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Vaca Frita, “fried cow,” is a citrus-flavored variation of the Cuban dish Ropa Vieja, “old clothes.” These incredibly tasty, crispy fritters of shredded beef are so good, they’ll give you cravings that you never had before.

This Cuban Creole dish, whose name means “old clothes,” knocks me out every time I eat it. You can cook and shred up the flank steak way in advance, then dinner is only half an hour away when you’re hungry for some good robust Latin flavors.

Dino, our ever-vigilant head of security, is also a helluva good cook, though he hasn’t ingested a vegetable since the mid ‘60s. This is how he makes roast beef, and this is how I like to sauce it—sneaking in lots of luscious mushrooms. Try to get your hands on the baby bellas. They’re packed with flavor and slice up nicely into bite-size pieces.

Here’s a twist on a classic British pub recipe. The beefy base of the pie gets flavored up Dino-style and topped off with savory mac ‘n’ cheese instead of the traditional mashed potatoes. It makes a hearty meal. Just add salad.

My mother is a great cook, but she never made meatloaf like this, and I bet yours never did either. It’s the spice that gives ours its touch of creepin’ heat. Way before meatloaf made a comeback on restaurant menus we were servin’ it at the Dinosaur. It was our very first special.

Tioga, Texas, Gene Autry’s hometown, there’s a place called Clark’s where they make some of the best barbecue brisket on the planet. They say they smoke theirs for 3 days at 140°. But we’re not gonna put you through all that. It just takes a dedicated pit boss with 6 to 8 hours to spare and a good technique to get the right smoke penetration and produce a juicy but well-done piece of meat in a fraction of the time. That sounds like a contradiction, but it’s possible. All you need is an afternoon with plenty of beer on hand, a bit of patience, and the recipe that follows.

Cook ‘em low and slow. That’s the secret to tender short ribs. I like mine spicy, rich, and mahogany brown.

I’m a big fan of horseradish. When it’s stirred into BBQ sauce it takes beef to the next dimension. If you take a few minutes to start this dish in the morning before work, you’ll be eating about an hour after getting home at night.

If you want to make people stop, sit down, and eat, just put this classic comfort food on their plates. The rounds of corn on the cob give the dish a mellow sweetness.

My first encounter with this dish was in a Nicaraguan steak house in Miami. The citrus-marinated steak with its beautiful green sauce just blew me away. Making the Chimichurri Sauce—a Latin version of pesto—takes no time, so you could easily fit this into your after-work grilling repertoire.

Back in the mid ‘80s I worked a semester as a cook for 38 college girls at a sorority at Syracuse University. A great gig if there ever was one. The Japanese housemother, Mrs. M., opened my mind to the freshness of ginger and other Asian flavors. You can find five-spice powder and hot chili sauce in the Asian section of your supermarket.

Porterhouse is a great cut of beef. You get a piece of the rib eye, a piece of the tenderloin, and (my personal favorite) a piece of the fatty tail. Grilled and soused with Molasses-Bourbon Steak Sauce, it’s a beautiful thing.

This is my version of a recipe that’s been bouncing around my family for years. It’s more Italian than barbecue, but who cares? It’s definitely a crowd pleaser. We get our fresh bread dough from the Columbus Bakery, a legendary family-run bakery in Syracuse.

Don’t get me wrong from the title—I treat these tender babies right. First you blacken ‘em in a smoking skillet and then finish ‘em off with a blue cheese-studded BBQ sauce. If that’s not respect, I don’t know what is.

Because we’re a barbecue joint, we’ve always got pulled pork on hand, so it was just natural for us to turn it into a delicious appetizer. Don’t let our habits limit you. Make these quesadillas with some cooked turkey or chicken thigh meat or any chopped or shredded leftover meat you have lurkin’ in the fridge.

We give catfish a good soaking in seasoned buttermilk before we coat and fry it. It tenderizes and sweetens up the fish, which we serve with our favorite spicy tartar sauce. You’ll find it on our appetizer menu every day and in a sandwich on Fridays.

This is the Dinosaur take on a New Orleans classic dish. Serve with a hunk of crusty bread for moppin’ up the tonsil-tingling sauce. Whether you eat it as an appetizer or serve it as a main course spooned over some Perfect Rice, you’ve got a winner on your hands.

Central and Western New York is “wing country,” so you’ve gotta have some good wings on your menu. Most places fry their wings according to the original Buffalo recipe, but we smoke ours. You can make them hot or mild on your grill just by changing the rub and the sauce you slather on at the end. We serve them with the traditional fixin’s—Blue Cheese Dressing and celery sticks.

Beth makes this cake every time it’s her turn to take refreshments for her Sunday School class. It’s made in a bundt pan, so it looks beautiful, and the sour cream gives it great flavor and a moist texture. Those little tunnels of brown sugar and nuts are a nice surprise. People always ask her for the recipe.

These muffins are rich and chewy, but they are also a bit delicate, so be sure to use paper liners in the muffin tins and spray them with nonstick spray; otherwise, they will crumble when you peel off the liners. This recipe also makes great mini-muffins; just shorten the baking time by 5 minutes.