Oven Bake

Here's something good for vegetarians, too. Just use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth and bake in a dish.

Canned salmon (with soft, edible bones) and potatoes are good sources of calcium.

Here, eggplant stands in for the pasta.

Jambon au Sirop d'Erable Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 4 hr

It appears on your plate wrapped up like a present. But there's more to this dish than pretty presentation. When you bake salmon, potatoes, and fresh herb-sprinkled vegetables in parchment paper, something magical happens. Nestled in the package, the ingredients cook in their own juices. And when you snip the papillote open, dinner reveals itself in a cloud of aromatic steam. Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 1 1/4 hr

A food processor is the cleanest, quickest way to get the toasts to a sand-and-pebble consistency, but you can also leave the Melba toast in the packaging, let out any excess air and crush them with a rolling pin.

Marshmallows need not apply: This gratin gets a savory Parmesan cheese topping.

Gamberi Aragonati Big shrimp crusted with garlic and crunchy bread crumbs were always a part of our family's Christmas Eve celebration. My father would peel and stuff pans full of fresh sweet shrimp, which would disappear faster than you can say Buon Natale! Easy to do, they are a pleasure to enjoy any time of the year. Don't forget the last squeeze of fresh lemon juice; it really brings out the flavor of the shrimp. Aragonati appears to be a dialect word for gratinati, meaning food that is baked under a browned crust. It has nothing to do with the herb oregano, though it is often misspelled oreganati.

If you buy a boneless ham, you'll still have the same amount of meat to eat, about 10 to 12 pounds (because the bone accounts for about 4 pounds). The bottom line is that the recipe directions are the same, regardless of the cut of ham.

This recipe for potatoes cooked with whole, unpeeled garlic cloves has been a favorite of Tante Marie's students ever since it was taught to us by Judith Olney. The secret is to cook the potatoes and garlic in plenty of olive oil so the garlic doesn't burn. Serve this dish with roasted chicken or a chicken sauté.

Slightly sweet, fresh ricotta, which can be found in many Italian markets, makes this starter especially delicious. Regular ricotta also works well.

For those who prefer macaroni and cheese with a greater ratio of crunchy topping to creamy center, we suggest dividing the macaroni and cheese between two 3-quart shallow baking dishes and doubling the topping recipe, dividing it between the baking dishes.

Serve with: Yellow rice pilaf mixed with baby peas, and buttered steamed spinach.

In his cookbook, John Martin Taylor suggests baking and serving the deviled crabmeat in crab backs (shells), a presentation he learned from Alice Marks, one of Charleston's great cooks. But since most people purchase their crabmeat already picked from the shell, we baked our deviled crab in store-bought scallop shells instead. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 50 min