Oven Bake

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Here's a creamy, low-fat dish that rivals the homey goodness of mashed potatoes. Leftovers are great with scrambled eggs for brunch.

When preparing bread salad, do not drizzle with oil and vinegar until just before serving, or the bread cubes will become soggy.

We used grocery rotisserie chickens for this recipe, but leftover turkey from the holiday table works equally well.

Inspired by the cooking of the American South—and absolutely delicious.

We strongly recommend using light-colored metal (including nonstick) shallow baking pans (1 large or 2 small) for this recipe. When we used dark baking pans, the potatoes blackened before they were completely cooked through.

A nice dish for a brunch buffet.

Make this at least one day and up to two days ahead for best flavor. This is a much simplified version of the classic smoked meat and bean cassoulet.

Gay Koenemann of Bonn, Germany, had dinner at 300 East Boulevard on a recent trip to Charlotte, North Carolina. There he was treated to the most exquisite salad he'd ever had. Although the restaurant calls it Fall Salad on the menu, it's enjoyable year-round. Dried cranberries would make a good alternative to the dried cherries.

Brining ensures moist, succulent meat, and this recipe from Bruce Aidells, chef and founder of Aidells Sausage Company, could not be easier or more low-tech. The special equipment required? Two 30-gallon plastic bags and one very large (16-quart) bowl that will fit in the fridge. You'll want to get started a day ahead, because the turkey is brined for 18 to 20 hours. Stuffing this turkey is not recommended; the brine remaining in the meat may soak into the stuffing during roasting.

A nod to what could arguably be the dish of the eighties, blackened redfish. The technique works equally well with halibut.

Accompany this colorful dish with rice pilaf and baby peas with pearl onions. The kicker: spice bars and orange slices.

The oatmeal and nut mixture in this dessert is usually baked on fruit; here, it is cooked on its own, then layered with currants and a pudding made with Baileys Original Irish Cream.

One of two stuffings (see also the Apple and Sausage Stuffing) developed by Barbara Shinn and David Page of Home restaurant in New York. This dish features large cubes of French bread and a custardy texture. To ensure a crisply browned top, the stuffing should be baked separately from the turkey.

Two shortcuts — prepared chestnuts and a purchased corn bread stuffing base — add to the appeal of this recipe from chef and Aidells Sausage Company founder Bruce Aidells.