Walnut

This cookie is popular in most of Eastern Europe. It features a tender pastry and, in this rendition, a delicious not-too-sweet cranberry and walnut filling. The cookies are formed by rolling up triangles of the pastry into small crescents.

"One thing I cannot get out of my head" said Ben Moskovitz, owner of Star Bakery in Oak Park, Michigan. "Was the food better growing up in Czechoslovakia or were the people hungrier there? My mother made a honey cake for the holiday, and it was so delicious. Honey was too expensive for us, so my mother burned the sugar to make it brown. Here I use pure honey, but I still think my mother's cake was better and I know I am wrong. The taste of hers is still in my mouth." Mr. Moskovitz's European honey cake follows, with a few of my American additions. Other European Jewish bakers interviewed for this book also bake with white rye flour and cake flour when we would use all-purpose flour. I have included both choices.

Recipes for this dessert, also known as chocolate upside-down cake and hot fudge pudding cake, turn up in cookbooks published by women's clubs and church guilds all around the Midwest. The cake separates into layers as it bakes, making its own sauce.

A perfect partner to salad. Accompany with a platter of celery sticks and radishes with their tops attached.

Eggs provide the leavening in this spiced cake, and melted butter keeps it tender.

The star of this dish is skordalia, a garlicky dip that is the Greek version of aioli.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Here's a nice summer dessert from the Fore Street restaurant.

Walnuts add crunch to these breakfast treats served at the Mirror Lake Inn in Lake Placid.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The salty nut topping provides a nice contrast to the sweet mashed turnips.

A high proportion of butter makes for an extra-smooth and rich icing. For best results, use Philadelphia-brand cream cheese.

These are, without a doubt, the best rugelach I've ever tasted, and, to my mind, there is no point whatsoever in improving on perfection. From my friend Lora's wonderful book Cooking with Memories, this recipe was passed down to her from her mother. One of the reasons these rugelach are so special is that the dough itself contains a little sugar, making it softer and more cozy and buttery than the usual. Then there is the extra zing of tartness from the apricot preserves and the sweet, sharp sting of lots of plump golden raisins. As I mentioned, perfection! As Lora warns: "Beware, you can't eat just one!"

Pack the candy in decorative holiday tins (antique ones, if you can find them).