American

This upscale meat loaf deserves contemporary partners like sweet potatoes whipped with maple syrup, and some steamed broccoli with lemon-herb butter. End with a sure winner-devil's food cake. This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Because these crab cakes are made with lots of crab meat and not much filler, they require gentle handling during cooking, but the results are well worth the extra effort. At the restaurant '21' the chef makes decorative squiggles with the chili mayonnaise using a plastic squeeze-bottle of the type used for ketchup at hot dog stands.

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.

Pass warm biscuits, or stick with tradition and mound some cooked white rice in the center of each bowl of soup. For a nice go-with, toss shredded lettuce with artichoke hearts, sliced mushrooms and creamy buttermilk dressing. Stay with the southern theme by ending with pecan pie.

This stuffing is perfect for the Roast Turkey with Herb Butter and Caramelized Onion-Balsamic Gravy

This simple white cake has a lemon curd filling and glaze. Big cakes like this are typical special-occasion desserts in the South.

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The leftovers make outstanding sandwiches.

Brushed with garlic oil, grilled over the fire and stacked onto crusty buns with plenty of burger trimmings, portobellos are this season's snazziest alternative sandwich filling.

A wonderful brunch dish. You will need to begin preparing it a day before serving.

The recipe for these melt-in-your-mouth pecan crescent cookies has been in my family for years," says Marilynn Bonecki of Marengo, Illinois. "They can be made a couple of weeks in advance, but it's hard to keep them in the house that long." Be sure to chill the dough overnight before shaping and baking the cookies.

This is probably the simplest soup ever made from scratch: you just throw everything into the pot at once and walk away. The rice cooks in the pot along with the chicken long enough to give its starches over for extra body. Everything you dislike about brown rice — its starchiness and heaviness — works to advantage here. It turns soft and almost falls apart but still has texture. Don't substitute white rice, because it would get mushy. This soup may not be beautiful, but it sure is good.

"I had lunch at a historic spot in Berryville, Virginia, called the Battletown Inn," says Judy Owens of Round Hill Virginia. "For dessert, I ordered bourbon walnut pie. If chef Robin Smith would share her recipe, I know that baking the pie during the holidays would become a family tradition." The sweetness of the filling is offset nicely by the bourbon. Serve the dessert with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.