Bon Appétit

Chicken broth is combined with oil to stir-fry the vegetables.

Steamed asparagus and buttered white rice with some grated lemon peel round out the main course. Angel food cake drizzled with chocolate sauce is just right afterward.

Serve this newfangled main-course salad with a crisp flatbread, such as lavash, and white wine or rosé spritzers.

The 1970s saw perhaps the biggest change in cooking in this century. That's when a group of talented young chefs in France came up with "nouvelle cuisine," emphasizing fresh ingredients, elegant presentation, and interesting and unusual combinations of foods and flavors. American chefs quickly imported it and made it into something uniquely their own. For our take on this landmark in contemporary cooking, we've shaped purchased puff pastry into individual tartlet, filled them with pistachio frangipane and sliced pears, and topped it all off with a sweet-wine glaze.

Here's a quick, modern version of an old-fashioned favorite.

Perfect at the end of a fall meal. Top the dessert with sweetened whipped cream, or team it with scoops of vanilla ice cream.

Kevin Graham, of Graham's in New Orleans, occasionally adds a Parmesan sauce to go with the tomato cream.

The traditional egg and spinach dish is embellished with smoked turkey and porcini mushrooms.

This relish is best at room temperature. Note that the nutritional numbers following the recipe are for the relish only.

New York City's classic dessert gets a luxurious lift from chestnuts.

Cajun flavors—andouille sausage, corn bread, red bell pepper and cayenne pepper—combine in an excellent side dish that brings color and spice to the Thanksgiving table.

Oyster stuffing is more traditionally associated with the New England states, but this one teams the shellfish (also common to Pacific waters) with a classic ingredient from Northern California—sourdough bread. It's an outstanding rendition of an old-fashioned stuffing.

Try these with mashed potatoes.

The German plum harvest is celebrated every year with a festival in Bühl in the southwestern part of the country. In this simple German dessert, cake batter is covered with wedges of fall plums; a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar bakes into a crunchy topping.

These ice cream sandwiches are served at Hula Grill in Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii.