribs came with the most unusual grits. I'd like to make them, but don't know where to start." This rich casserole would pair well with fried eggs at brunch. For a more savory version, simply omit the sautéed apples.