Bon Appétit

You can make the salad with roast chicken if you prefer. Offer purchased sesame noodles as an accompaniment. For dessert, serve sugared sliced plums, topped with vanilla ice cream and chopped crystallized ginger. Look for the Thai fish sauce in the Asian foods section of the supermarket.

Light, refreshing and beautiful.

This recipe yields an extra cake layer that can be reserved for another time. Wrap it tightly in foil, and freeze it for up to a month. Keeping the cake wrapped, defrost it at room temperature; then serve it with berries and whipped cream or ice cream.

"While vacationing in northeastern Minnesota, I had dinner at the Cove Point Lodge in Beaver Bay. The highlight of my meal there was called Lucca pasta, a blend of fettuccine, chicken and vegetables in a creamy, slightly spicy sauce," says Debra Adam of St. Paul, Minnesota.

An easy soup from Caffe Trinity in San Francisco.

This simple side dish from River's End Restaurant is terrific with grilled fish. For a pretty presentation, serve the slaw on radicchio leaves.

Great with just about any main dish.

The Kitchen Conservatory, a popular St. Louis cooking school, knows how the superb beef of the Midwest should be cooked. Suitable accompaniments are baked potatoes, steamed carrots and a green salad. Complete the meal with a pear tart.

This dip is also nice with raw vegetables.

Throughout Abraham Lincoln's political career, his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, would periodically bake for him the Todd family's favorite cake, based on a recipe dating back to 1825. On first tasting it, Lincoln is reported to have said that this white almond cake was the "best I ever ate." That's high praise, but we've made a good thing even better by adding a coffee-cinnamon layer and drizzling the cake with a luscious coffee glaze.

A colorful and unusual first course.

Great with salads, with soups or for tea.

This can also be made with turkey cutlets.