Root Vegetable

Ask your butcher to bone and butterfly the leg of lamb. Begin marinating one day ahead.

This is great warm or at room temperature.

Trimming all corners and ragged edges from the carrots and potatoes is very Japanese; rounded edges also ensure even cooking. In Japan we used metal molds to cut our carrots into plum blossoms for a seasonal motif. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

Marinate the tri-tip for at least two hours.

Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 20 min

Buy a heavy coconut that has no cracks and that sounds full of liquid when shaken.

Turkey sausages would also be delicious. Accompany this with good bread; follow it with a salad and an assortment of cheeses.

Round out the main course with leaves of romaine lettuce topped with purchased guacamole and salsa; also offer rice pilaf. For dessert, spoon Kahlùa and chocolate sauce over coffee ice cream.

Our take on this soup is faithful to the classic flavors. Assorted marinated vegetables from the local Italian deli are nice to start, and wedges of almond cake with espresso are a great finish.

We use this dressing with our Onion-Crusted Fried Chicken Salad, but it's great, too, as a dip with pieces of fried chicken, vegetables, or best of all, with fried frogs' legs. It's a real thick dressing that gets even thicker when chilled.

Buy cooked fresh lobster meat and you can whip this salad together in about 30 minutes. Cooking your own lobster, however, not only ensures the freshest flavor and the tenderest meat, but you get more bang for the buck—you can use the lobster shells to make stock and lobster oil.

The cool sweetness of this soup is a particularly good match for the tangy grilled chicken with mustard-dill sauce. Serve it with extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling.

Louis Osteen makes his mayonnaise fresh, but we've substituted bottled mayonnaise to avoid raw egg yolks.

The roasted acorn squash tastes fabulous when scooped up with spoonfuls of the beet soup. But if oven space is limited, simply serve the soup in bowls.